Why there are so many variants

Legacy Punjabi fonts were built for desktop publishing long before Unicode became standard, and many designers released a base design in several numbered or lettered variants. That is why List 2 has families like bulara with nine entries and pg_thikriwala with six. The names differ by a digit or a letter, but each variant is a separate TTF file with its own look.

A quick way to shortlist

  • Start with the family, not the variant. Pick two or three groups from the guide above that sound right for your project.
  • Type your real text. Replace the sample line in the generator with the actual heading or sentence you will print. Fonts can look very different on different words.
  • Test at your final size. Move the size slider to the size you will really use. Some fonts look great large and crowded small, and the reverse.
  • Check colour and background. Use the colour pickers to match your design, then download an HD PNG or transparent PNG to drop straight into a layout.
  • Download the TTF only for the ones you keep. Install the font on the computer where you will do the design work.

Using legacy fonts correctly

The fonts on this page are non-Unicode. They store Gurmukhi shapes at ordinary keyboard positions, so the text only looks right in the matching font. That is why the generator shows ASCII code under each preview: copy that code into your design software, set the same font, and the Gurmukhi shapes appear. Pasting that code into a social media caption or a website will show unreadable Latin letters to anyone without the font, so use PNG export for anything going online.

Installing a downloaded font

On Windows, right-click the downloaded TTF and choose Install. On Mac, double-click it and press Install Font. Restart your design program afterwards, then select the font by its name, for example bularah7 or magaz_5, in the font menu.

Print versus screen

Legacy fonts are still common in print shops, so a file you prepare with them will usually open correctly at a press that has the same fonts. For anything that has to stay editable and searchable on the web, use a Unicode Gurmukhi font instead, or export your finished design as a PDF or image so the shapes are locked in.