How to Convert Hindi Text for PageMaker – Unicode to Legacy Font Guide

You typed your Hindi text in Unicode. Everything looks perfect in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Then you open PageMaker — and the text turns into broken symbols, random English letters, or empty boxes.

This is not a bug. This is a font encoding mismatch, and it happens to every DTP operator who tries to use modern Unicode text in PageMaker. The fix is straightforward — you need to convert your Unicode Hindi text into a legacy font format before using it in PageMaker. This guide explains exactly why this happens and how to fix it in minutes.

Why PageMaker Cannot Display Unicode Hindi Text

Adobe PageMaker was built in an era when Unicode did not exist. The software was designed to work with ASCII-based legacy fonts — fonts where each Hindi character is mapped to a specific English keyboard key. When you paste Unicode text into PageMaker, the software reads it as random ASCII characters because it has no understanding of the Unicode encoding system.

This is why your text appears as broken boxes, question marks, or meaningless Latin characters. The software is not broken — it simply cannot read a language it was never built to understand.

The solution is to convert your Unicode text into a legacy font format that PageMaker was originally designed to use. Once you do that, PageMaker displays the Hindi text perfectly.

The most commonly used legacy fonts for PageMaker in India are:

• Kruti Dev — most popular for Hindi across North India
• Shree Lipi — widely used in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Marathi/Gujarati DTP
• Chanakya / Walkman Chanakya — popular with printing presses and book publishers
• DevLys — widely used in Bihar, UP, and government offices
• AMS fonts — used for calligraphy and design work

What Exactly Is the Difference Between Unicode and Legacy Fonts?

Understanding this difference helps you avoid mistakes in your workflow.

Unicode is a global standard. Every Hindi character has a unique code point assigned to it. The character "क" is always U+0915, regardless of which font you use. This is why Unicode text works perfectly on websites, mobile phones, WhatsApp, Google Docs, and modern software — because they all understand the same standard.

Legacy Fonts like Kruti Dev work differently. In Kruti Dev, the letter "क" is stored as the English character "d" on the keyboard. There is no universal standard — each legacy font has its own custom character map. This is why Kruti Dev text pasted into a Unicode environment looks like random English characters — because it IS random English characters that only make sense when displayed through the Kruti Dev font.

PageMaker was built around legacy fonts. So when you try to use Unicode text in PageMaker, the mismatch causes broken output.

Which Legacy Font Should You Convert To?

This depends entirely on your purpose and your region.

Kruti Dev

Use this if you are doing general Hindi DTP, preparing government documents, working on newspaper layouts in North India, or if the printing press you are sending work to uses Kruti Dev. Kruti Dev 010 is the most widely used variant and the standard for Hindi typing tests and government work.

Shree Lipi

Use this if you are working on Marathi or Gujarati content, or if your PageMaker templates were originally set up with Shree Lipi fonts. Shree Lipi is the dominant legacy font system for Marathi newspapers and Gujarati publications.

Chanakya / Walkman Chanakya

Use this if you are working with book publishers, printing presses in Maharashtra or UP, or any workflow where Chanakya is the established font. Walkman 901 and Walkman 905 use the same character mapping as Chanakya, so the conversion works perfectly for both.

DevLys

Use this for Hindi DTP work specifically in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Government offices in these states commonly use DevLys fonts for official printed documents.

AMS Fonts

Use this for calligraphy-style Hindi design — wedding cards, festival banners, posters, and artistic work in CorelDRAW or Photoshop. Learn more in our AMS font typing guide.

Step-by-Step Guide to Convert Unicode Hindi for PageMaker

Follow these steps exactly, and your text will render perfectly in PageMaker every time.

Step 1 — Type or Collect Your Unicode Text

Type your Hindi text using any Unicode method — Google Input Tools, Hindi Indic Input 3, Mangal font in MS Word, or copy text from any website or WhatsApp message. All modern sources produce Unicode text by default, so you do not need to do anything special at this stage.

Step 2 — Open the Correct Converter Tool

Select the converter that matches the legacy font your PageMaker file uses. Our unicodetoshreelipi.com provides dedicated converters for Kruti Dev, Shree Lipi, Chanakya, DevLys, and AMS fonts.

