Guides ·
Preeti or Unicode? Which Nepali text to use
Why Nepali text sometimes turns into English letters, what Preeti and Unicode are, and how to move text between them.
If you have ever pasted Nepali text and seen something like g]kfn, you have met Preeti.
Two ways to store Nepali
- Unicode stores the Nepali letters themselves. It works everywhere: phones, e-mail, websites, and SAHARA Core.
- Preeti is an older font. The file stores ordinary English keys, and the Preeti font draws them as Nepali.
g]kfnshown in the Preeti font reads नेपाल; in any other font it staysg]kfn.
Many offices still keep Word documents in Preeti, so both are needed.
Moving between them
Our free Nepali Unicode and Nepali typing tools have two copy buttons: Unicode for everywhere, Preeti for a document set in the Preeti font.
Preeti has limits:
- No English letters. Write English words separately.
- No Western digits. Its 1 key draws ज्ञ, so 2083 becomes २०८३.
In Preeti, some marks are also typed in a different order from how they are read: ि comes before its letters, and the र on top (रेफ) comes after its syllable. The converter handles this for you.