Preeti vs Unicode: what's the difference?
Paste something you typed in Preeti into WhatsApp, a website or a search box, and it turns into a string of accents and stray marks. Here is why, and what Unicode - real Nepali text - looks like instead.
What is Preeti, exactly?
Preeti is a font, not a language or a way of storing text. Before Devanagari could be typed directly, Preeti's designers took the ordinary English keyboard and gave each key a Devanagari-shaped picture instead of its usual Latin letter. Press the key that normally types the English letter “c” and the Preeti font draws क on screen - but what is actually saved in the file is still the letter “c”. The Nepali look is only the font's doing.
What is Unicode, and how is it different?
Unicode is a single, shared numbering system that gives every letter in every script - Devanagari included - its own code, independent of any font. Text typed in Unicode is real Nepali text: the file stores क itself, not an English letter wearing a costume. Any Unicode font can display it, any search engine can read it, and any screen reader can pronounce it.
Why does pasting Preeti text turn to gibberish?
Because a Preeti file has no Nepali letters in it at all - only English ones, dressed up by a font only some devices have installed. Paste that text somewhere that does not use the Preeti font - a phone, a website, most search boxes - and you see the truth underneath: plain English letters, or a broken guess at what they might mean. Nothing is corrupted. The text was never really Nepali to begin with; the font was doing all the work.
Which one should you learn?
Unicode, for anything you plan to search for, message, or read on a phone. Preeti's key positions are still worth knowing if you use an office or a printer that still asks for Preeti - many in Nepal do - but the fix is to keep those key positions while writing real Unicode underneath, not to keep writing disguised English. That is exactly what TypeRight's Preeti lessons do: they teach you where Preeti puts each letter, while every keystroke is saved as proper Unicode - so what you type is real Nepali text from the first lesson.