Online Converter

Unicode to Non Unicode

Instantly convert Telugu Unicode text to Anu Script non-Unicode format for PageMaker, CorelDraw, and legacy DTP tools.

Characters (excluding spaces): 0 / 3000

Converted Output
Converted result... ✓ Copied!
Disclaimer: This Unicode to Non-Unicode converter is an independent utility for convenience and experimentation. Accuracy and compatibility are not guaranteed. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by AuFonts, Anu Script Manager, or their parent entities. Users must obtain appropriate Anu fonts through lawful means. Use is at your own risk.
Encoding Tools & Reference Guide

Unicode to Non Unicode Converter

If you have ever copied Telugu, Hindi, or Kannada text from a website and pasted it into an old design program — only to see a mess of random characters — you already understand the problem this tool solves.

⚠ Important: Unicode to non Unicode conversion can cause character loss or truncation if the target encoding does not support every character in your source text. Diacritics, special punctuation marks, and characters outside the target code page's range are the first to be affected. Always verify your output before using it in any production document.
Step by Step

How to Convert Unicode to Non Unicode Text Online

Converting your text takes less than sixty seconds. Here is exactly how to do it:

  1. Open the converter tool above on unicode-to-nonunicode.com
  2. Paste your Unicode text into the input field — this is the text you can read normally on any modern phone, computer, or browser
  3. Select the target non Unicode font from the dropdown menu — for example, Anu Script for Telugu, Nudi for Kannada, or Kruti Dev for Hindi
  4. Click the "Convert" button
  5. Check the converted output in the result box — make sure all characters, conjuncts, and ligatures look correct
  6. Copy the result with one click
  7. Paste it into your target application — PageMaker, CorelDraw, QuarkXPress, PixelLab, Word with legacy fonts, or any other program that needs non-Unicode text
Always preview your converted text before finalizing any print or design project. Some conjunct characters and special ligatures in Indian scripts — especially stacked consonant combinations — may need a quick manual check, particularly with older font versions that have incomplete character sets.
Fundamentals

What Is Unicode and Non Unicode?

Unicode — The Universal Character Encoding Standard

Unicode is a universal text encoding system that gives every character from every writing system in the world its own unique number, called a code point. Whether you are typing English, Telugu, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or even emoji — Unicode has a dedicated spot for all of them in the same master list.

  • Maintained by the Unicode Consortium, a non-profit in Mountain View, California
  • Current standard covers over 154,000 characters across 168 scripts — including modern and historic writing systems
  • Most common encoding formats: UTF-8 (1–4 bytes, dominant on the web), UTF-16 (2 or 4 bytes, used in Windows/Java/SQL Server), and the older UCS-2
  • UTF-8 alone is used by over 98% of all websites on the internet
  • In SQL Server, Unicode string data types include nvarchar, nchar, and the deprecated ntext
The Unicode Standard covers 154,998 characters from 168 scripts, making it the only character encoding system on Earth capable of representing virtually every written language — past and present — in a single, unified framework.

Non-Unicode — Legacy and Code Page-Based Encoding

Non-Unicode refers to older text encoding systems that existed before Unicode was created. Instead of one giant universal list, these systems use a code page — a small lookup table that maps byte values to characters for one specific language or region.

  • ASCII — original standard, 128 characters, basic English only
  • ANSI (Windows-1252) — default Windows code page for Western European languages
  • ISCII — Indian Script Code for Information Interchange, a pre-Unicode standard for Indian scripts
  • Legacy font encodings — custom character maps built into fonts like Anu Script, Nudi, Kruti Dev, and Chanakya
  • In SQL Server, non-Unicode types include varchar, char, and the deprecated text
A single non-Unicode code page using a single-byte character set can represent only 256 characters, while Unicode's full range supports 1,114,112 possible code points — a capacity difference of more than 4,000 times.
Side by Side

