Kruti Dev Keyboard Layout — Hindi Typing Chart & Free PDF

Kruti Dev 010 is a font, not a keyboard. You type on a normal QWERTY keyboard, and the font gives the stored characters Hindi shapes, following the arrangement of a Remington typewriter. The key rows on this page come from the character table our converter uses to read Kruti Dev text.

That table tells us what each stored character means; it is not the result of typing tests in Word, which are still pending. With that caveat, the home row keys a, s, d, f, g, h, j, k, l and ; correspond to ं े क ि ह ी र ा स य. The Shift layer adds half letters such as D for क् and extra letters such as N for छ.

Two stored characters depend on their neighbours. In the converter's rules, f is the chhoti i matra (छोटी इ की मात्रा), and it comes before the consonant it belongs to in the stored text. Z is the reph mark (रेफ), and it comes after the character it sits above.

Click or tap any key above to see what it types. Use the Shift button to switch layers, or press Shift on your own keyboard.

Every key on this page can be described in four ways, and mixing them up causes confusion. The physical key is the one you press, such as D. The stored legacy character is what the file contains. Without the Kruti Dev font, it may appear as a Latin letter or symbol.

With the font applied, it appears as a Hindi-looking glyph. The Unicode converter output is genuine Devanagari text, which you get only after conversion. Matras are shown on a dotted circle, like ◌ा, so you can see where they sit.

In the tables below, a key and its stored character are assumed to be the same; the physical keyboard test is what will confirm that. Alt-code numbers are not keys, so they are kept apart in the Alt-code section.

The tables below are decoder-derived: they show how the Kruti Dev character table in our Kruti Dev to Unicode converter reads each stored character. They are not the result of typing on a physical keyboard, and each carries a status line.

We have also left out Shift+4 and Shift+5 for now, because our table and an external reference table (LTRC) do not agree on them yet.

Kruti Dev has full letters and half letters. A full letter such as क is a single key, d. Its half form क्, which can join the next letter, is Shift+D. A few letters work differently: the key H gives the half form भ्, and you follow it with k to get the full भ, as in Hkkjr for भारत.

Vowels such as आ, ओ and औ are built from key combinations, and we list only single-key outputs here until those combinations are tested.

Some keys do not simply add a letter, because their result depends on the keys around them. The chhoti i matra (छोटी इ की मात्रा) is typed before the consonant it belongs to, the reph is typed after the letter it sits above, and the rakar is added after a consonant.

Conjuncts such as ज्ञ, श्र and त्र have their own keys. Be careful with त्र and ट्र: the first is the = key, but we have not verified a typing sequence for ट्र or ड्र, so we do not list one.

In this font the number keys give the usual digits 0 to 9, not Devanagari digits (०१२३), so do not expect the top row to type Hindi numerals. A few punctuation marks sit on keys with different printed symbols, which is why a full stop or a comma can seem to "be on the wrong key". Remember too that Unicode digits and Alt codes are separate things from these keys.

Many special signs in the converter table sit on Shift keys, such as # for रु or _ for ऋ, and the chart above lists the ones we have so far.

An Alt code is different: according to Microsoft, you hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad, with Num Lock on, and the number row at the top does not work.

An Alt code only enters a character by its number. In Kruti Dev text that character is just a stored letter, and the font decides how it looks.

We have not tested Alt codes on Windows with Kruti Dev 010, and the Alt-code lists we compared disagree with each other and, in at least one case, with the character table our converter uses. For that reason this page does not publish an Alt-code table. Please treat any such list with caution until it has been checked on your own setup.

The Alt method needs a numeric keypad, so it is the wrong tool on many laptops. You do not need it for normal typing, because the Shift keys listed in the chart cover many of the special signs.

Some laptops build a keypad into the letter keys and switch it on in a way that varies by model, so check your manual; we have not tested any model.

If you need a single special character, search for it in the chart and copy it from there.

If you see letters like Hkkjr instead of भारत, your text is probably Kruti Dev text shown in a font that is not Kruti Dev. This can happen when the font is not applied, is not installed on that computer, or when you paste the text into a website, form or chat that cannot use the font.

In Word, select the text and look at the font name box; other apps differ. If it does not say Kruti Dev 010, set it. If the font is missing from the list, install it from the font download page. Boxes can appear when the font in use has no glyph for a character.

Wrong results often come from the order of the stored characters. If ि lands on the wrong letter, the f may be after the consonant instead of before it. The reph is placed over what comes before Z, which can be a consonant together with its matra, so check what you typed just before Z.

If half letters or extra letters appear when you did not mean to use Shift, check the Shift and Caps Lock state. Caps Lock affects letter keys but not number or punctuation keys, and we have not tested how it behaves with Kruti Dev in Word.

If symbols seem to be on different keys than the chart shows, your keyboard layout setting may not be US English, and settings differ by system. For ट्र and ड्र, no verified sequence is listed yet.

Typing gives you Kruti Dev text, which stays readable only with the font. A converter gives you either Unicode or Kruti Dev, depending on the direction. The output can also contain special characters that are not meant to be read as keystrokes: the converter stores प्रकाशas çdk'k, for example. So copy converter output instead of retyping it, and check conjuncts afterwards.

Typing from scratch is only one route. If you have Unicode Hindi and need Kruti Dev, use the Mangal to Kruti Dev converter, or convert Unicode Hindi to Kruti Dev from the home page.

For the reverse direction, try the Kruti Dev to Unicode converter, and get the Kruti Dev font if you need it. Keep this Kruti Dev keyboard guide open whenever a matra or half letter refuses to appear.

Sources checked: Microsoft Support: insert ASCII or Unicode symbols · Unicode 15.1, chapter 12 · CPCT FAQ · Noto Sans Devanagari, SIL OFL 1.1