Choosing the correct font variant matters. For example, if your PageMaker file uses Kruti Dev 010, use the Kruti Dev 010 converter — not Kruti Dev 011 or Kruti Dev 016. If your file uses Shree Lipi 7, use the Shree Lipi 7 converter. Mismatched variants will give you the wrong output even if the conversion runs successfully.

Step 3 — Paste Your Unicode Text and Convert

Paste your Unicode Hindi text into the input box of the converter. Click the Convert button. The tool processes your text instantly — handling all matras, half-forms, and conjuncts automatically — and gives you the legacy-encoded output.

Step 4 — Copy the Converted Output

Copy the converted text from the output box.

Step 5 — Paste Into PageMaker and Apply the Font

Open your PageMaker file. Click on the text area where you want to place the content. Paste the converted text. Now immediately select all the pasted text and apply the correct legacy font — for example, Kruti Dev 010, or Shree Dev 0714, or Chanakya.

The moment you apply the correct font, the text will transform from random characters into perfectly rendered Hindi. This is the correct workflow.

Step 6 — Test Before Processing Large Documents

Before you convert an entire newspaper page or a long document, always test with one or two lines first. Paste a short sample, convert it, paste it into PageMaker, and apply the font. Verify that conjuncts, matras, and special characters are rendering correctly. Only then proceed with the full document.

How PageMaker Handles Legacy Font Text Internally

When you paste legacy font text into PageMaker and apply the correct font, here is what happens internally:

PageMaker reads each character as an ASCII value. The Kruti Dev font file contains a glyph table where each ASCII character is mapped to a specific Hindi character shape. When the software renders the text, it looks up the glyph for each ASCII character in the Kruti Dev font table and displays the corresponding Hindi letter.

This is why the same text looks like gibberish in Notepad or Word (which display ASCII characters) but looks like correct Hindi in PageMaker with the correct font applied. The text itself has not changed — only the interpretation of each character changes depending on which font is applied.

This also explains why you must use the exact correct font variant. Different variants of the same font family (Kruti Dev 010 vs Kruti Dev 011, or Shree Lipi 6 vs Shree Lipi 7) may have slightly different internal character maps, which means a conversion done for one variant will show incorrectly if you apply a different variant.

Common Problems and How to Solve Them

Legacy Fonts Still in Use — Why PageMaker Has Not Died

Many people outside the DTP industry assume that PageMaker is obsolete. In practice, across smaller cities and towns in India, hundreds of printing presses still run daily workflows on PageMaker 7.0. The reasons are practical:

• Established templates. Newspapers and publishers built their entire page layout infrastructure on PageMaker over decades. Converting those templates to InDesign or QuarkXPress requires both money and retraining — resources that many regional presses do not have.
• Trained operators. Many experienced DTP operators have spent their entire careers working in PageMaker. The software is familiar and reliable for them.
• Cost. PageMaker licenses were purchased years ago. Upgrading the entire workflow costs money, and for a small regional press with tight margins, the existing system works fine for their needs.
• Font investment. Print shops have large libraries of legacy fonts that they have licensed and built workflows around. Migrating those to Unicode equivalents requires time and effort.

This is why Unicode to legacy font conversion remains a daily professional need — not a nostalgic curiosity — for thousands of DTP operators across India.

The Right Way to Manage Your Workflow Going Forward

If you work regularly in PageMaker or other legacy DTP environments, here is the most efficient approach:

Conclusion

Hindi text breaking in PageMaker is one of the most common frustrations for DTP operators in India, and the fix is simple once you understand the root cause. PageMaker was never built for Unicode — it needs legacy font encoding to render Hindi correctly.

The workflow is straightforward: write your text in Unicode, convert it to the correct legacy font format using our converter at unicodetoshreelipi.com, paste it into PageMaker, apply the matching font, and your Hindi text will render perfectly every time.

Bookmark this page, follow the steps above, and share it with the DTP operators in your press who still struggle with this problem daily.

Frequently Asked Questions