Are you finding it difficult to write in Hindi in Overleaf? You've hit the right resource. While with formats like XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX it's an easy job, writing Hindi in pdfLaTeX follows an unconventional approach. This guide is heavily inspired from this answer, and is only meant to give visibility to the solution available. This guide also aims to cover the mistakes as found in the answer above, and provide helper code for the same.
XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
For writing hindi in XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX, the following ways make it happen:
1. Via package fontspec:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec} % Load the fontspec package
\newfontfamily\hindifont{Noto Sans Devanagari}[Script=Devanagari] % Set script to Devanagari
\begin{document}
{\hindifont नमस्कार} % Writing hindi is flawless
\end{document}
2. Via package polyglossia:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{english} % Continue using english for rest of the document
\setotherlanguages{hindi} % Now can use \texthindi
\newfontfamily\hindifont{Noto Sans Devanagari}[Script=Devanagari]
\begin{document}
\texthindi{नमस्कार} % Writing hindi is flawless
\end{document}
Both of the mentioned ways are Unicode-aware. But commonly used platforms like arXiv, IEEE or Elsevier explicitly require the submissions compilable with engines that do not support unicode-aware font(s), like pdflatex or latex.
PdfLaTeX
To make hindi compatible and native to PdfLaTeX, we follow two steps. 1. Transliteration from hindi to Velthuis, and 2. Pre-processing the file with a python script to jump to a PdfLaTeX compatible version.
Step 1: Convert your Hindi text to Velthuis
Enter your hindi text at https://shreevatsa.appspot.com/sanskrit/transliterate.html, to get the Velthuis transliteration of the same.
Step 2: Pre-Process your content
[Skip this step if you're using Kaggle] Install a Devanagari processor: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/33360/how-can-i-compile-the-devanagari-preprocessor-in-linux?answertab=votes#tab-top
Create a file name.dn with the transliterated content (make sure you add \dn before each transliterated content):
touch name.dn
cat >> name.dn
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{devanagari}
\begin{document}
{\dn namaskaara} % velthuis transliteration of नमस्कार
\end{document}
Run the following script in the same directory as of the file created above:
# Process.py
# The repaired version of https://gist.github.com/shreevatsa/4d476ac26a367fa68984d8c06867d7dd#file-get-dn-py
from __future__ import unicode_literals
import os
import re
import subprocess
import sys
consonants = {
0x0915: ['k'],
0x0916: ['kh'],
0x0917: ['g'],
0x0918: ['gh'],
0x0919: ['"n'],
0x091A: ['c'],
0x091B: ['ch'],
0x091C: ['j'],
0x091D: ['jh'],
0x091E: ['~n'],
0x091F: ['.t'],
0x0920: ['.th'],
0x0921: ['.d'],
0x0922: ['.dh'],
0x0923: ['.n'],
0x0924: ['t'],
0x0925: ['th'],
0x0926: ['d'],
0x0927: ['dh'],
0x0928: ['n'],
0x092A: ['p'],
0x092B: ['ph'],
0x092C: ['b'],
0x092D: ['bh'],
0x092E: ['m'],
0x092F: ['y'],
0x0930: ['r'],
0x0932: ['l'],
0x0933: ['L'],
0x0935: ['v'],
0x0936: ['"s'],
0x0937: ['.s'],
0x0938: ['s'],
0x0939: ['h'],
0x0958: ['q'],
0x0959: ['.kh'],
0x095A: ['.g'],
0x095B: ['z'],
0x095C: ['R'],
0x095D: ['Rh'],
0x095E: ['f'],
}
vowel_signs = {
0x093E: ['aa'],
0x093F: ['i'],
0x0940: ['ii'],
0x0941: ['u'],
0x0942: ['uu'],
0x0943: ['.r'],
0x0944: ['.R', '.r.r'],
0x0947: ['e'],
0x0948: ['ai'],
0x0949: ['~o'],
0x094B: ['o'],
0x094C: ['au'],
0x0962: ['.l'],
0x0963: ['.ll', '.l.l'],
}
vowels = {
0x0905: ['a'],
0x0906: ['aa'],
0x0907: ['i'],
0x0908: ['ii'],
0x0909: ['u'],
0x090A: ['uu'],
0x090B: ['.r'],
0x090C: ['.l'],
0x090F: ['e'],
0x0910: ['ai'],
0x0913: ['o'],
0x0914: ['au'],
0x0960: ['.R'],
0x0961: ['.L'],
