The Complete Hindi DTP Guide for CorelDRAW and PageMaker
Why professional DTP operators in India still use PageMaker and CorelDRAW for Hindi printing, and how to set up your typography workflow.
The Golden Era of Hindi DTP
If you visit any local printing press, wedding card designer, or regional newspaper office in North India today, you will likely see two pieces of software dominating the screens: Adobe PageMaker 7.0 and CorelDRAW.
To an outsider, using software from the early 2000s might seem absurd when InDesign and Illustrator exist. However, the Indian DTP industry has stuck with these tools for one specific reason: Legacy Hindi Typography.
Why PageMaker and CorelDRAW?
In the late 90s, before Unicode became the global standard for displaying complex scripts like Devanagari, font foundries had to get creative. They built 8-bit ASCII fonts—like Walkman Chanakya, Kruti Dev, and Devlys—that mapped Hindi letters to the standard English keyboard.
PageMaker and older versions of CorelDRAW handled these ASCII fonts perfectly. DTP operators memorized the keyboard layouts (where typing k produced क) and built thousands of complex templates for wedding cards, classified ads, and newspaper columns. The workflow was incredibly fast.
When modern software like Adobe InDesign arrived with native Unicode support, they completely broke compatibility with these legacy ASCII fonts. Rather than retraining thousands of typists and remaking decades of templates, the industry simply kept using PageMaker and CorelDRAW.
Setting Up Your Workflow Today
If you are a modern designer who needs to provide files to a traditional Indian printing press, you must adapt to their workflow.
1. You Need the Right Fonts
You cannot just send a file with "Mangal" or "Gautami". You must use industry-standard fonts. Walkman Chanakya 901 is the undisputed king of Hindi newspaper layouts. Kruti Dev 010 is widely used for government documents and wedding cards.
2. How to Input Text
Unless you want to spend weeks memorizing the Chanakya keyboard layout, you shouldn't type directly into CorelDRAW. Instead, follow this modern workflow:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1. Type in Unicode | Type your content naturally using Google Input Tools or any Unicode keyboard. |
| 2. Convert | Paste your Unicode text into the Hindi Font Converter below. |
| 3. Paste in DTP | Copy the generated ASCII text and paste it directly into CorelDRAW or PageMaker. |
| 4. Apply Font | Select the text block and apply Walkman Chanakya or Kruti Dev. |
- Unicode (Mangal) → Chanakya ✓
- Chanakya → Unicode (Mangal)
- Walkman Chanakya 901 (standard)
- Walkman Chanakya 905
- Walkman Chanakya 902
Only relevant for Unicode → Chanakya.
- Yes
- No
You can read more about the technical details of conversion in our Unicode to Chanakya Guide.
3. Handling Complex Conjuncts
When printing complex Sanskrit shlokas or highly stylized Hindi, legacy fonts actually outperform modern Unicode in older software. Chanakya has specific glyphs for half-letters and conjuncts that look tighter and more professional in print than the default rendering of Mangal.
Conclusion
The Hindi DTP industry is not moving to Unicode anytime soon. The cost of migration is too high. By understanding how to bridge the gap between your modern Unicode inputs and their legacy CorelDRAW/PageMaker requirements, you can ensure your designs print flawlessly every single time.
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