Step by step
How to use the nepali keyboard
- 1The keyboard above is already set to Nepali; you can switch language from the list if you need another.
- 2Click the keys on screen, or just type — your own keyboard is remapped to the layout shown.
- 3Use Shift for the second layer, which carries the rest of the characters.
- 4Copy the text when you are done, or download it as a .txt file.
Why type Nepali in a browser
Adding Nepali to an operating system is a settings-menu expedition that ends in a keyboard you cannot see: the letters are not printed on your keys, so you are typing blind in a script you may have no muscle memory for, and you have changed a system-wide setting to write one line.
The usual workaround is worse — hunting characters in a character-map utility and pasting them one at a time, or copying words out of search results and hoping the spelling survived the trip.
A visible keyboard solves the specific problem of writing Nepali occasionally: typing a name or address for a Nepali government or bank form, writing to someone in Nepal who reads Devanagari, or putting a Nepali heading on a document written mostly in English. Every key is on screen, the arrangement is the standard one, and when you are finished there is nothing to undo.
Devanagari as Nepali uses it
Nepali is written in Devanagari and reaches for a slightly different part of it than Hindi does. The three sibilants श, ष and स are all in live use and distinguished in spelling, so all three matter on the board: श and ष are on the Shift layer of the bottom row, स on the unshifted home row.
Nepali keeps ज्ञ and क्ष in ordinary words — ज्ञान, क्षेत्र — and both have dedicated keys on the Shift layer of the number row rather than needing the halant.
The Devanagari digits ० १ २ ३ are used alongside Latin ones in Nepal, on dates, in prices and on official paperwork. They are not on the number row here, which carries Latin digits; where a form asks for Devanagari numerals, they are worth pasting in separately.
InScript is not what most Nepali typists learned
This is the honest caveat for this page. Nepal's dominant input habit is romanised phonetic typing — you type "nepal" and get नेपाल — through tools like Nepali Unicode Romanized. It is what most people in Nepal actually use, and it needs no layout knowledge at all.
What this keyboard offers is InScript, the standard positional layout. If you already know it, it is faster than phonetic input and unambiguous, because each key is one letter rather than a guess at what you meant. If you do not, the on-screen board is there to be read: every key is visible and labelled, so you can find a letter by looking rather than by muscle memory.
For a name, an address or a short line — which is most of why people open a page like this — clicking the letters you can see is the shortest path either way. For a page of prose in Nepali, a phonetic input method installed on your own machine will be quicker.
Preeti, and why Nepali text so often arrives broken
Preeti is the reason. It is a non-Unicode font that has been the default for Nepali typing since the 1990s, and it is still everywhere in Nepal — in offices, in newspapers, on notices, in files people have kept for twenty years. Preeti maps Devanagari shapes onto Latin codepoints, so a Preeti document contains text like "g]kfn" and displays as नेपाल only while Preeti is installed.
Every Nepali who has emailed a document has met the result: the recipient opens it and sees Latin nonsense. The text was never Nepali. Modern portals, bank systems and phones cannot read it, and no amount of copying will fix it, because there is nothing Devanagari in there to copy.
This keyboard writes Unicode, which is the format everything else now expects. Converting an existing Preeti file into Unicode is a separate mapping job and not something this tool does — but anything you type here is already in the form that works.
Type it, click it, or both
There are two ways to use the board and they work together. Click the keys on screen when you are hunting for a letter, and type on your own keyboard when you know where it is — your keys are remapped to the Nepali layout either way, so switching between the two mid-word changes nothing.
The remapping is matched by physical key position, which is what makes it survive a non-QWERTY system underneath. A checkbox turns it off if you would rather type Latin into the same box.
None of it leaves your browser. The layouts are a small amount of data in the page and every keystroke is handled locally, so there is nothing to upload and nothing to trust with a name you are trying to spell correctly.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Can I type Nepali phonetically, as in Nepali Unicode Romanized?
Not here. This is the InScript positional layout, with every key visible so you can find letters by sight. For long Nepali prose a phonetic input method on your own machine will be faster.
Is the text I copy out Preeti or Unicode?
Unicode. Preeti stores Latin codepoints and only looks like Nepali while that font is installed, which is why Preeti documents arrive broken. Unicode text works everywhere.
Is this the same as the Hindi keyboard?
The layout is the same, because InScript is defined for the Devanagari script rather than for a language. Everything Nepali spelling needs is on it.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The on-screen layout is the one you tap, and the device's own keyboard is kept from opening on top of it so it does not cover the keys.
Can I use my own keyboard instead?
Yes, and it is on by default. Keys are remapped by physical position, so it lands correctly even if you already run AZERTY or Dvorak.