Hindi typing keyboards compared

Inscript, Remington, Kruti Dev and Mangal are not four layouts. Here is what each one is, and which to learn.

Try Hindi typing

If you are learning Hindi typing, you will hear four names again and again: Inscript, Remington, Kruti Dev and Mangal. They are not four layouts. Two are keyboard layouts, one is a family of old fonts, and one is a Unicode font. Sorting them out first saves a lot of confusion, especially if you are preparing for a typing test.

Layouts and fonts are different things

A keyboard layout decides which character each key types. A font decides how characters look on screen. For Hindi, the two got mixed up because of history: before Unicode, Hindi text was typed with special fonts that drew Devanagari shapes over ordinary English letters. The font and the layout came as a pair.

• Inscript is a layout.
• Remington is a layout, copied from Hindi typewriters.
• Kruti Dev is a family of non-Unicode fonts typed with the Remington layout.
• Mangal is a Unicode font included in Windows. “Mangal typing” usually just means typing Unicode Hindi, with Inscript or a Unicode version of Remington.

Inscript

Inscript is the Government of India standard layout for Indian scripts, and it is built into Windows, macOS, Linux and Android. It is logical rather than historical: vowels and vowel signs are on the left hand, consonants on the right, and aspirated consonants on Shift above their plain partners (क on one key, ख on the same key with Shift). Conjuncts such as क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ and श्र have their own keys on Shift with the number row.

Inscript types in logical order: you type क then ि to get कि, the same order as you say it. Because the same arrangement is used for many Indian scripts, learning Inscript for Hindi also makes Marathi, Bangla or Gujarati Inscript easier. See the Inscript layout chart.

Remington and Kruti Dev

Remington comes from mechanical Hindi typewriters. Many older typists, typing schools and government offices learned on it, and it is still common in Hindi typing tests. Its rules follow how a typewriter puts ink on paper, not how Hindi is spoken:

• The vowel sign ि is typed before the consonant it belongs to, because it appears on its left.
• The reph (र् written above a letter) is typed after the letter it sits on.
• Half letters have their own keys, often on Shift.

Kruti Dev fonts were made for this layout. Text typed in Kruti Dev is stored as English letters and only looks like Hindi in that font, so it cannot be searched or read reliably elsewhere. Remington GAIL, offered by Indic input tools, keeps the Remington key positions but produces Unicode text. This lets Remington typists type proper Unicode Hindi without relearning the keyboard. See the Kruti Dev and Remington chart.

Phonetic typing

Phonetic tools such as Google Input Tools let you type Hindi by spelling it in English: “namaste” becomes नमस्ते. They are easy to learn and good for messages and casual writing, but they depend on word suggestions and corrections, so they are slower for long text and are generally not allowed in typing tests.

Side by side

Which one should you learn?

• Preparing for SSC or another exam: recent SSC notices have offered Inscript and Remington. If you already know Remington or Kruti Dev, stay with it and practise on Remington GAIL. If you are starting from zero, Inscript is easier to learn and more useful afterwards. Check your notice either way.
• Working in an office that uses Kruti Dev: learn Remington. You can type the same keys in Remington GAIL when you need Unicode.
• Everyday writing: phonetic typing is fine. If you write a lot of Hindi, Inscript will make you faster.

How Hindi speed is counted

On Unicode layouts, this site counts characters, five per word, as in English. On the Remington layout it counts typewriter key presses, the way Remington typing tests count key depressions. Hindi words use more characters and key presses per syllable than English words, so most people's Hindi speed is lower than their English speed. That is reflected in exam pass marks: SSC CHSL asks for 30 WPM in Hindi against 35 in English. For the exact conversion between WPM and key depressions, see WPM vs KDPH.

Tips for learning Hindi typing

• Learn the home row keys first and touch type from the start. Looking at the keys is even slower in Hindi because there are more characters.
• Practise matras (vowel signs) early. They appear in nearly every word.
• On Remington, drill ि and half letters until the order feels natural; they cause most mistakes.
• Practise full passages once you know the keys. Exam passages are formal Hindi with numbers and punctuation.

Start with the free Hindi typing lessons on Inscript or Remington, then try the SSC CHSL Hindi mock test.