The Hindi language is written in the Devanagari script and the Urdu language is written in the Nastaliq script. Most of the time, these are the scripts we use to read and write these languages. You'll also see Hindi-Urdu written using Roman letters in text messages, emails, advertisements, etc. For example, one of Airtel's adverts from a few years back reads has the slogan "aankhen kholo, sahi chuno." While this sort of Roman representation of Hindi-Urdu works just fine for native speakers, students and teachers of these languages use a more exact system. In this system, the slogan above would be written "ā̃khẽ kholo, sahī cuno."

This system illustrates each word's precise pronunciation. This can be helpful for students who first learning either Devanagari or Nastaliq or who want to confirm how a word is pronounced (which is especially helpful when reading Nastaliq as it doesn't explicitly show all vowel sounds). It also gives access to the languages for students who don't know how to read either script. In any case, accurately representing Hindi-Urdu sounds in Roman transliteration is important but it can be a pain to type—especially for us teachers who make learning materials and often need to type something quickly during a class.

The two solutions I present below are based on Mac OS (I'm currently running Sonoma 14.6). As you'll see, it's the second solution that I use on a daily basis and I think that the cost of the software is well worth it.