Fonts that support Devanagari
Open-license families for Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and other Devanagari-script languages, each with Latin letters in the same files.
Namaste
Devanagari is the script of Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and Sanskrit, read by several hundred million people. Its most visible feature is the horizontal line that runs along the top of each word, from which the letters hang. Underneath that calm surface it is one of the more demanding scripts to typeset. Consonants combine into conjuncts, vowel signs attach above, below, before and after the letter they modify, and some marks must be reordered when the text is displayed. A font therefore needs hundreds of extra glyphs and detailed shaping rules.
When you compare families, look first at conjuncts. Some designs stack combined consonants vertically in the traditional way; others set them side by side with half-forms, which is more common in modern text and interfaces. Then check the marks above the headline, which need vertical room: Devanagari wants noticeably more line spacing than Latin at the same size. Stroke style matters as well. Traditional designs have pen-like contrast; monolinear ones match Latin sans-serifs and suit screens and small sizes.
All the families here carry Latin letters beside the Devanagari, in most cases drawn to share weight and proportion, though a few have only a basic Latin set. Their notes quote each record.
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Poppins
Latin and Devanagari built from the same simple shapes, in nine weights with italics.
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Noto Sans
Devanagari beside Latin, Cyrillic and Greek, with weight and width axes.
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Hind
A Devanagari and Latin sans in five weights, built for user interfaces.
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Mukta
A humanist, monolinear sans for Devanagari and Latin in seven weights.
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Yantramanav
A Devanagari family drawn to match Roboto's style, in six weights.
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Palanquin
A Devanagari and Latin text sans in seven weights, the two scripts drawn side by side.
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Martel Sans
A low-contrast sans for Devanagari and Latin in seven weights, made for long documents.
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Martel
A Devanagari and Latin text serif in seven weights, its Devanagari made for immersive reading of long passages.
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Tiro Devanagari Hindi
A literary text face for Devanagari with a Latin serif companion, in Regular and Italic.
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Eczar
A lively serif for Latin and Devanagari, variable from Regular to ExtraBold.
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Halant
A Devanagari and Latin serif in five weights from Light to Bold.
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Karma
A near-monoline Devanagari and Latin family with rounded slab serifs in five weights.
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Google Sans
Devanagari among 25 subsets, in four weights with italics.
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Biryani
A monolinear geometric sans in seven weights that sets Latin and Devanagari in one design.
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Sarala
A humanist sans for Devanagari and Latin in Regular and Bold.
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Khula
A Devanagari text family in five weights, drawn as the companion to a humanist Latin sans; its own Latin is basic.
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Laila
An informal Devanagari and Latin family in five weights, with brush-shaped stroke endings.
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Modak
A very plump Devanagari and Latin display face with hairline slits for counters.
Samples load a basic Latin subset of each family. Every family here carries an open license; its page states the terms and offers the original files.
Questions about fonts that support Devanagari
Do these fonts work for Marathi and Nepali as well as Hindi?
They share the Devanagari script, but each language prefers a few different letterforms. Declare the language of the text, for example lang="mr" or lang="ne", so that fonts with localized forms in their OpenType locl feature can apply them, and test real content.
Why does Devanagari text look cramped at my usual line height?
Vowel signs and marks extend above and below the letters. Increase line height, often to 1.6 or more, until the marks clear the neighboring lines.
Are these Devanagari fonts free for commercial use?
Yes. All of them are under the SIL Open Font License, which allows commercial use and embedding.