About the Gurmukhi script

Gurmukhi is the script used to write Punjabi in India and the script of the Guru Granth Sahib. It is traditionally credited to Guru Angad in the sixteenth century. Its basic alphabet has thirty-five letters, which is why it is also called Painti Akhri, meaning thirty-five letters. Later additions include letters with a dot below for sounds borrowed from other languages, plus vowel signs, a nasal mark (tippi and bindi) and a doubling mark (addak). In Unicode, Gurmukhi occupies its own block, so modern devices can store and display it in any Unicode font.

Why these fonts are called legacy fonts

Before Unicode support was common in Punjabi software, designers made fonts that put Gurmukhi letter shapes at ordinary Latin key positions. Typing the Latin key with such a font selected produces the Gurmukhi letter. Print shops and designers built large workflows around these fonts, which is why so many families, in so many numbered variants, still circulate today. The catch is that the text underneath is not real Gurmukhi. Open the same file on a device without the font and you see unrelated Latin characters.

How to choose from this page

  • Pick a family, then a variant. Use the table above to find a group, then compare its variants one by one.
  • Type your real text. Replace the sample line with the heading or sentence you plan to print, because the same font can look quite different on different words.
  • Test at your final size. Move the size slider to the size you will actually use. Some fonts read well large and crowd at small sizes.
  • Check contrast. Use the colour pickers to match your layout, then export an HD PNG or transparent PNG to drop straight into a design.
  • Download only what you keep. Get the TTF for the fonts you shortlist, and install them on the computer where you design.

Installing a font

On Windows, right-click the downloaded TTF and choose Install. On a Mac, double-click it and press Install Font. Restart your design program, then choose the font by the name shown on its preview card, for example grvta_55 or pg_circ_5_2. In Word, CorelDRAW, Photoshop or similar programs, set the font first and then paste the ASCII code from the preview.

Getting files ready for print

If a printing press does not have the same fonts, your Gurmukhi will not display correctly there. Two safe options exist. Export the finished design as a PDF with fonts embedded, or convert the text to outlines (called Convert to Curves in CorelDRAW and Create Outlines in Illustrator) before sending the file. After converting, text can no longer be edited, so keep an editable copy too.

Moving between legacy and Unicode

If you have text in a legacy font and need real Unicode Gurmukhi for the web, or the other way round, use the Punjabi font converter on this site. For typing Unicode Gurmukhi directly, the Gurmukhi keyboard is available too.