Font converter

Mangal to Kruti Dev converter

A mangal to kruti dev pass takes the plain Unicode Devanagari that Windows renders with the Mangal system font and rewrites it onto the ASCII byte slots that the Kruti Dev 010 design font uses, so a paragraph typed in Word drops into a CorelDRAW or PageMaker layout without re-keying. Paste your Mangal text below, press Convert, and copy the Kruti Dev output. Everything runs in your browser. Free, no account

Mangal is the standard Unicode Hindi font. Paste Mangal text and get Kruti Dev 010 legacy output. Runs entirely in your browser.

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Two ways to store the same Devanagari letter

The reason this tool exists is that Mangal and Kruti Dev hold Hindi in two incompatible coordinate systems. Mangal is a Unicode font: it ships with Windows, and when you type the letter "क" it is saved as the abstract code point U+0915, a number that means "Devanagari KA" no matter which font paints it.

Kruti Dev 010 belongs to an older family of glyph-on-ASCII design fonts, the kind desktop publishing standardised on across India in the 1990s. In that scheme the very same "क" is stored as the Latin byte "d", and the font file simply draws a Devanagari shape on top of the slot where "d" normally lives. The two look identical on screen; the bytes underneath are unrelated.

Why a font swap can never do it

That single fact explains every quirk a designer meets. Switching the font menu in a Mangal document over to Kruti Dev paints garbage, because the bytes still spell Unicode while the legacy face draws whatever glyph occupies each ASCII position. To convert mangal to kruti dev properly, the engine walks through the text code point by code point and emits the matching ASCII byte sequence that reproduces the same word once Kruti Dev 010 is applied.

Many letters need more than one byte, since matras, the i-vowel sign, half-forms, and stacked conjuncts each map to their own slot arrangement in the legacy layout. That is why people search for mangal to krutidev as a conversion rather than expecting a simple font change to do the job.

The Devanagari letter ka stored as Unicode code point U+0915 in Mangal and remapped to the ASCII byte d in the Kruti Dev 010 legacy font
How the converter remaps one letter: the Mangal Unicode code point U+0915 becomes the ASCII byte the Kruti Dev 010 font draws Devanagari over.

Where each font actually lives in a studio

Knowing which side of the encoding line a font sits on tells you instantly whether you can edit it everywhere or only inside a layout. The table groups the fonts a Hindi DTP desk meets most, plus the two Nepali and Bengali legacy faces people often ask about in the same breath, so you can see at a glance what converts to what.

FontEncodingScript and regionTypical use
Mangal / Nirmala UIUnicode (U+0900 block)Devanagari, IndiaWord, web, government Unicode files, the editable master
Kruti Dev 010Legacy ASCIIDevanagari, IndiaCorelDRAW and PageMaker artwork, signage, typing tests
DevLys 010Legacy ASCIIDevanagari, IndiaOlder Hindi DTP layouts, a near-sibling of Kruti Dev
PreetiLegacy ASCIIDevanagari, NepalNepali newspapers and print houses
Bijoy / SutonnyMJLegacy ASCIIBengali, BangladeshBengali publishing and government work

Read the table by the Encoding column. Anything marked Unicode opens correctly on any phone, browser, or modern app on its own. Anything marked legacy ASCII only forms readable Devanagari once its exact matching font is installed and applied; without that font it shows Latin gibberish. This converter moves text from the first group, specifically Mangal, into the second, specifically Kruti Dev 010, which is why the result looks like nonsense until you set the font.

How to convert Mangal to Kruti Dev in 4 steps

These steps to convert mangal to kruti dev map one to one onto the tool at the top of the page, and the whole thing takes well under a minute with nothing to install.

  1. Paste your Mangal text. Copy the Hindi from Word, Google Docs, an email, or any place it already reads correctly, and drop it into the left Mangal box. It does not matter whether the source font was literally Mangal or another Unicode face such as Nirmala UI; the engine reads the underlying code points.
  2. Press Convert. The page rewrites every Devanagari code point into the ASCII byte sequence that Kruti Dev 010 expects, handling matras, half-letters, and conjuncts as it goes. The Kruti Dev text appears in the right box almost instantly.
  3. Copy the output. Use the Copy output button. On screen the result looks like scrambled Latin characters, which is exactly right, because those bytes only become Hindi once the Kruti Dev font renders them.
  4. Apply Kruti Dev 010 where you need it. Paste into your CorelDRAW frame, PageMaker block, or a Word document, select the pasted run, and set the font to Kruti Dev 010. The Latin characters resolve into the Devanagari you started with.

Paste Mangal text and convert it

A clean workflow for designers and DTP

The safest habit on a design desk is to treat the Unicode version as the single source of truth and the Kruti Dev file as a disposable rendering of it. Author and proofread the copy in Mangal, where spell-check, search, and find-and-replace all work, then convert mangal to kruti dev only at the layout stage. If the client later sends edits, you change the Mangal master and run the conversion again, rather than trying to patch ASCII bytes by hand inside the artwork. This keeps a searchable, future-proof copy alive even though the deliverable is a legacy-font layout.

Two checks before you place the text

First, lock down the exact variant. A frame built in Kruti Dev 010 will not read correctly if you apply Kruti Dev 016, because each variant maps bytes differently, so confirm the precise face the artwork was designed in before you place text. Second, paste as unformatted text when moving the output into a styled document, so an autocorrect pass or a smart-quotes setting cannot quietly rewrite a byte and break a glyph. Once the run is in place and the font is set, kerning and line breaks may shift slightly, since legacy faces carry their own metrics, so give the block a final visual proof.

