Hindi typing keyboard: Inscript vs Remington GAIL vs Kruti Dev, and which to learn

Font or layout: the distinction that trips people up

A font decides how characters look. A layout decides which key produces which character. Unicode is the agreement that makes the result readable everywhere.

Mangal is a Unicode font. Microsoft describes it as an OpenType font for Devanagari based on Unicode. When you type किताब in Unicode, the file stores five characters: क, the vowel sign ि, त, the vowel sign ा and ब. The vowel sign ि is stored after क even though it's drawn before it. Any Unicode font can display that text, and search engines can read it.

Kruti Dev works differently. It maps Devanagari glyphs onto ASCII character positions, so what's stored underneath is a string of Latin letters and symbols that only look like Hindi while the Kruti Dev font is applied. Copy that text to a computer without the font and it turns into gibberish; searching and indexing it is limited too. Converters exist because of exactly this.

So "Kruti Dev vs Mangal" is a question about encoding, while "Inscript vs Remington" is a question about which keys your fingers press.

The four ways to type Hindi

Inscript: the standard layout

Inscript was first standardized in 1986 under India's Department of Electronics, and its layout is common to all Indian scripts. Learn it for Hindi and the same finger positions carry over to Bengali, Tamil or Telugu, because the scripts share a phonetic order.

The logic is easy to see on the home row. Microsoft's key data for its Devanagari - INSCRIPT keyboard puts vowel signs under the left hand (ो े ् ि ु on A to G) and common consonants under the right (प र क त च on H to semicolon). The top row continues the pattern: ौ ै ा ी ू on the left, ब ह ग द ज on the right. You type in the order Unicode stores text, consonant first and vowel sign after, so किताब is K, F, L, E, Y: five unshifted keys.

Our own Hindi word list shows why this arrangement works. The vowel sign ा is the most common character in the list, at 11.1% of all characters, and it sits on E under the left middle finger. Five of the next seven most common characters, र, े, क, ् and त, are on the Inscript home row. Together they make up 25.1% of everything you type in the list.

Remington GAIL: typewriter positions, Unicode output

Remington GAIL implements the old Remington typewriter layout for Hindi on a standard keyboard and outputs Unicode Devanagari. Keyman, which publishes a free version, says it implements the default and Shift keys of the legacy layout faithfully and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Wikipedia's Devanagari article notes that the Remington typing method is similar to the Kruti Dev typing method, so people who learned on typewriters or in Kruti Dev can move to Unicode without retraining their fingers. Keyman's help page gives the rules that catch newcomers: the short i matra (ि, on the F key) goes after the consonant, a halant goes after a full consonant, and the reph is typed before the consonant it sits on.

Exam notices also list a "Remington CBI" variant. We couldn't find an official description of how it differs from GAIL, so practice the one your notice names.

Kruti Dev: still in the notices

Kruti Dev is a legacy font, but notices still name it. ARIES, a research institute in Nainital, asked for 30 WPM in Hindi in Kruti Dev 010 for its 2022 clerk typing test. An RRB notice from 2017 promised Hindi candidates both Kruti Dev and Mangal fonts. If your notice names it, practice in it.

Our tests can't score Kruti Dev. They compare what you type with Unicode Hindi, and Kruti Dev produces Latin character codes, so nothing would match. If you need it, build speed here with Remington GAIL, which uses a similar method, and switch to the font in the software your exam center uses for the last few weeks.

Phonetic typing

Phonetic input lets you type Hindi sounds in Latin letters. On Windows, Microsoft's example is typing "bagicha" and pressing Enter to get बगीचा. On Android, Gboard's transliteration does the same, and Google notes that one word can have several Latin spellings: आदित्य can be typed as Aditya, Aaditya or Adhitya.

It's the quickest way to start messaging in Hindi, and the wrong method for an exam: none of the notices we read offers it, and a skill test is scored against a passage typed key by key.

Which exams accept which Hindi keyboard?

These are the notices we could open. Yours outranks this table.

The CPCT row is the weak one. We couldn't open the official CPCT site, and every page we found naming its layouts was a coaching site, so check your admit card. The figures that are sourced, 20 net WPM in Hindi for the minimum band, are on our CPCT Hindi test page. Speeds and error rules for SSC and RRB are in our government exam typing guide.

How to set up Hindi typing on Windows

Microsoft's instructions, for Windows 11:

1. Open Settings, then Time & language, then Language & region.
2. Select Add a language, choose Hindi, select Next, then Install.
3. Hindi installs with the Hindi Traditional keyboard. In Microsoft's key data its letter rows match the Devanagari - INSCRIPT keyboard key for key, so that's Inscript ready to use.
4. For phonetic input, select the three dots next to Hindi, then Language options, then Add a keyboard, then Hindi Phonetic.
5. Switch layouts with the Windows key plus Spacebar. The taskbar shows हिं when Hindi is active.

Windows doesn't ship Remington GAIL. Install Keyman and its Remington GAIL (SIL) keyboard, which Keyman lists as Unicode and MIT-licensed.

How to set up Hindi typing on Android

Google's steps for Gboard: open any app with a text box, tap the features menu at the top left of the keyboard, then More, Settings and Languages. Choose Hindi and pick a layout. Google's own description of the Hindi keyboard covers a Hindi layout, transliteration and handwriting.

Whether Gboard still offers Inscript is unclear. Wikipedia says it was removed, and we couldn't find a Google page confirming either way, so check the layout list on your phone. Keyman's Android app carries Remington GAIL. Exams are taken on a physical keyboard, though, so treat phone practice as a supplement.

Practicing on our Hindi tests

Our tests read whatever characters your operating system produces. We don't emulate Hindi layouts, and the on-screen keyboard doesn't show Hindi key labels yet, so set up Inscript or Remington GAIL first.

Hindi words look short on screen and take more keystrokes than they appear to. The average word in our 1,000-word Hindi list is 4.22 Unicode characters but only 2.46 visible letter clusters. नहीं is two clusters on screen and four keystrokes in Inscript. Our WPM counts five characters as a word, so it rewards the keystrokes, not the clusters you see.

That matters for word minimums. RRB won't evaluate a Hindi transcript under 250 words. Typing 250 words of our list's average length in ten minutes means 1,305 characters with spaces, about 26 WPM on our results screen, a little above the 25 WPM requirement.

Start with the Hindi typing test, move to the Hindi 5-minute test, then the Hindi 10-minute test for exam length. The SSC CHSL test and the RRB NTPC test switch to Hindi in the ribbon. If errors are what's holding you back, see how to improve typing accuracy.

Frequently asked questions

Which Hindi keyboard is best for government exams?

The one your notice lists. Inscript and a Remington layout appear in every notice we read that names layouts. If you're starting from zero, Inscript is built into Windows and is the government standard. If you already type Kruti Dev, Remington GAIL is the shorter switch.

Is Kruti Dev a Unicode font?

No. Kruti Dev is a legacy font that maps Devanagari shapes onto ASCII codes. Mangal is a Unicode font, so text typed in Mangal stays readable on any device.

Is Remington GAIL the same as Kruti Dev?

They share the typewriter method, but Remington GAIL produces Unicode text and Kruti Dev doesn't. A Western Railway notice lets candidates use the Remington GAIL keyboard with either Mangal or Kruti Dev.

Can I use phonetic Hindi typing in an exam?

Not in any notice we read. Phonetic input is fine for messages and documents, but the skill tests we found offer Inscript, Remington or Kruti Dev.