Kruti Dev ↔ Unicode Converter

Kruti Dev is an ASCII font — each Devanagari character is drawn on top of a Roman key. When you type "d" in the Kruti Dev font, the glyph on screen is क; type "/k" and you get ध. The Hindi exists only as a picture. Underneath, the file stores plain English letters, which is why a Kruti Dev document opened on a phone or pasted into Gmail collapses into gibberish.

Unicode Devanagari (the Mangal font family) works the opposite way. Each Hindi character has its own code point — क is U+0915, ध is U+0927 — and renders identically on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux without installing anything. That is why Unicode is the standard for websites, government portals, and messaging apps.

To convert in this direction:

• Step 1. Paste your Kruti Dev text into the left box. The Paste button reads your clipboard directly.
• Step 2. Output appears on the right as you type; press Convert → to re-run it manually.
• Step 3. Skim the Unicode output for rare conjuncts, then press Copy output.
• Step 4. Paste anywhere: Word, Gmail, WhatsApp, a government form. No font is needed on the receiving end.

Behind the scenes the converter looks up each Kruti Dev code, longest sequence first, in a mapping table compiled from the standard used by Indian government typing software. Multi-character ligatures such as "{k" (क्ष) and "Vª" (ट्र) are matched before their single-character prefixes, and a post-processing pass repositions the choti i ki matra, which Kruti Dev stores before the consonant. The table targets Kruti Dev 010, the dominant Remington-layout variant; most output is also valid for 011 and 016.

The reverse direction takes modern Unicode Hindi — text typed on Mangal, InScript, Google Input Tools, or a phone keyboard — and emits the Kruti Dev ASCII codes that legacy workflows expect. Press the Swap button between the two boxes to flip the converter, paste your Unicode Devanagari text, and convert.

One thing surprises everyone the first time: the Kruti Dev output looks like random English letters. That is correct behaviour. भारत becomes "Hkkjr", and it stays "Hkkjr" until you paste it into a document and apply the Kruti Dev 010 font, at which point it renders as भारत again. The converter produces the codes; the font produces the picture.

To convert in this direction:

• Step 1. Press Swap so the converter runs Unicode → Kruti Dev.
• Step 2. Paste Unicode Hindi into the input box and convert.
• Step 3. Copy the ASCII output into Word, PageMaker, or your typing-practice software.
• Step 4. Select the pasted text and set the font to Kruti Dev 010 (or 011/016). The Devanagari appears.

Output targets Kruti Dev 010, the variant installed in most coaching institutes, courts, and government printing presses since the 1990s. A handful of rare conjuncts shift between variants, so proofread important documents in the exact font you will deliver in.

Kruti Dev → Unicode: rescuing legacy text

Two decades of Hindi office work live in legacy fonts. Convert in this direction when old material has to work on modern systems:

• Old coaching notes and dictation passages. Most Hindi typing institutes ran on Kruti Dev well into the 2010s. Those passages turn to code the moment they leave the original PC; one conversion makes them usable on any device.
• Court templates and office circulars. Order sheets, affidavit formats, and cause-list boilerplate typed in Kruti Dev need Unicode before they can go on a website or an e-filing portal.
• DevLys and Chanakya-era files. Files from the wider Remington family convert with the same table, since DevLys 010 shares almost the entire Kruti Dev glyph map.
• Switching to a Mangal exam. If your test runs on Mangal/InScript — DSSSB and most state government exams — convert your old KD practice material once and reuse all of it. Our Mangal vs Kruti Dev guide covers which exams use which layout.
• WhatsApp, Gmail, and the web. None of them render ASCII fonts. Unicode is the only Hindi that survives a share button.

Unicode → Kruti Dev: feeding KD-only workflows

The reverse direction matters more than people expect, because several exams and trades still run on the Remington layout:

• Practice passages for KD typing tests. SSC Stenographer Hindi transcription, court clerk Hindi typing in several high courts, and the Kruti Dev option in MP's CPCT all accept the Remington layout. Today's editorials and news copy are Unicode; convert them to KD and load them into your practice software as fresh passages.
• DTP and print shops. Wedding-card composers, book typesetters, and many regional newspapers still keep page templates in Kruti Dev. Client text now arrives as Unicode from phones; converting it beats retyping it.
• Legacy government software. Some older record-room and court applications accept only KD input. Draft in comfortable Unicode, convert, paste.

It is a Remington typewriter in font form. The Kruti Dev arrangement copies the Hindi Remington typewriter that government offices standardised on decades before computers arrived. Typists trained on manual machines moved to PCs without relearning a single key, which is why coaching institutes adopted it en masse and why exam bodies such as SSC still offer it as a Hindi option alongside Mangal.

The choti i ki matra is typed first. On a Remington machine the ि glyph physically prints before its consonant, so Kruti Dev stores it that way: "f" then "nu" gives दिन. Unicode stores the consonant first and the matra second. A correct converter must swap them after mapping — this one runs that reorder pass automatically. Naive converters skip it and ship matras stuck to the wrong letter.

Half letters are separate glyphs. Kruti Dev has distinct codes for half consonants: "D" is क् while "d" is क, "R" is त् while "r" is त. A conjunct is typed as half form plus full form. Unicode instead builds conjuncts with the halant (्, U+094D), so the converter expands and collapses these in both directions.

Punctuation doubles as letters. In Kruti Dev the double-quote key is ष, "=" is त्र, "|" is द्य and ")" is द्ध. This is why pasting KD text into spreadsheets or code wreaks havoc, and why the mapping table must match longer sequences before shorter ones: "{k" must resolve to क्ष before "{" and "k" are read separately.

This is why pasted KD text looks like gibberish. A Unicode system reads "Hkkjr" as five Roman letters, because that is what the file contains. The Devanagari only ever existed in the font's artwork. Once converted, the characters themselves are Hindi and no font trickery is needed again.

Mixed font versions in one document

Files assembled over years often mix Kruti Dev 010 with DevLys 010, older KD variants, or Walkman Chanakya. DevLys usually converts cleanly because it shares the KD glyph map. Chanakya does not; its encoding differs on many codepoints. If a document converts cleanly for three paragraphs and then degrades, you have hit a font boundary. Convert section by section and treat the odd section separately.

Broken or misplaced matras

A ि sitting on the wrong consonant usually means the source text passed through a PDF. Copying from PDFs reorders invisible characters and inserts soft hyphens. Go back to the original Word or text file when you can. For conjunct clusters such as स्थिति, check that the matra landed on the full cluster rather than its first half letter.

What does not convert

• Formatting. Bold, italics, font size, and tables are lost; this is a plain-text converter. Reapply styling in your document after pasting.
• English mixed into KD text. The converter cannot tell English words from Kruti Dev codes, since both are Roman letters. English inside a KD passage comes out as stray Devanagari — strip it before converting and re-add it after.
• Numerals. ASCII digits (0-9) and Devanagari digits (०-९) pass through unchanged in both directions. Convert digit styles by hand if your document needs one form.
• Rare ligatures. A handful of conjuncts and Vedic marks have no stable mapping across KD variants. Expect to fix these manually in long documents.

Accuracy checklist before you ship

• Convert in chunks of up to 5,000 characters; break long pastes into paragraphs.
• Proofread sanyukt akshar — क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ, श्र — which vary the most across font versions.
• Spot-check anuswar (ं), chandrabindu (ँ), and visarg (ः) near line ends.
• For exam answer scripts, never rely on a converter at the final step. Practise typing in the layout your exam ships — Kruti Dev for SSC CHSL Hindi, Mangal/InScript for DSSSB and most state tests.