UnicodeToDevLys

DevLys to Unicode Converter

Paste DevLys 010 text (it looks like jktLFkku ljdkj) and get Unicode Hindi — राजस्थान सरकार — that you can email, search and publish.

DevLys 010Unicode
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Why convert old DevLys documents to Unicode

Text typed in DevLys 010 is stored as Latin characters that only look like Hindi in that one font. Send the file to someone without the font, paste it into an email or a web form, or open it on a phone, and it turns into strings like vkns'k. Search can’t find the Hindi words in it either. Converting to Unicode fixes all of this: the result is real Hindi text that any modern device can display.

How to convert a DevLys file

  1. Open the Word, Excel or text file and copy the Hindi text.
  2. Paste it into the box above. It will look like Latin letters and symbols — that is expected.
  3. Copy the Unicode Hindi from the right-hand box, or download it as a UTF-8 .txt file.
  4. Paste it back into your document and change the font to a Unicode Hindi font such as Mangal or Nirmala UI. If you leave DevLys 010 selected, the Hindi will not display correctly.
Convert only the Hindi parts. English words typed in an English font inside a DevLys document are stored the same way as DevLys characters, so the converter cannot tell them apart and will turn them into Hindi letters.

What the converter corrects

DevLys stores Hindi in visual order, so a plain character swap produces broken words. The converter moves the short i-matra f after its consonant cluster (fLFkfr → स्थिति), moves the reph Z back in front of its syllable (/keZ → धर्म), and rebuilds conjuncts, nukta letters and the combined glyphs such as ± (reph with anusvara).

The decoding uses the open-source, MIT-licensed Kruti Dev 010 decoder from the @bharattype/hindi-transliteration package, with two fixes of our own: straight quotes no longer turn into ष or श, and vkW (आ plus chandra, a common way of typing ऑ) is joined into ऑ.

Limitations

  • Typing mistakes in the original stay in the output, for example a missing k in a matra or a reph typed in the wrong place.
  • A visarga that follows a space is read as a colon, because DevLys typists use the visarga key for colons.
  • The converter reads DevLys 010 / Kruti Dev 010 only. We have not verified other legacy fonts, so text typed in them may not convert correctly.

Going the other way? Use the Unicode to DevLys converter.

Frequently asked questions

How do I copy DevLys text out of a Word file?

Select the Hindi text in Word and copy it as usual. When you paste it into the box above it will look like Latin letters, such as jktLFkku. That is the real content of the file, and it is exactly what the converter needs.

The box shows Hindi when I paste. Is something wrong?

No, but it means your text is already Unicode and does not need converting. The tool will point this out and offer to convert in the other direction instead.

Why did श or ष turn into quotation marks?

In DevLys 010 the apostrophe key types श and the double-quote key types ष. If Word's smart quotes option was on while the text was typed, Word may have replaced those keys with curly quotes. Tick 'Undo Word smart quotes' under the converter.

Is DevLys to Unicode the same as DevLys to Mangal?

Yes. Mangal is a Unicode Devanagari font included with Windows, so converting to Unicode gives you text you can display in Mangal or any other Unicode Hindi font.

Does this also convert Kruti Dev 010 text?

Yes. DevLys 010 and Kruti Dev 010 use the same encoding, so the same conversion applies. There is also a dedicated Kruti Dev to Unicode page with the same engine.

Is the text sent to a server?

No. Conversion happens in your browser and the text is never uploaded or stored.