Unijoy Keyboard Layout for macOS

Unijoy is one of the most popular Bengali keyboard layouts. This repository packages it for macOS and ships it through Homebrew, a .pkg installer, and a small shell installer.

Layout

Default layer

With Option (Alt) held

The diagrams above show the original Unijoy character placements. The `/~ key (top-left, just below Esc) has been remapped — see Special characters below.

Special characters

The `/~ key is overloaded to put the four most useful "non-letter" Bengali typing helpers on a single physical key:

Keystroke	Output	Codepoint
`	ZWNJ (Zero Width Non-Joiner)	U+200C
Shift + `	ZWJ (Zero Width Joiner)	U+200D
⌥ Option + `	‘ (left single quote)	U+2018
Shift + ⌥ Option + `	’ (right single quote)	U+2019

ZWNJ is essential for breaking incorrect conjunct formation. For example, to type র‌্যাব (RAB) you need a ZWNJ between র and the ্য cluster, otherwise র + ্ + য renders as a reph (র্য):

V   ` Shift+Z  F  H
র   ‌  ্য       া  ব     →  র‌্যাব

Backtick ` and tilde ~ are no longer reachable from this layout. Switch to a US ABC input source momentarily if you need them.

Installation

Pick whichever method you're most comfortable with. All four install the same two files (unijoy.keylayout and unijoy.icns) into /Library/Keyboard Layouts/.

Option 1: Homebrew (recommended)

If you have Homebrew installed:

brew install --cask milon/macos-unijoy/macos-unijoy

Homebrew uses its keyboard_layout artifact to drop the files into place directly — the .pkg from Option 3 is not involved, so there is no Gatekeeper prompt.

To uninstall later:

brew uninstall --cask macos-unijoy

Option 2: One-line shell installer

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/milon/macos-unijoy/master/install.sh)"

The script clones this repository to a temporary directory and copies the layout files using sudo. It requires git (pre-installed on macOS) and prompts for your sudo password.

Option 3: Installer package (.pkg)

Download Unijoy-Installer.pkg from the latest release, double-click it, and follow the on-screen steps. macOS will ask for your administrator password so the installer can write to /Library/Keyboard Layouts/.

Important

Seeing "Apple could not verify … is free of malware"?

The installer is not signed with an Apple Developer ID, so macOS Gatekeeper blocks it on first launch. The package is safe — you can verify the contents yourself with pkgutil --payload-files Unijoy-Installer.pkg. To allow it:

Easiest — System Settings:

1. Double-click the .pkg once and dismiss the warning dialog.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Scroll to the Security section. You'll see a message about "Unijoy-Installer.pkg was blocked…" with an Open Anyway button. Click it and authenticate.
4. Double-click the .pkg again — a new dialog will offer an Open button.

Alternative — Terminal (bypasses Gatekeeper directly):

sudo installer -pkg ~/Downloads/Unijoy-Installer.pkg -target /

Or remove the quarantine flag and then double-click normally:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/Unijoy-Installer.pkg

Option 4: Manual installation

• Download unijoy.keylayout and unijoy.icns from the repository root.
• Copy both files into /Library/Keyboard Layouts/ using Finder.
• Follow the post-install steps below to enable the layout.

Enabling the layout

After any of the installation methods above:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Under Input Sources, click Edit….
3. Click the + button at the bottom-left corner.
4. Choose Other, select বাংলা (Unijoy), and click Add.
5. (Optional) Set a keyboard shortcut from the Shortcuts tab.

If the new layout does not appear, log out and back in (or restart) to refresh the system input-source list.

Building the installer from source

The installer package can be rebuilt locally on macOS:

./build-installer.sh

This produces dist/Unijoy-Installer.pkg. Optional environment variables:

• VERSION — version string baked into the package (default: 1.0).
• IDENTIFIER — package identifier (default: com.milon.Unijoy).
• SIGN_IDENTITY — Developer ID Installer identity used to sign the package (e.g. "Developer ID Installer: Your Name (TEAMID)").

The build uses Apple's pkgbuild and productbuild, both of which ship with macOS and the Command Line Tools.

Releasing

A GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/release.yml runs on every v* tag push and:

1. Builds Unijoy-Installer-X.Y.Z.pkg on macos-latest.
2. Publishes it to a new GitHub Release named Unijoy vX.Y.Z.
3. Bumps the Homebrew cask in milon/homebrew-macos-unijoy with the new version and source-tarball SHA256.

To cut a release:

git tag v1.2.3 -m '<Release Message>'
git push --tags

The cask bump step requires a TAP_PUSH_TOKEN repository secret — a fine-grained PAT with Contents: Read and write permission on the tap repo. Without it, the release still ships the .pkg, but the Homebrew tap will not auto-update.

Credits

• Unijoy keyboard layout — designed by the Ekushey project. All credit for the layout itself, the character placement, and the original artwork belongs to them.
• macOS port and installer — maintained by @milon.
• License — this repository packages the Unijoy layout for macOS; the layout itself remains the work of its original authors. Please refer to the Ekushey project for licensing of the layout.
• Inspired by UniJoy_osx by Sharif Ahammed.

Contact

Found a bug? Have a suggestion? Want to contribute?

• Issues & feature requests — open a ticket on the GitHub issue tracker.
• Pull requests — welcome! Fork the repo, make your changes, and open a PR against master.
• Maintainer — @milon on GitHub.