Krutidev vs Unicode (Mangal): Difference & Which to Useकृतिदेव बनाम यूनिकोड (मंगल): क्या फ़र्क है और कौन-सा इस्तेमाल करें
By CalQ · Updated 18 October 2026
If you work with Hindi documents in India, you have probably seen both Kruti Dev and Mangal. On screen they can look the same, but they store Hindi in completely different ways — and that difference decides whether your text works on a phone, in an email or on a government portal.
कृतिदेव और मंगल दोनों में हिंदी दिखती है, पर दोनों हिंदी को बिल्कुल अलग तरीके से सेव करते हैं। यही फ़र्क तय करता है कि आपका टेक्स्ट मोबाइल, ईमेल या वेबसाइट पर सही दिखेगा या नहीं।
Kruti Dev: Hindi shapes on English keys
Kruti Dev 010 is a legacy font based on the Remington typewriter layout. Each Hindi letter is stored as an ordinary English keyboard character, and the font simply draws it as Hindi. The word भारत, for example, is really stored as Hkkjr. Without the Kruti Dev font installed, that is exactly what people see.
This is why Kruti Dev text breaks so easily: copy it into WhatsApp, Gmail or a website and it turns into English letters; search engines can't read it; and online forms reject it.
Unicode (Mangal): real Hindi characters
Unicode gives every Devanagari letter its own code, so भारत is stored as the actual letters भ, ा, र, त. Any Unicode font can display it — Mangal and Nirmala UI on Windows, Noto Sans Devanagari on Android, Kohinoor on iPhone. When an office asks for a document "in Mangal", it means Unicode Hindi.
Side by side
| Kruti Dev 010 | Unicode (Mangal) | |
|---|---|---|
| How Hindi is stored | English characters | Real Devanagari characters |
| Needs a special font | Yes, Kruti Dev must be installed | No, any Unicode Hindi font |
| Phones, email, WhatsApp | Shows as English letters | Works everywhere |
| Google search, online forms | Not readable | Fully supported |
| Typing tests, some offices | Often required | Increasingly accepted |
Which one should you use?
- Use Unicode (Mangal) for anything digital: websites, email, WhatsApp, e-office, online applications and anything you want to be searchable.
- Use Kruti Dev only when a typing test, printer or office specifically asks for it.
- Have old Kruti Dev files? Convert them once to Unicode and keep the Unicode version as your master copy.
How to convert between them
Paste your text into the Hindi font converter, choose Kruti Dev 010 or Unicode (Mangal) as the From and To fonts, and copy the result. You can also drop a whole Word (.docx) file — tables and formatting are kept, and nothing is uploaded.