InScript, Remington or Kruti Dev: Which Hindi Typing Layout Should You Learn?

If you are preparing for a Hindi typing test, the first decision you face is not how to type faster. It is which layout to learn — and getting it wrong costs months, because the layouts are genuinely different and skill in one transfers poorly to another.

This is the comparison nobody gives you plainly.

First: check your exam notification

Before reading anything else below, find the official notification for the post you are applying to and look for the layout it specifies.

Some exams mandate a specific layout. Some allow you to choose at the exam centre. Some provide a remapped keyboard regardless of what you practised on. This single detail decides your answer more than any argument about which layout is better designed, and no amount of general advice substitutes for it.

If your exam specifies a layout, learn that one. Stop reading and go practise. The rest of this article is for people who genuinely have a choice.

The three layouts, briefly

InScript is the standard layout defined by the Government of India, and it is the one built into Windows, macOS, Android and Linux by default. It arranges characters logically: vowels on the left hand, consonants on the right, and related characters grouped together following the structure of the Devanagari script itself.

Remington — usually seen as Remington GAIL or Remington CBI — reproduces the key arrangement of the mechanical Hindi typewriter. It exists for continuity: a generation of typists trained on those machines, and a great deal of Indian government practice was built around them.

Kruti Dev (and its close relative Devlys) are font-based typing systems rather than true layouts. You type using an arrangement similar to Remington, and the characters appear correctly only because a specific font is installed to render them. Underneath, the stored characters are not standard Devanagari.

The critical technical difference

This point is poorly understood and it matters practically.

InScript produces Unicode text. What you type is genuine Devanagari at the data level. It copies and pastes correctly, it is searchable, it displays properly on any device, and it works in email, on the web and in any modern application without special fonts.

Kruti Dev and Devlys produce text that only looks like Hindi when the matching font is present. Send that text to someone without the font and they see nonsense. It is not searchable as Hindi. It does not work reliably on the web or on phones. Converting it to Unicode requires a separate conversion tool.

For any work that will leave your own machine, this is a significant practical disadvantage.

How to choose

Choose InScript if you have a free choice

For most people starting fresh, InScript is the better investment. The layout is logically organised around the structure of Devanagari, which makes it meaningfully easier to learn than an arrangement inherited from mechanical typewriter engineering. It is available on every device you own without installing anything. Its output is standard Unicode, so it works everywhere. And as the official government standard, it is the layout most likely to remain relevant.

If nothing external is forcing your hand, learn InScript.

Choose Remington if your exam or workplace requires it

There is no cleverness available here. If the exam you are sitting mandates Remington, learn Remington. It is harder — the arrangement follows the mechanical constraints of a typewriter rather than any logic of the script — but that is simply the cost of the requirement.

A great many state-level and central government examinations still specify it, and a large body of existing office practice assumes it. Requirement beats preference.

Choose Kruti Dev only if you are specifically required to

Kruti Dev remains widespread in Indian government offices, publishing and print work, largely through inertia and existing document archives. If your target job or exam uses it, learn it — the practical reality of the workplace outweighs the technical argument.

But do not choose it voluntarily. The font dependency is a genuine limitation, and you would be investing months in a system that is slowly being displaced by Unicode.

Can you learn more than one?

Yes, but not at the same time, and not early.

Learning two layouts simultaneously as a beginner is close to guaranteed failure. The muscle memory conflicts directly — your fingers are being trained to send the same key to two different characters — and you end up fluent in neither.

Become genuinely proficient in one first. Reach a speed you are comfortable with and can sustain, let it become automatic, and only then consider adding a second. Experienced typists do maintain more than one layout, but they built them sequentially.

What actually determines your speed

Once the layout is chosen, the layout stops being the interesting variable. What determines your Hindi typing speed is the same as for any script:

• Correct finger assignment, so every key has one finger responsible for it
• Not looking at the keyboard, which is what allows speed to become automatic
• Targeted practice on your weak keys rather than general passages
• Practising at the full exam duration, because sustained speed is a separate skill from burst speed

Hindi does add one real complication worth naming: conjunct characters. Devanagari combines consonants into ligatures, and typing them requires multi-key sequences that have no equivalent in English typing. These are where most Hindi typists lose time, and they respond well to specific drilling. Do not treat them as ordinary characters that will come with general practice — they will not.

The short version

1. Check your exam notification first. It usually decides this for you.
2. Free choice? Learn InScript. Logical, universal, Unicode, built into every device.
3. Exam mandates Remington? Learn Remington. No shortcut exists.
4. Kruti Dev only if required. The font dependency is a real cost.
5. One layout at a time. Two at once means fluency in neither.
6. Drill conjunct characters specifically. They are where Hindi typists actually lose time.

91Typing's Hindi lessons at 91typing.in cover InScript, Remington, Kruti Dev and Devlys, so whichever your exam demands, you can practise on the layout you will actually face.