Digital Urdu Resources
Most resources listed here require use of support of Urdu language on your keyboard. Please install keyboard first.
This tutorial currently assumes you know how to install support for other languages in your PC or mobile phone. A few links to keyboards and input methods are given, but the list is incomplete.
Writing Urdu
Phonetic Keyboards
- Urdu Phonetic Keyboard for Windows 7/8/10
- Urdu Input Tools by Google Online tool for typing Urdu (and other languages).
Sadly, these keyboards don’t work like we naturally expect them to work. There are some caveats to take care of. For example a search for ‘رشتے دار’ might fail because the dictionary doesn’t have a space between two words and instead has an entry for ‘رشتےدار’. This, and several more. But I can see that you are resilient and work your way around it. :)
Fonts
Modern OSes sometimes come with these fonts e.g. ‘Urdu Typesetting’ in Windows 8+. Sometimes, you’d need to install.
Dictionaries (…and Translators)
The best two:
- Urdu Dictionary Board, Karachi, + Android App
One of the two best dictionaries I have found. Also has audio pronunciations. Sweet. - Urdu Lughat, + Android App
Does not have audio pronunciations, but has written pronunciates. The app searches words as you type, which is nice. Will give historical roots of the words. My suggestion would be to install both this and UDB one (first in the list) in your phone for quick reference.
And many more:
- National Language Promotion Department / اِدارۂ فروغِ قومی زبان
Very good for looking up translations of technical jargon. Don’t let the old interface fool you. - Urdu Inc
A very good dictionary but is more of synonyms instead of detailed meanings. Arguably, that’s sometimes even better than the meanings. Will also give Urdu-to-English meanings. - Urdu Seek
Sometimes when all else fails, I sometimes find meaning here. Very good for English to Urdu searches as well. - Lexilogos
Dictionaries of many many languages. - Glosbe
6000 languages. Will also give you results from books that are translated in many lanaguages. e.g. if you search an English word in English to Urdu dictionary, wherever that word appeared in the Bible, alongwith how that verse was translated to Urdu. - Center for Language Engineering
Many more resources at the homepage of Center of Lanuage Engineering, including dictionaries for Punjabi, Sindhi, and Torwali.
Note: These dictionary sites’ search functions usually do not work as well as Google’s. Using Google search by restricting it to these sites is very helpful at times. Example: ‘site:urduseek.com کس و نا کس’
Translators:
Because sometimes you find a meaning by translating. ;) I usually go through these in the following order when searching for a word’s or an idiom’s definition.
- Bing Translate is better, usually. It’s run in partnership with Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Google’s can’t seem to translate simple words at times. However, the microsoft translator android app seems to be different and worse.
- Google Translate The noob option.
Dictionary Troubleshooting: What to do if you can’t find a word or an idiom using any of the above?
- Try removing suffixes and prefixes.
- Try singular forms.
- Try translating from Arabic/Persian/etc. A lot of Urdu literature uses Arabic or Persian expressions. Try translating from Arabic or Persian to get an idea of the meaning. It’s not perfect. But I found it to work at times.
Translating to Arabic or Persian also gives a nice word that is perfectly usable in Urdu. e.g. Google’s Translator from ‘cute’ gives ‘دلفریب’ in Persian. But only gives ‘پیارا/پیاری’ in Urdu. Noob
Displaying Urdu Properly i.e. in Nastaleeq
- Firefox: Install the Alif user script.
- MacOS: Enable Urdu Keyboard in Region Settings.
- iPhone - Thank you Mudassir Azeemi.
- Android: Out of luck so far. Maybe this can be a project for you. Write a program that can replace system’s fonts’ Arabic codepoints with Nastaleeq ones from Jameel Noori Nastaleeq. 😛
- Windows: No easy way in Windows 7. I haven’t used Windows’ Spyware versions i.e. 8 and 10. So if you have any suggestions, feel free to contribute.
About this page
We try to compile a list of resources here that are needed for using Urdu language in the digital world. This is hosted via a github repository and contributions and comments are welcome on this site’s github repo.