Kruti Dev Font Guide

Kruti Dev 010, 011, and 055: What's Actually Different

All of the numbered Kruti Dev variants (010, 011, 055, and a handful of less common numbers) share the exact same keyboard layout and keystroke-to-glyph mapping, so text converted for one displays correctly in any of the others once the matching font file is installed and applied. The numbers mainly track small differences in glyph design, spacing, and which conjuncts got their own dedicated keystroke versus being built from separate pieces:

Because the conversion logic is shared, this converter does not ask which numbered version you use, the output is correct Krutidev-family text regardless. The font file itself (which you install separately in your DTP software or word processor) is what determines the exact glyph shapes you see.

Kruti Dev vs. Mangal: They Solve the Same Problem Differently

Mangal is a standard Unicode-compliant Hindi font that ships with Windows and most modern operating systems. Because it is Unicode, any text typed in Mangal, or in any other Unicode Hindi font, is already stored as real Devanagari characters and will display correctly in Mangal, Nirmala UI, Noto Sans Devanagari, or any other current Hindi font without any conversion at all.

Kruti Dev predates that standardization. It solved the "how do I type and print Hindi" problem in the 1990s by hijacking the Latin keyboard and redrawing the glyphs, which worked well at the time but is fundamentally incompatible with every Unicode-based tool built since. "Convert Kruti Dev to Mangal" is really the same request as "convert Kruti Dev to Unicode": once your text is in real Unicode form, it already displays correctly in Mangal (or any other Unicode Hindi font) with no further work. Use the Krutidev → Unicode direction of the converter above for exactly this.

Where Kruti Dev Is Still Required Today

Despite being decades old and non-standard, Kruti Dev remains the required or default data-entry format in a number of specific, still-active contexts across India:

• District courts and lower judiciary in several states, where case management software and templates were built around Kruti Dev and have not been fully migrated to Unicode.
• State government departments and secretariats, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, for internal notices, orders, and record-keeping systems.
• Older DTP and print shops still running legacy PageMaker or CorelDraw-era workflows that were set up for Kruti Dev and never rebuilt.
• Rajbhasha (Official Language) related documentation in some offices, where older templates and forms carried over the same font dependency.

In every one of these cases, the practical workflow is the same: draft and edit your text normally in Unicode (Google Docs, Word, WhatsApp, Google Input Tools, whatever is convenient), then convert it to Kruti Dev only at the final step, right before it goes into the Kruti Dev-dependent system. See how the conversion works for the technical detail behind why a straight character swap does not do this correctly.

Where to Get the Actual Kruti Dev Font File

This converter produces correctly formatted Kruti Dev text, it does not include or distribute the font file itself. Kruti Dev font files (any numbered version) are widely available as free downloads from Hindi typing resource sites and are commonly pre-installed on government office computers. Once installed on your system, any application (Word, a DTP tool, a government web form) that lets you select "Kruti Dev 010" (or whichever version is required) as the display font will render the converted text correctly.

Typing Directly in Google Input Tools or Nirmala UI

If you are starting a document from scratch rather than converting existing text, typing directly in Google Input Tools or in a Unicode font like Nirmala UI is normally the easier path, since both produce standard Unicode text you can convert to Kruti Dev in one step whenever you actually need it, rather than typing directly on an unfamiliar Kruti Dev keyboard layout. Paste that Unicode output into the converter whenever you need the Kruti Dev version. Conversion runs locally in your browser, see the privacy policy for the exact detail.