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HindidevanagariLegacy → Unicode

Kruti Dev to Unicode Converter

Turn Kruti Dev 010 text that looks like “Hkkjr” into real Hindi: “भारत”. Unicode text reads correctly on any phone, browser or search engine.

0 chars0 words
<1 ms
Live conversion Private
20

  • Runs on your device

    Nothing is uploaded. Works offline once loaded.

  • Both directions

    Swap to go Unicode → Kruti Dev in one click.

  • Loss report

    Characters a font can’t show are flagged, not dropped.

  • 157 mappings

    Every one is listed in the chart below.

01 · About the font

Kruti Dev 010, in plain words.

The Remington-layout Hindi font that kept Indian offices, courts and printing presses typing in Devanagari before Unicode was practical.

Kruti Dev is a family of Devanagari fonts from the desktop-publishing era, when PageMaker, CorelDRAW and early versions of Word could not yet handle Hindi in Unicode. Instead of storing real Devanagari letters, the font draws Devanagari shapes on top of ordinary English keys. The word “भारत” is stored in the file as “Hkkjr”, and only the Kruti Dev font makes it look like Hindi.

Kruti Dev 010 became the version most people mean when they say “Kruti Dev”. Its key positions follow the Hindi typewriter (Remington) arrangement, so a typist trained on a mechanical typewriter could move to a computer without learning a new keyboard. That continuity is a large part of why it survived for decades after Unicode arrived.

The numbered variants (011, 016, 021, 040 and so on) mostly differ in style, but their key assignments are not guaranteed to be identical to 010. This converter is built and tested against the 010 layout.

A few glyph mappings were corrected after an entry-by-entry check against IIT Delhi’s InDesignFontConverters and KrutiExtract, two open-source converters. That check covered selected glyphs only, not the whole IIT table.

Kruti Dev 010 (as stored)

Hkkjr ,d fo'kky yksdrkaf=d ns'k gSA ge lc feydj fgUnh dk lEeku djrs gSaA

Unicode (converted by this page)

भारत एक विशाल लोकतांत्रिक देश है। हम सब मिलकर हिन्दी का सम्मान करते हैं।

This sample is converted with the same engine as the tool above, when this page was built, and matches the expected text exactly.

Who still uses it

  • 01

    Government offices and courts

    Hindi letters, orders and case papers have long been typed in Kruti Dev. Many of those archives are still only readable with the font installed.

  • 02

    Typists and typing-test candidates

    Hindi typing tests have historically used Remington-style layouts and Kruti Dev. Some recruiters have since moved to Unicode fonts such as Mangal, so always check the current notification for your exam.

  • 03

    Printing presses and DTP shops

    Layout software and older workflows often expect Kruti Dev text, which is why people convert Unicode back into it before sending work to print.

  • 04

    Students and coaching material

    Notes and question banks typed years ago are everywhere in Kruti Dev. Converting them makes them searchable and readable on phones.

02 · How to

How to convert Kruti Dev to Unicode (3 steps)

Legacy text only looks like Hindi on a computer that has Kruti Dev 010 installed. Everywhere else (phones, WhatsApp, websites, search results) it appears as English letters like “Hkkjr”. Converting to Unicode fixes that for good.

  1. Paste your Kruti Dev text

    Check that “From” says Kruti Dev 010, then paste your text. Kruti Dev text such as “Hkkjr ,d fo'kky …” looks like a jumble of English letters and symbols until it is converted.
    Kruti Dev to Unicode converter with “From” set to Kruti Dev 010 and the Kruti Dev sample “Hkkjr ,d fo'kky …” pasted into the input box

  2. Check the Unicode Hindi

    The Unicode Hindi appears as you paste: “भारत एक विशाल …”. Nothing in this Kruti Dev sample was flagged. When something is, a “notes” button lists it.
    Output box showing the Kruti Dev sample converted to Unicode Hindi: “भारत एक विशाल …”

  3. Copy it or save a Word file

    Copy puts “भारत एक विशाल …” on your clipboard, ready for WhatsApp, Gmail or Google Docs. The Word button saves a .docx already set in Mangal, so you don’t need Kruti Dev 010 to read it.
    Kruti Dev to Unicode converter after Copy, with the green “Copied” button, the message “Copied — paste it anywhere.” and the Download Word (.docx) button labelled

Pick a Unicode font. Nirmala UI comes with every current version of Windows. Mangal and Kokila come with Windows too, though on Windows 10 and 11 they are optional “Devanagari supplemental fonts” that Windows usually adds with Hindi language support. Noto Sans Devanagari is available in Google Docs.