0x0972: ['~a'],
}
other = {
# 0x002E: ['..'],
0x0901: ['/'],
0x0902: ['.m'],
0x0903: ['.h'],
0x093D: ['.a'],
0x094D: ['&'],
0x0950: ['.o'],
0x0964: ['|'],
0x0965: ['||'],
0x0966: ['0'],
0x0967: ['1'],
0x0968: ['2'],
0x0969: ['3'],
0x096A: ['4'],
0x096B: ['5'],
0x096C: ['6'],
0x096D: ['7'],
0x096E: ['8'],
0x096F: ['9'],
0x0970: ['@'],
0x0971: ['#'],
}
re_consonant = '|'.join(chr(n) for n in consonants)
re_vowel_sign = '|'.join(chr(n) for n in vowel_signs)
re_vowel = '|'.join(chr(n) for n in vowels)
re_other = '|'.join(chr(n) for n in other)
re_virama = chr(0x094D)
re_a = vowels[0x0905][0] # 'a'
def velthuis(devanagari):
text = devanagari
text = re.sub('(%s)(%s)' % (re_consonant, re_vowel_sign),
lambda match: consonants[ord(match.group(1))][0] + vowel_signs[ord(match.group(2))][0],
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)(%s)' % (re_consonant, re_virama),
lambda match: consonants[ord(match.group(1))][0],
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)' % re_consonant,
lambda match: consonants[ord(match.group(1))][0] + re_a,
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)' % re_vowel,
lambda match: vowels[ord(match.group(1))][0],
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)' % re_other,
lambda match: other[ord(match.group(1))][0],
text)
return text
def wikner(devanagari):
text = devanagari
text = re.sub('(%s)(%s)' % (re_consonant, re_vowel_sign),
lambda match: consonants[ord(match.group(1))][-1] + vowel_signs[ord(match.group(2))][-1],
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)(%s)' % (re_consonant, re_virama),
lambda match: consonants[ord(match.group(1))][-1],
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)' % re_consonant,
lambda match: consonants[ord(match.group(1))][-1] + re_a,
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)' % re_vowel,
lambda match: vowels[ord(match.group(1))][-1],
text)
text = re.sub('(%s)' % re_other,
lambda match: other[ord(match.group(1))][-1],
text)
return text
random_filename = 'lwfzal3XBeV8H10I8f4n'
# Added support of nukta from https://gist.github.com/ritwikmishra/9f8d6de45aff8fbe959d4260269d9eeb
nukta_dict = {
'क़': 'क़',
'ख़': 'ख़',
'ग़': 'ग़',
'ज़': 'ज़',
'ड़': 'ड़',
'ढ़': 'ढ़',
'फ़': 'फ़',
'य़': 'य़',
'ऱ': 'ऱ',
'ऴ': 'ऴ'
}
def get_preprocessed(filename, ext):
preprocessor = {
'dn': 'devnag',
'skt': './skt',
}
assert ext in preprocessor.keys(), ext
text = open(filename).read()
for k in nukta_dict.keys():
text = text.replace(k,nukta_dict[k])
transliterated = velthuis(text) if ext == 'dn' else wikner(text)
infile = '%s-%s.%s' % (random_filename, ext, ext)
open(infile, 'w').write(r'{\%s %s}' % (ext, transliterated))
p = subprocess.Popen([preprocessor[ext], infile],
stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
close_fds=True)
out, err, ret = p.stdout.read(), p.stderr.read(), p.returncode
if err or ret:
print ('input: <%s>' % text.encode('utf-8'))
print ('transliterated: <%s>' % transliterated)
print ('stdout: <%s>' % out)
print ('stderr: <%s>' % err)
print ('returned: <%s>' % ret)
raise ValueError
outfile = '%s-%s.tex' % (random_filename, ext)
translation = open(outfile).read()
os.remove(outfile)
os.remove(infile)
prefix = r'\def\DevnagVersion{2.15}{\dn ' if ext == 'dn' else r'{\skt '
translation = translation[len(prefix):-1]
return translation
ext= 'dn' # Compiler format
filename= '../input/santshr/name.dn' # Source of the file
print(get_preprocessed(filename, ext)) # PdfLaTeX ready content
For example, on running the python script with name.dn as created above, the following output is observed. Using the same, won't work in overleaf, and hence you need to pick up the content selectively between \begin{document} and \end{document}.
Voila! You're ready to submit 🚀
If you find any errors while going through the process, feel free to drop an email at: rishi18304@iiitd.ac.in