Difference Between Unicode and Non-Unicode

Feature Unicode Non-Unicode
Characters supported154,000+ across all scripts256 per code page (SBCS)
Storage per character1–4 bytes (UTF-8); 2–4 bytes (UTF-16)1 byte (SBCS) or 2 bytes (DBCS)
Multilingual supportAll languages simultaneouslyOnly one language per code page
SQL Server data typesnvarchar, nchar, ntextvarchar, char, text
SSIS data typesDT_WSTRDT_STR
Web standardYes — UTF-8 used by 98%+ of websitesLegacy only — not suitable for web
Example fontsGautami, Mangal, Tunga, Noto SansAnu Script, Nudi, Kruti Dev, Chanakya
SQL string literal prefixN'text''text'
Indian Language Support

Unicode to Non Unicode Font Converter for Indian Languages

Across India, thousands of newspapers, printing presses, government offices, wedding card designers, flex banner shops, and signage makers still run on software built in the 1990s and early 2000s. Programs like Adobe PageMaker, older CorelDraw, QuarkXPress, and regional typing tools were designed around non-Unicode fonts with custom font encoding.

India has 22 officially recognized languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and most of them developed independent pre-Unicode font systems in the 1990s and early 2000s. Many of these legacy font ecosystems are still in active professional use.
TeluguAnu Script, Eemaata, Krishna, Hemalatha
KannadaNudi 01e, Nudi 05e, Baraha
HindiKruti Dev, Chanakya, DevLys
GujaratiHarikrishna, Gopika
OdiaAkriti, OR-TTSarala
BengaliSutonnyMJ, SolaimanLipi
MarathiKruti Dev, Shree Lipi
MalayalamRachana, Kartika families
TamilSeveral legacy standards
SinhalaCyber Yakku converter
For languages that share a script — like Hindi, Marathi, and Sanskrit all using Devanagari — the same converter settings usually work. But always verify conjunct characters and language-specific ligatures after conversion.
SSIS Fix

How to Fix "Cannot Convert Between Unicode and Non Unicode String Data Types" in SSIS

This is the single most common data type error in SSIS, blocking the entire data flow. It occurs because your Flat File Source / Excel Source outputs DT_WSTR (Unicode), while your OLE DB Destination expects DT_STR (non Unicode varchar). SSIS does not perform this conversion automatically.

Fix 1 — Data Conversion Transformation (Recommended)

  1. Open the SSIS package and go to the Data Flow tab
  2. Drag a Data Conversion Transformation between source and destination
  3. Open it, select the DT_WSTR columns, and change each to DT_STR
  4. Set code page 1252 for US English
  5. In the destination's Column Mapping, map the converted columns

Fix 2 — Derived Column Transformation

Add a Derived Column Transformation and use this expression:

/* Cast Unicode column to non-Unicode DT_STR */
(DT_STR, 100, 1252)[CustomerName]

Fix 3 — SQL Command in OLE DB Source

Handle conversion at the source level — change Data Access Mode to "SQL Command" and write:

SELECT CAST(CustomerName AS VARCHAR(100)) AS CustomerName
FROM Customers
Use the Data Conversion Transformation for most everyday situations — it is the simplest and requires no SQL or expressions. Reserve the Script Component for truly complex scenarios.
SQL Server

Unicode vs Non Unicode Data Types in SQL Server

Data TypeUnicode?Length TypeMax StorageNotes
char(n)NoFixed8,000 bytesPadded with blanks
varchar(n)NoVariable8,000 bytesStores actual chars only
varchar(max)NoVariable2 GBReplaces deprecated text
nchar(n)YesFixed8,000 bytes2 bytes/char typically
nvarchar(n)YesVariable8,000 bytesMost widely used Unicode type
nvarchar(max)YesVariable2 GBReplaces deprecated ntext

Implicit Conversion & Query Performance

When you compare or join an nvarchar column with a varchar value, SQL Server performs implicit conversion — silently casting varchar to nvarchar. This prevents index seeks and forces expensive table scans.

-- ❌ BAD: Causes implicit conversion (slow — forces index scan)
SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE LastName = 'Smith'

-- ✅ GOOD: Avoids implicit conversion (fast — enables index seek)
SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE LastName = N'Smith'
Check your query execution plans for yellow warning triangles — these indicate implicit conversions that may be silently degrading performance. Fixing these warnings can sometimes improve query speed by 10x or more on large tables.
Enterprise

Unicode and Non Unicode in SAP Systems

Every SAP installation is configured as either a Unicode system (UTF-16, all languages simultaneously) or a non-Unicode system (language-specific code pages). SAP S/4HANA requires Unicode — organizations still running non-Unicode SAP ERP must complete a full conversion before migration.