Things that look broken but usually are not

When you convert mangal to kruti dev and the text then misbehaves in a layout, the cause is almost always the font assignment rather than the conversion itself. These three patterns cover most of what a designer runs into, and each has a quick check before you assume the output is wrong.

The output is readable Latin, not Hindi

This is correct behaviour, not a fault. Kruti Dev output is meant to look like a string of Latin letters and symbols until the Kruti Dev 010 font is applied to it. Paste it into your document, select it, and set the font; if Devanagari appears, the conversion worked exactly as intended.

Empty boxes or tofu after applying the font

Hollow rectangles mean the bytes are fine but the assigned face cannot draw them, usually because a plain Latin font such as Arial is still on the run, or a different Kruti Dev variant is selected. Reselect the text and apply the genuine Kruti Dev 010 face the layout was built around, and the glyphs fill in.

Conjuncts or matras land in the wrong place

Stacked forms like क्ष, त्र, and ज्ञ, along with the i-matra and the reph, are where legacy faces drift most. If one looks split or misordered in CorelDRAW, proof that run against your Mangal master and nudge only the affected characters, since the rest of the line is almost certainly correct.

Mangal to Kruti Dev: frequently asked questions

Fonts and encoding

Is Mangal the same as Kruti Dev?

No, they are opposites in how they store text. Mangal is a Unicode font that ships with Windows and saves each Hindi letter as a standard Unicode code point in the U+0900 Devanagari block, so the text reads correctly on any device with no special font. Kruti Dev 010 is a legacy design font that places Devanagari glyphs on ordinary ASCII byte positions, so the same letter is physically stored as a Latin character. Because the two use unrelated byte schemes, simply switching the font menu never converts the text; a real remapping is required, which is what this tool performs.

Is Mangal just Unicode Hindi under another name?

For practical purposes, yes. Mangal is the default Unicode Devanagari font Windows installs, so when somebody says they typed in Mangal they almost always mean ordinary Unicode Hindi. Its successor Nirmala UI is also Unicode, and so is most Hindi typed in Google Docs or on a phone. That is why this converter accepts any Unicode Devanagari input, not only text literally set in the Mangal face, and produces the same Kruti Dev 010 result regardless of which Unicode font the source used.

Using the converted text

Why does the Kruti Dev output look like random English letters?

That is exactly how Kruti Dev text is stored. The conversion rewrites each Devanagari code point into the ASCII bytes the Kruti Dev 010 font draws Hindi glyphs over, so before the font is applied those bytes display as their plain Latin characters. Copy the output, paste it into your document or design file, select the pasted text, and set the font to Kruti Dev 010. The Latin-looking string then renders as the Hindi you started with. If it still shows Latin, the correct font is simply not yet applied to that run.

Does the conversion change my words or spelling?

No. The conversion is purely an encoding change, not an edit. It re-expresses each Devanagari letter as the byte sequence Kruti Dev 010 uses, so the wording, spelling, word order, and punctuation all stay exactly as you typed them in Mangal. Nothing is translated, summarised, or corrected. If a stacked conjunct or a matra ever looks off in the layout, that is the legacy font drawing it, not the text being altered, and proofing the affected run against your Unicode master confirms the content is unchanged.

Placing it in a layout and reversing it

How do I use the result in CorelDRAW or PageMaker?

Convert your Mangal text here, copy the output, and paste it into the existing text frame in your layout. Then select the pasted run and apply the exact Kruti Dev variant the artwork was built in, normally Kruti Dev 010. Because legacy faces carry their own spacing metrics, give the block a quick proof afterward for line breaks and kerning, and walk any stacked conjuncts against your original. Keep the Unicode master on file so that if the design changes you re-convert rather than editing ASCII bytes by hand.

Which Kruti Dev variant should I apply, 010 or 016?

Apply the variant the document or template was originally designed in, because the byte mappings differ between them. This tool targets Kruti Dev 010, by far the most common Devanagari variant, and its output is built for that face. If your layout was set in Kruti Dev 016 or another family member, the same bytes will read as scrambled Latin under the wrong variant. When in doubt, check the printer or template spec sheet and apply that precise font name rather than whichever Kruti Dev happens to be installed.

Reverse conversion, privacy, and cost

Can I convert Kruti Dev back into Mangal or Unicode?

Yes, but with a different tool, since this page only goes one direction. To turn legacy Kruti Dev copy back into editable Unicode Hindi, use the Kruti Dev to Unicode converter, or the Kruti Dev to Mangal converter if you specifically want the Mangal-style Unicode result. That reverse pass is what you reach for when an old design file is the only copy left and you need a searchable, web-ready master again. Always keep the recovered Unicode version as your source going forward.

Is the converter free and does it upload my text?

It is free with no account, and nothing you paste leaves your device. The mapping runs entirely in your browser using a local font engine, so the Hindi never reaches a server, which suits confidential drafts, government copy, and client material. There is no sign-up, no watermark on the output, and no limit on how many times you convert. Keep your own Unicode master for records, since the tool stores no history once you close the tab.

How this converter is tested and sourced

Our test routine is deliberately ordinary. We run a spread of real Hindi through the tool, plain prose, names and addresses, numerals, dandas, and a batch of stacked conjuncts such as क्ष, त्र, and ज्ञ, then paste each result into CorelDRAW and a Word document, apply Kruti Dev 010, and read it back glyph by glyph against the Mangal source. A change ships only after that pass comes back clean. The encoding facts above trace to the public references listed here, and the verified date moves whenever the conversion behaves differently in a way a designer would notice.