Nudi to Unicode: How to Convert Kannada ASCII Text to Unicode Online
Nudi text looks correct only with the right font installed. Here is how Nudi ASCII maps to Kannada Unicode, why conversion matters, and how to do it online for free.
Read articleNudi to Unicode Converter
Convert Kannada text from Nudi or Baraha ASCII encoding to Unicode instantly — or reverse it from Unicode back to Nudi ASCII.
- Free
- No Signup
- Nudi + Baraha
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How it works
Paste your text
Drop your Nudi or Baraha ASCII text into the input box on the left. It usually looks like jumbled Latin letters and symbols until the right font is applied.
Pick encoding and direction
Choose whether the source is Nudi or Baraha, and set the direction — Nudi → Unicode for modern apps, or Unicode → Nudi for legacy DTP files.
Copy or download the output
Read the Unicode Kannada on the right, then copy it or download a .txt file — ready for the web, Wikipedia, WhatsApp, Google Docs and Word.
Worked examples
| Scenario | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Document A — newspaper copy | Nudi ASCII article → Nudi → Unicode | Searchable, indexable Unicode Kannada that renders on any browser without the Nudi font. |
| Document B — government DTP file | PageMaker Nudi text → Nudi → Unicode | Clean Unicode you can paste into Word or export to a PDF that opens correctly everywhere. |
| User C — Wikipedia editor | Legacy Kannada content → Nudi → Unicode | Standards-compliant Unicode ready to paste into the Wikipedia editor and save. |
| Document D — Baraha typing | Baraha ASCII notes → Baraha → Unicode | Unicode Kannada with long-vowel matras (aa, ee, oo) resolved to ಾ, ೀ, ೂ. |
| User E — legacy print workflow | Unicode Kannada → Unicode → Nudi | ASCII Nudi text you can pour back into PageMaker or InDesign templates that expect the Nudi font. |
Conversion reference
| Nudi Key | Unicode Char | Unicode Point | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | ಅ | U+0C85 | Vowel a (short) |
| B | ಆ | U+0C86 | Vowel aa (long) |
| E | ಇ | U+0C87 | Vowel i (short) |
| F | ಈ | U+0C88 | Vowel ii (long) |
| U | ಉ | U+0C89 | Vowel u (short) |
| k | ಕ | U+0C95 | Consonant ka |
| g | ಗ | U+0C97 | Consonant ga |
| c | ಚ | U+0C9A | Consonant cha |
| t | ತ | U+0CA4 | Consonant ta |
| d | ದ | U+0CA6 | Consonant da |
| n | ನ | U+0CA8 | Consonant na |
| p | ಪ | U+0CAA | Consonant pa |
| b | ಬ | U+0CAC | Consonant ba |
| m | ಮ | U+0CAE | Consonant ma |
| s | ಸ | U+0CB8 | Consonant sa |
| h | ಹ | U+0CB9 | Consonant ha |
| ¸ | ್ | U+0CCD | Halant / virama — joins consonants into conjuncts |
| ~ | ಂ | U+0C82 | Anusvara — nasal sound |
| : | ಃ | U+0C83 | Visarga |
| | | । | U+0964 | Danda — full stop |
Quick facts
- The Kannada Unicode block (U+0C80–U+0CFF) holds 128 code points covering every letter, sign and digit.
- Nudi is the standard Kannada software issued by the Government of Karnataka, first developed in 1991.
- Kannada is the official language of Karnataka and has roughly 45 million native speakers.
- Nudi ASCII is a font hack: the same bytes show as Latin gibberish unless the Nudi font is installed.
- Unicode text is searchable, indexable and screen-reader friendly; legacy ASCII Nudi is none of these.
- Kannada uses its own digits ೦–೯ (U+0CE6–U+0CEF), which Nudi types with symbol keys like # and $.
From the blog
View all →Frequently asked questions
Nudi is the official Kannada software released by the Government of Karnataka in the 1990s. It was free and government-backed, so newspapers, government offices and DTP studios adopted it widely. A huge volume of older Kannada documents was created in Nudi, which is why its ASCII text still circulates today.
The Nudi font stores each Kannada glyph at an ASCII code point, so a Nudi file is really Latin letters and symbols that only look Kannada with the font installed. The converter maps every Nudi key to its true Kannada Unicode code point, reading keys that follow a consonant as dependent vowel signs (matras).
Both are ASCII-based Kannada encodings, but their keymaps differ. The biggest difference is long vowels: Baraha doubles Latin vowels (aa, ee, oo) where Nudi uses a single shifted key. Choose the matching encoding in the converter so the long-vowel signs resolve correctly.
Most problems trace back to the source. If conjuncts look broken, the original text is usually missing a halant; if whole words look scrambled, the file may be a different encoding than the one you selected. Try switching between Nudi and Baraha, and make sure you are viewing the output in a font that supports Kannada.
Yes. Set the direction to Unicode → Nudi and the tool reverses the mapping, producing ASCII Nudi text. This is useful when a legacy PageMaker or InDesign template still expects the Nudi font.
A halant (virama) strips the inherent 'a' vowel from a consonant so it can join the next consonant into a conjunct. In Nudi it is typed as the cedilla key ¸; in Unicode it becomes U+0CCD, and the shaping engine renders the stacked conjunct automatically.
For anything online, yes. Unicode Kannada displays correctly on every modern device and browser without a special font, and it can be searched, indexed by Google and read aloud by screen readers. ASCII Nudi can do none of those things outside the original software.
Convert your Nudi text to Unicode, copy the output, then paste it straight into the Wikipedia editor and save. Because the result is standard Unicode, Wikipedia stores it correctly and it remains searchable and editable by others.