Yes. Hindi (Devanagari) and Hinglish as standard, and on request Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi and most other Indian scripts. Say so when you order.
It is also worth saying that people ask for this apologetically, as though English were the default and anything else an accommodation. For a book aimed at a grandparent or a parent, the regional language is frequently the right choice rather than the compromise.
Who it is usually right for
Grandparents and older parents. A caption in the language somebody thinks in lands differently from the same sentence in English. This is the single strongest case.
Anything quoting speech. If the sentence was said in Hindi, printing it in Hindi is not a translation choice — it is accuracy. A translated quote loses whatever made it worth quoting.
Songs, proverbs, film lines, wedding vows. These do not survive translation and everyone knows it.
Mixing is normal, and usually best
| Approach | Suits |
|---|---|
| All English | Younger recipients, workplace gifts |
| All Hindi or regional | Grandparents, parents, family archives |
| Headings English, captions regional | Most family books |
| Hinglish, as actually spoken | Siblings, couples, close friends |
| Quotes in the original, rest in English | Anything with speech in it |
Hinglish deserves a mention because people hesitate over it. If that is how you actually talk to each other, printing it any other way makes the book sound like somebody else wrote it. How to write a caption that lands →
Hinglish: choose a spelling and keep it
Hinglish has no standard spelling. The same word turns up as bahut, bohot and bht, as accha and acha, as yaar and yar. Any of them is fine in print. Three of them in one book look like mistakes.
The easy rule is to spell things the way the recipient types them. Scroll back through your chats with them and you will find their versions of the words that matter. Then, before you send the captions, list the recurring words once at the top — “yaar, pakka, bas, chalo” — so every caption uses the same form. The designer sets exactly what you send, so consistency has to start with you.
Names in two scripts
A grandmother can be Amma in an English caption and अम्मा in a Hindi one, and a book that uses both can look undecided. Settle it before sending:
| Where the name appears | Usually best |
|---|---|
| The cover | The script the recipient reads first |
| Captions in Hindi | The name in Devanagari |
| Captions in English | The name in English, spelt the way the family writes it |
| A dedication page | Whichever the dedication itself is written in |
Devanagari spellings of names vary between families as much as English ones do. Type each name the way the person writes it themselves — on a letter, a nameplate, a wedding card — rather than the way a phone keyboard suggests.
Numbers and dates
Decide whether dates and years are written in international numerals (1998) or Devanagari ones (१९९८), and keep to one. Many Hindi readers are used to international numerals in everyday print, so they are the safer default unless the recipient reads Devanagari numerals naturally. A date such as 15 अगस्त 1998 mixes the two comfortably; what jars is 1998 on one page and १९९८ on the next.
Every word, if it is for a Hindi reader
If the book is for somebody who reads only Hindi, the captions are not the only words on the page. People translate the captions and forget the cover title, the section headings, the dedication and the last page — and the recipient then meets English at exactly the moments the book is meant to speak to them. Send those too, or ask for them to be left out. What to write on the first page →
What to send
Type it in the script, in a message, however you normally would. Do not romanise it and expect it converted — transliteration back into a script introduces errors nobody catches until it is printed.
If typing in the script is awkward, a photograph of handwriting works, or a voice note that somebody who reads the language can transcribe. Say which language and which script, because several languages share a script and several scripts carry more than one language.
What to check on the proof
This is the part that matters, and it is on you rather than on us.
⚠️ Have somebody who reads the language read the proof. Not skim it — read it. Matras, conjuncts and diacritics are exactly the things that go wrong in typesetting, and a designer setting a script they do not read cannot catch a subtly wrong character.
Names are the highest-stakes item on the page, and a misplaced matra in a grandparent’s name is the one error nobody forgives.
Two habits catch most of it. Have them read it aloud, slowly — a missing or misplaced matra changes the sound, and the ear notices what the eye slides over. And read on a laptop or zoomed in, not on a phone at full-spread size, where a small vowel sign is only a few pixels tall. The design proof →
Borrowed lines, kept in the original
A bhajan line for a grandparent, a film dialogue for a sibling, a shayari couplet for a wedding — these belong in the language they were written in. Keep them short: a line or two carries the feeling, a whole verse turns the page into a lyric sheet. Say where each one comes from, so the designer can set it apart from your own words, and check the wording against a reliable source rather than memory, because a half-remembered line is usually slightly wrong. Using quotes in a photo book →
What it does not change
Not the price — ₹499 for eight pages to ₹1,099 for forty, the same either way. Not the timeline: 5 to 14 days from order to doorstep, 5 to 12 to Delhi NCR. Not the paper.
Script can affect layout slightly, since Devanagari sets taller than Latin at the same point size, so a long caption may take a line more. That is a design adjustment, not a cost.
Frequently asked
Can you print captions in Hindi? Yes, and in most other Indian scripts on request. Tell us the language when you order.
Can I mix English and Hindi in one book? Yes, and for family books it is usually the best version — English headings with captions in the language people actually spoke.
How should I send the text? Typed in the script itself. Avoid romanised text meant to be converted; transliteration introduces errors that only show up in print.
Will the layout change? Slightly. Devanagari sets taller than Latin, so a long caption may run an extra line. The price does not change.
Who checks the language is right? You must. Have somebody who reads it read the proof properly, especially the names — a designer setting an unfamiliar script cannot catch a wrong matra.
Part of our questions people ask before ordering. See also: do you write the captions for me and gifts for parents and grandparents.
In any language: Photo magazines from ₹499 · Personalised gifts for parents