Have a whole document instead of a paragraph? The Word file converter keeps tables, bold text and layout.

03 · Output font

Set the output font in MS Word or Google Docs

Unicode text is real Hindi, so any Hindi-capable font will display it. Pick one that looks good for your document.

Microsoft Word

  1. 1Paste the converted text, then press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on Mac) to select everything.
  2. 2On the Home tab, click the font box, type “Mangal” and press Enter.
  3. 3Optional: Review → Language → Set Proofing Language → Hindi, so spell-check does not underline everything.
  4. 4If the text still shows boxes, install a Unicode font that covers the script, such as Noto Sans Devanagari.

Google Docs

  1. 1Paste the converted text and select it with Ctrl+A.
  2. 2Open the font menu → More fonts, search for “Noto Sans Devanagari” (or Noto Serif Devanagari) and add it.
  3. 3Apply the font. Because the text is Unicode, it also copies cleanly into Gmail, Sheets and Slides.

04 · Mapping chart

Every key, and the letter it makes.

This is the actual table the converter uses, generated from the engine. Search for a key you see in garbled text, or for a letter you want to type.

157 mappings

Click a letter to copy the Unicode character. Click the key cap to copy the Kruti Dev 010 key.

05 · Known limits

What to watch for.

  • The short-i matra (ि) is typed before the consonant, but in Unicode it is stored after it. The reph (र्) is the opposite: typed after the syllable, stored before it. A plain find-and-replace gets both wrong; this converter reorders every syllable.
  • Microsoft Word’s AutoCorrect turns the straight apostrophe and double-quote keys, which type श् and ष्, into curly quotes. The converter recognises both the straight and the curly forms.
  • When you convert Unicode back to Kruti Dev, characters that the font simply has no glyph for are flagged in the loss report rather than silently dropped.
  • Other numbered Kruti Dev fonts (011, 016, 021…) are not guaranteed to share the 010 key assignments. If the output looks wrong, check which font the original document used.

Coverage in this converter

  • Consonants34
  • Conjuncts34
  • Half forms27
  • Punctuation17
  • Vowels13
  • Vowel signs13
  • Digits10
  • Signs8
  • Nukta1

Compared with HinLegacy and kru2uni (which share one mapping lineage) on 960 conversions, 739 matched exactly. Of the 221 differences, 149 were errors in the other converters and 72 were equivalent spellings. Round trip: we converted 50,757 Devanagari test strings (word-list words, sentences, and every consonant, vowel sign, conjunct, reph and nukta combination) to Kruti Dev 010 and back. 50,753 came back exactly; the other 4 contain a character Kruti Dev 010 has no glyph for, which the converter flags. See the accuracy page for every difference.

06 · FAQ

Questions about Kruti Dev to Unicode

Why does a Kruti Dev document look like “Hkkjr” on my phone?

Because the file stores English letters and symbols, and only the Kruti Dev font draws them as Hindi. Phones and websites don’t have that font, so they show the raw letters. Converting to Unicode stores the real Devanagari characters, which every device can draw.

Does it get words like हिन्दी and कार्य right?

Yes. Both depend on moving the short-i matra and the reph to their correct places in the syllable, which is what the syllable reorderer does, and both are among the reference words the converter is tested on.

Is Kruti Dev to Mangal the same as Kruti Dev to Unicode?

Yes. Mangal is a Unicode font, so text converted to Unicode is ready for Mangal: select it and choose Mangal. The same text also displays in Nirmala UI, Kokila or Noto Sans Devanagari without converting again.

Can I convert a Kruti Dev PDF to Unicode?

Usually, if the PDF has a text layer. The PDF to Unicode tool reads the text, recognises runs set in Kruti Dev by their font name and converts them. A scanned PDF has no text layer, so it needs OCR (image to text) instead.

Is my Kruti Dev 010 text uploaded to a server?

No. The conversion runs as JavaScript in your browser, so your text never leaves your device. Once the page has loaded, it works offline too.

Which font should I use after converting Kruti Dev 010 to Unicode?

Nirmala UI comes with every current version of Windows. Mangal and Kokila come with Windows too, though on Windows 10 and 11 they are optional “Devanagari supplemental fonts” that Windows usually adds with Hindi language support. Noto Sans Devanagari is available in Google Docs. Unicode text is not tied to one font, so you can switch typeface later without converting again.

How accurate is the Kruti Dev 010 converter?

In our tests it agreed exactly with HinLegacy and kru2uni on 739 of 960 conversions. Each of the other 221 was reviewed, and 149 turned out to be errors in the other converters. The sample on this page converts exactly as expected. No fluent-speaker review has been done, so read important text before you print or submit it.