SAP Unicode Conversion Steps

  • Run UCCHECK — scans all custom ABAP programs for Unicode syntax compliance
  • Clean up cluster tables using report SDBI_CLUSTER_CHECK
  • Delete Match Code IDs via report TWTOOL01
  • Perform the export/import using R3trans — SAP's transport tool
  • Handle Open Dataset encoding changes in ABAP
  • Set up a sandbox environment and test before going live
  • Check all third-party products for Unicode compliance
Unicode conversion typically increases database size by 30–70% because UTF-16 uses more bytes per character than single-byte code pages. Plan your hardware and storage capacity accordingly.
Windows Config

Language for Non Unicode Programs in Windows

The "Language for non-Unicode programs" setting tells Windows which code page to use when running older software that does not support Unicode natively. If the setting does not match the language the program expects, you see mojibake (garbled text) instead of readable characters.

How to Change It (Windows 10 / 11)

  1. Open Settings
  2. Go to Time & Language → Language & Region
  3. Click Administrative Language Settings
  4. Under "Language for non-Unicode programs," click Change System Locale
  5. Select the language matching your non-Unicode software (e.g., Telugu, Hindi, Kannada)
  6. Restart your computer for the change to take effect
If your Telugu, Hindi, or Kannada non-Unicode fonts are showing up as boxes or question marks in legacy applications, changing this setting is often the fastest fix. In enterprise environments, it can also be deployed through Group Policy.
FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Unicode and non Unicode characters? +
Unicode characters follow a universal standard where every character from every language is assigned a unique code point. Non-Unicode characters are encoded using older, platform-specific or font-specific code pages that hold only about 256 characters each. Unicode supports all languages simultaneously. Non-Unicode supports just one language or region per code page.
Is nvarchar Unicode or non-Unicode? +
nvarchar is a Unicode data type in SQL Server. The "n" stands for "National" — National Character Varying — and it stores text using Unicode encoding, typically requiring 2 bytes per character. Its non-Unicode counterpart is varchar, which uses 1 byte per character and is limited to a single code page.
Can we convert Unicode to non-Unicode without losing data? +
It depends entirely on the characters involved. Conversion is lossless only when every character in your Unicode text has a matching equivalent in the target non-Unicode encoding. Characters that fall outside the target code page's range will be lost, truncated, or replaced with question marks. Diacritics and special punctuation are the most vulnerable. Always verify your output after any conversion.
Why does SSIS show "cannot convert between unicode and non-unicode"? +
This error occurs because the source component outputs strings as DT_WSTR (Unicode), while the destination expects DT_STR (non-Unicode). SSIS does not perform this conversion automatically. To fix it, add a Data Conversion Transformation between your source and destination to explicitly convert from DT_WSTR to DT_STR with the appropriate code page.
What is the best Unicode to non-Unicode converter for Telugu? +
For Telugu text conversion, the converter at unicode-to-nonunicode.com supports conversion to Anu Script (Anu 7.0), Eemaata format, and other legacy Telugu fonts. Other tools include Kolichala, Telugu2Anu, AndhraCode, Anulipi, and the Telugu Encoder project on GitHub. The key is accurate character mapping for Telugu conjunct characters, half-forms, and special aksharas.
What is the difference between Unicode and non-Unicode in SAP? +
A Unicode SAP system stores all character data in UTF-16 encoding and supports every language simultaneously. A non-Unicode SAP system relies on language-specific code pages, limiting it to one language family per code page. SAP S/4HANA requires Unicode — any organization running a non Unicode SAP ERP system must complete a full Unicode conversion before S/4HANA migration.
Can I use non Unicode fonts on websites? +
No — non-Unicode fonts should not be used for web content. The web runs on Unicode (UTF-8), and browsers cannot correctly interpret non-Unicode character positions. If you embed a non-Unicode font on a website, visitors who do not have that exact font installed will see incorrect characters. Always use Unicode web-safe fonts or properly licensed web fonts for the web. Reserve non Unicode fonts for offline print, DTP, and legacy applications.
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