Document: keypress event

Deprecated: This feature is no longer recommended. Though some browsers might still support it, it may have already been removed from the relevant web standards, may be in the process of being dropped, or may only be kept for compatibility purposes. Avoid using it, and update existing code if possible; see the compatibility table at the bottom of this page to guide your decision. Be aware that this feature may cease to work at any time.

The keypress event is fired when a key that produces a character value is pressed down.

Examples of keys that produce a character value are alphabetic, numeric, and punctuation keys. Examples of keys that don't produce a character value are modifier keys such as Alt, Shift, Ctrl, or Meta.

Warning: Since this event has been deprecated, you should look to use beforeinput or keydown instead.

Interface KeyboardEvent
Bubbles Yes
Cancelable Yes
Default Action Varies: keypress event; launch text composition system; blur and focus events; DOMActivate event; other event

Examples

addEventListener keypress example

This example logs the KeyboardEvent.code value whenever you press a key.

<p>Press inside this IFrame first to focus it, then try pressing keys on the keyboard.</p>
<p id="log"></p>
const log = document.getElementById('log');

document.addEventListener('keypress', logKey);

function logKey(e) {
  log.textContent += `${e.code}`;
}

onkeypress equivalent

document.onkeypress = logKey;

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
keypress_event
1
Chrome does not fire the keypress event for known keyboard shortcuts. Which keyboard shortcuts are known depends on the user's system. Use the keydown event to implement keyboard shortcuts.
12
14
As of Firefox 65, the keypress event is no longer fired for non-printable keys, except for the Enter key, and the Shift + Enter and Ctrl + Enter key combinations (these were kept for cross-browser compatibility purposes).
9
11.6
2
1
Chrome does not fire the keypress event for known keyboard shortcuts. Which keyboard shortcuts are known depends on the user's system. Use the keydown event to implement keyboard shortcuts.
18
Chrome does not fire the keypress event for known keyboard shortcuts. Which keyboard shortcuts are known depends on the user's system. Use the keydown event to implement keyboard shortcuts.
14
As of Firefox 65, the keypress event is no longer fired for non-printable keys, except for the Enter key, and the Shift + Enter and Ctrl + Enter key combinations (these were kept for cross-browser compatibility purposes).
12
1
1.0
Samsung Internet does not fire the keypress event for known keyboard shortcuts. Which keyboard shortcuts are known depends on the user's system. Use the keydown event to implement keyboard shortcuts.

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/keypress_event