English words stay English
A 7,232-syllable dictionary and a list of English terms let ZKey recognise database, camera or userName and give back exactly the keys you typed.
Vietnamese input method for macOS
Type Vietnamese on your Mac, and English still comes out right.
Telex or VNI, an offline Vietnamese dictionary, and English words like database, camera or userName restored when the word is committed. Every keystroke is handled on your Mac.
- macOS 13 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel
- No Accessibility permission
- Developer ID signed, notarized by Apple
Why ZKey
Type as you always do. ZKey handles the rest.
Terminal is left alone
In Terminal, iTerm2, Warp, Ghostty, Alacritty, kitty, Hyper, Termius, keys go straight to the terminal. Switch to another app and ZKey is back the way it was.
Keystrokes stay on your Mac
Keys are handled on your Mac and never sent anywhere. ZKey needs no Accessibility permission or keyboard monitoring; it types through macOS's standard marked text.
How ZKey types
From keys to words
Vietnamese words are shaped as you type. English words and names in code go back to the keys you pressed when the word is committed.
- tieengstiếngVietnamese
- VieetjViệtVietnamese
A capital first letter still types Telex
- chuyenerchuyểnVietnamese
An e after the final consonant: chuyên → chuyển
- databasedatabaseEnglish kept
No longer becomes “dât”
- userNameuserNameName in code
camelCase stays when every part is an English word
Examples with Telex and the dictionary on (the defaults).
Settings
Telex or VNI, tone marks your way
Open “Cài đặt ZKey…” (ZKey Settings) from the input menu. Changes apply from the next word — no restart.
- Telex and VNISwitch with one control. Precomposed Unicode.
- hòa or hoàOld or new tone placement: hòa/hoà, khỏe/khoẻ, thủy/thuỷ.
- Control + Shift + SpaceTurns Vietnamese on and off. Change it to Option + Shift + Space, or turn the shortcut off.
Dictionary
Names and terms — add once, type forever
Words outside the dictionary go back to their keys, so English is not given marks. Add a missing name or term under Custom words — one word or phrase per line.
- Offline dictionary7,232 syllables and tone variants, split from the 31,327 headwords of VNTK. Built into the app.
- Your words come firstA word you add beats the English list when the two collide.
- Looser when you wantAllow valid syllables that are not in the dictionary, or turn the dictionary check off.
Apps
Out of the way in Terminal and the apps you pick
In an excluded app, keys and command shortcuts go straight through; the ZKey shortcut is ignored there too.
- 8 terminals recognisedTerminal, iTerm2, Warp, Ghostty, Alacritty, kitty, Hyper, Termius — by bundle ID.
- Add your own appsPick an .app or type a bundle ID, one per line.
- A note on VS CodeVS Code's built-in terminal cannot be told apart from its editor; excluding com.microsoft.VSCode turns ZKey off in all of VS Code.
Key table
Telex and VNI in one table
Press a mark key again to undo it: ass → as.
| Mark / letter | Telex | VNI | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acute (sắc) | s | 1 | as → á · a1 → á |
| Grave (huyền) | f | 2 | af → à · a2 → à |
| Hook (hỏi) | r | 3 | ar → ả · a3 → ả |
| Tilde (ngã) | x | 4 | ax → ã · a4 → ã |
| Dot below (nặng) | j | 5 | aj → ạ · a5 → ạ |
| Remove mark | z | 0 | asz → a · a10 → a |
| â ê ô | aaeeoo | 6 | aa → â · e6 → ê |
| ă | aw | 8 | aw → ă · a8 → ă |
| ơ ư | owuww | 7 | ow → ơ · u7 → ư · tw → tư |
| đ | dd | 9 | dd → đ · d9 → đ |
Details
Small things that make typing pleasant
Smart Backspace
Removes one key and works the word out again: giwx ← giư ← gi.
Esc restores
Esc turns the word being typed back into the keys you pressed, and commits it.
Universal
One installer for Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
C++20 engine
The typing engine is C++20, with InputMethodKit for macOS and SwiftUI for settings.
Thoroughly tested
6,559 dictionary fixtures in both Telex and VNI, and 2,000 random type/delete runs, on every build.
Tidy install
One .pkg that installs into /Library/Input Methods and registers the input source.
Privacy
An input method sees everything you type. ZKey keeps it on your Mac.
Works offline
Typing, the dictionary and settings run entirely on your Mac. The only connection is a once-a-day update check — no keystrokes, no text, no usage statistics.
No special permissions
No event tap, no Accessibility, no Input Monitoring. Just a macOS input source.
Dictionary on your Mac
The dictionary and your own words live on your Mac and are never downloaded or synced.
Download
ZKey for macOS
One .pkg installer for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. ZKey ships outside the Mac App Store because Apple does not distribute input methods there.
Download ZKey for macOSVersion 1.0 · macOS 13+ · Apple Silicon & IntelDeveloper ID signed and notarized by Apple
- Version
- 1.0 (build 1)
- Installer
- ZKey-1.0-universal.pkg
- Size
- ≈ 4 MB
- Requires
- macOS 13 Ventura or later
- SHA-256
994dd8c875569af2aa6c795c157eeea4911f518e4ec910d5093b15cfdb074108
- No need to turn off Gatekeeper
- Install over the old version to upgrade
- No data collected
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why is ZKey not on the Mac App Store?
Apple does not distribute input methods through the Mac App Store: an input method has to live in /Library/Input Methods, while App Store apps can only be installed into /Applications, where macOS does not load input methods. So ZKey ships as a .pkg signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple — the standard way to distribute Mac software outside the App Store.
macOS says “the developer can access anything you type”. Should I worry?
macOS shows this notice for every third-party input method, because any input method has to receive keys to do its job. ZKey handles keys on your Mac, never sends what you type over the network, and never writes it to a log.
Does typing “database” turn into “dât”?
No. ZKey only applies aa/ee/oo to adjacent vowels and returns strings that are not valid syllables to their keys while you type. Words on the English list, like database, camera or banana, stay as typed without extra keys.
What about typing commands in Terminal?
ZKey leaves Terminal, iTerm2, Warp, Ghostty, Alacritty, kitty, Hyper, Termius alone: keys and command shortcuts go straight to the terminal. Switch to another app and the previous on/off state comes back. You can turn this off under ZKey Settings → Ứng dụng (Apps).
Ready?
Install ZKey in two minutes
Download the installer, run it, then pick ZKey in the menu bar. The guide has a screenshot for every step.