Testers
Hindi Keyboard Tester
Test a Hindi keyboard in your browser. Check every switch, confirm an InScript layout is applied, and see whether Devanagari really reaches the box.
Reads real keydown/keyup events and the characters they produce. Nothing you type is uploaded. Tab and Escape always keep their normal behaviour, so you're never stuck here.
- Last key
- —press any key
- Presses
- 0
- Keys tested
- 0 / 104
- Chattering
- None
- Largest rollover
- 0 keys
InScript layout check
Press the eight home-row keys — including the virama on D, which forms every conjunct in the language.
Rest your fingers on the home row and press the eight keys under them.
Devanagari output test
Works either way: type directly on InScript, or type namaste and let transliteration convert it.
Nothing typed yet.
IME composition check: no composition events yet. InScript typing produces none — only transliteration does.
Key log
Press any key to start.
Hindi is typed two entirely different ways, and which one you use decides which
test on this page is the useful one. If your keyboard has Devanagari printed on
the caps, you are on InScript and the layout check is where to start. If you type
namaste on ordinary Latin keys and let software convert it, the board is a US
board and the output test is the one that matters. The page runs both, so it does
not need to know which you have before it can help.
InScript layout check: is the Devanagari layout actually applied?
A browser reports a keystroke through two independent signals: the physical
position of the switch, which is identical on every keyboard in the world, and
the character your current layout produced from it. A tester reading the first is
correct and useful, and blind to a layout problem — press the key marked क with
the input source set to English and the switch reports perfectly, having produced
k.
The layout check reads both and compares them. Rest your fingers on the home row and press the eight keys under them. Each is listed with the sign printed on the cap and the character that actually arrived.
The D key is in that sample deliberately. It carries the virama, the mark that joins consonants into conjuncts, and it is both the most-pressed key on an InScript board and the one whose failure is hardest to attribute: a dead virama does not look like a broken key, it looks like your spelling has stopped working.
Devanagari output test: what actually reaches the box
This check works whichever input method you use. Type a word into the box and it counts how much of what arrived was Devanagari rather than Latin.
The composition line under it reports something no other part of a browser will tell you. A transliteration input method holds your Latin letters in a buffer while it converts them, and the browser announces that buffer opening and closing. If those events fire, transliteration is installed and running.
Three combinations are worth naming. Devanagari arriving with no composition events means InScript is working — it converts nothing because each key already sends a Devanagari character. Devanagari arriving with composition events means transliteration is working. Latin arriving with no composition events means nothing Hindi is active at all, and the fix is in the operating system's input source list rather than on your desk.
Reading the InScript board
The arrangement is phonetic and handed: vowels and matras sit under the left hand, consonants under the right. That is not an accident of history the way QWERTY's arrangement is — it was designed, and it is the reason InScript transfers unchanged to Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and the other Indic scripts. Learn it once and the same finger positions type any of them.
Several keys show a mark next to a dotted circle. Those are matras, combining signs that cannot stand alone, and the circle is the standard placeholder that lets one be drawn on a keycap without a consonant to attach to. It is not part of what the key sends.
The number row is shown with its Latin digits. Published revisions of the standard differ over what belongs there, and a keycap this tool cannot state confidently is one it should not state at all.
Numpad test and the rest of the board
Choose the size that matches the keyboard in front of you — full-size, tenkeyless, 75%, 65% or 60%. Work along each row rather than hunting for the key you already suspect; keys that respond fill with colour, and keys that stay pale never reached the browser.
If a numpad key does nothing, check Num Lock first: with it off, those keys send Home, End and the arrows rather than digits, which looks exactly like a dead number pad in any application expecting numbers. Hold three keys at once and watch whether all three stay lit — if one drops out, the keyboard's matrix is blocking that combination rather than anything on this page.
Questions
- Why is my Hindi keyboard typing English?
- Because nothing on the keyboard decides what a key produces — the operating system's active input source does, and the caps are only paint. If your board has Devanagari printed on it and Windows or macOS is set to English, every switch works perfectly and every switch gives you a Latin letter, which is why an ordinary keyboard tester finds no fault. Use the InScript layout check on this page: press the eight home-row keys and it reports which character each switch produced against the sign printed on it. If they all come back Latin and you type Hindi by transliteration rather than on an InScript board, that is expected — in that case the Devanagari output test underneath is the one that matters.
- What is the difference between InScript and transliteration?
- They are two completely different ways of typing the same language, and most people use the second. InScript is a real keyboard layout, standardised by the Government of India: Devanagari signs are printed on the keys, vowels and matras sit under the left hand, consonants under the right, and one keystroke produces one letter or one matra. Transliteration is software — you type namaste on ordinary Latin keys and an input method such as Google Input Tools converts it to नमस्ते. On a transliteration setup the keyboard is a plain US keyboard and nothing about the hardware is Hindi at all, which is why this page checks both.
- How do I know if my Hindi input method is installed and running?
- Watch the IME composition check line under the output box. While a transliteration input method is converting your Latin letters, it holds the text in a buffer that has not been committed yet, and the browser announces that buffer opening and closing with its own events. If those events fire, an input method is installed and running on this machine. Note that InScript typing produces none of them — it does not need to convert anything, because each key already sends a Devanagari character directly. So no composition events plus Devanagari arriving means InScript is working, and no composition events plus Latin arriving means nothing Hindi is active at all.
- What is the virama key and why does it matter?
- It is the mark that strips a consonant of its built-in vowel so two consonants can join into a conjunct — the halant, printed on the key a US board shows as D. Devanagari needs it constantly: क् plus ष gives क्ष, and words like नमस्ते depend on it. That makes it the most-pressed key on an InScript board and the one whose failure is hardest to recognise, because a dead virama does not present as a broken key. It presents as your spelling silently going wrong, with letters sitting separately where they should have merged. The layout check on this page samples it deliberately for that reason.
- Why do some keys show a dotted circle next to the mark?
- Because those keys carry matras — combining vowel signs that by definition cannot stand alone. A matra has to attach to a consonant, so rendering one on its own leaves the browser to guess where to draw it, and it frequently lands in the wrong place or attaches to whatever character came before it. The dotted circle is the standard Unicode placeholder for exactly this situation and is what every printed InScript chart uses. It is not part of what the key sends: press the key marked with it and a single matra is what arrives.
- Is anything I type sent to a server?
- No. Every keystroke and every character it produced is read and counted inside this page, and none of it is uploaded. That matters here because testing an input method means typing real words rather than tapping keys at random. All-time totals live in this browser's local storage, so clearing your browser data clears them. The site counts page views in aggregate, which the privacy page describes in full.