In brief
The free Labelwala label designer has Devanagari and Gujarati font families next to the English ones, shapes the script correctly on a true-size canvas and checks it against what a loom or satin printer can reproduce. Use a heavy or classic face for a woven wordmark at 4 mm and above, printed satin for small or long text, give Devanagari 20 to 30 percent more line height than English, keep conjuncts and matras clear of the type floor, and build bilingual labels from the ethnic and bilingual templates with both scripts at the same visual weight.
Indian scripts are harder to put on a label than English, for three reasons. The letters join and change shape depending on their neighbours, so the text has to be shaped by software that understands the script before it can be drawn. The letters have more going on above and below the body than Latin letters do: the headline bar (shirorekha) in Devanagari, the vowel marks above and below, the stacked conjuncts. And the shapes are rounder and more open, which a loom renders differently from a printer. Get those three right and a Hindi or Gujarati label weaves as cleanly as any English one; get them wrong and the brand name comes back with its letters separated or its matras lost in the threads.
Our designer walkthrough covers the tool as a whole, and our boutique and ethnic-wear guide covers the labels those brands need. This article is only about the scripts: the fonts, the sizes, the layouts, and what to send so the label is reproduced from the same font you designed with. The designer is at labelwala.store/online-free-clothing-label-design-tool, free and without signup.
The fonts built into the designer
The font panel groups families by mood, so each script offers a clean sans for small text, a heavy display face for a wordmark and a classic serif-style face for a traditional brand. The English families sit in the same groups, which is how a bilingual label ends up with two scripts that match in weight.
| Script | Families in the designer | Use each for |
|---|---|---|
| Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi) | Mukta, Noto Sans Devanagari, Poppins (clean sans); Baloo 2, Khand (heavy display); Tiro Devanagari Hindi, Rozha One (classic, high contrast) | Sans for care text and taglines; display for woven wordmarks; classic for sarees, bridal and heritage brands |
| Gujarati | Hind Vadodara, Mukta Vaani, Noto Sans Gujarati (clean sans); Rasa, Noto Serif Gujarati (classic) | Sans for small text and uniforms; classic for boutiques and traditional wear |
| English (Latin) | The matching sans, display and serif groups | Paired with the Indic line at the same visual weight |
Two of these deserve a note. Rozha One and Tiro Devanagari Hindi have thick-and-thin strokes like a Latin serif, which look right on a saree label but need to be set larger on woven, because the thin strokes are the first thing a loom loses. Baloo 2 and Khand are even-stroked and heavy, which is why most woven Hindi wordmarks we make are set in one of them. On the Gujarati side, Rasa is the classic choice and Hind Vadodara the workhorse.
Why shaping matters: joined, stacked and reordered letters
Type the Hindi word for "handmade" into a program without Indic support and the vowel sign that should appear before a consonant shows up after it, the conjuncts split into their parts, and the headline bar breaks between letters. The text looks like Hindi to someone who cannot read it and like a mistake to everyone who can. Garment factories receive artwork like this every week, and a loom reproduces exactly what it is given.
The designer shapes the script as you type. Conjuncts form, the i-matra moves to the left of its consonant, the headline bar runs continuously across the word, and what is on the canvas is what we set the loom or the printer from. Three habits keep it that way:
- Type the text in the designer rather than pasting an image of it made elsewhere, unless the other tool is one you know shapes Indic text correctly.
- Check the word with a reader. A wrong matra is invisible to a designer who does not read the script and obvious to every customer.
- If you must bring artwork from outside, export it as SVG with the text converted to outlines, and upload it as a logo image. Outlines carry the shaped letters; a live text layer in a font the next machine does not have does not.
Weavable sizes for Devanagari and Gujarati
The designer's type floors are the sizes at which the counters inside letters stay open after washing: about 2.8 mm on woven damask and taffeta, about 2.1 mm on printed satin, cotton and canvas. The floor is measured on the letter body, and for Indic scripts the body is only part of the letter.
| Element | What it needs | Designer's behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Letter body (the part between the headline and the baseline) | At or above the floor for the material | Checked like Latin x-height |
| Headline bar (shirorekha) in Devanagari | At least one thread thick on woven, continuous across the word | Heavier fonts keep it; hairline fonts are flagged on taffeta |
| Matras above the headline (e, ai, o, au, chandrabindu) | Room above the body: about 40 percent of body height | Line height is set per script; do not reduce it to fit |
| Matras below the baseline (u, oo, ri) | Room below: about 30 percent of body height, clear of the next line and the margin | Flagged if they cross the margin or the fold |
| Conjuncts and stacked forms | Open counters inside the stack; avoid the tightest conjuncts in a woven wordmark | Flagged below the floor like any small form |
| Gujarati loops and open bowls | Weave well at 4 mm and above; print well at 2.1 mm | Material-dependent floor |
The working rule: a Hindi or Gujarati line needs 20 to 30 percent more height than an English line of the same body size. A label that fits "HANDLOOM" at 3 mm on one line will fit the Hindi at 3 mm only if the line is given about 4 mm of height for the marks above and below. If the label will not stretch, go up a label size rather than down a type size; our woven label size chart lists the standard sizes.
See it at true size. Open the designer, search "Hindi" or "Gujarati" in the templates, replace the placeholder wordmark with your brand name and switch the material from damask to taffeta. The print check shows what the loom can hold at the size you chose.
Woven or printed, by script and by job
| Label | Script | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand wordmark, 4 mm and above | Devanagari or Gujarati | Woven damask, heavy even-stroke font | Threads hold bold rounded forms well; premium feel on ethnic wear |
| Brand wordmark in a thick-and-thin face | Devanagari | Woven damask at 5 mm or more, or printed satin | Thin strokes vanish below that on a loom |
| Tagline, city, "handmade" line | Either | Printed satin, or woven only above 3.5 mm | Small text with matras needs print |
| Care text in Hindi or Gujarati | Either | Printed satin | Long text at 2.1 mm floor; symbols shared |
| Name labels for uniforms, hostels | Either, usually with English | Printed satin or taffeta name tape | Variable text, small runs per name |
| Saree fall, blouse label | Either | Woven damask, 30 x 15 mm to 40 x 18 mm | Small, soft, folded ends |
For the trade-offs behind each material, read woven vs printed vs satin; for how far a loom can be pushed on fine detail, woven label design rules.
Bilingual layouts that read as one brand
Most Indian labels that use an Indian script use English too: the English for the marketplace listing and the export buyer, the Hindi or Gujarati for the customer who walks into the shop. The two have to look like the same brand, which comes down to weight and alignment rather than matching fonts.
- Stacked, English above, script below is the standard two-line brand label. Set the script line in the family that matches the English weight: a heavy English sans with Baloo 2 or Khand, a serif wordmark with Rozha One or Rasa.
- Script as the wordmark, English small suits a brand whose name is a Hindi or Gujarati word. The script carries the label at 4 to 6 mm; the English sits under it at the floor size as a transliteration.
- Front and back: on a centre-fold label, the English wordmark on the front face and the script on the back, or the reverse. The designer draws both faces upright.
- Same visual weight, not the same point size. Devanagari at the same body size as a Latin capital looks lighter because of the open forms; nudge it one step up. The designer's font groups are built so the matching pair is usually one click apart.
- One colour for both lines on a woven label. Two scripts in two colours is three colours with the ground, and the label starts to look like a sign.
The ethnic and bilingual template family has these layouts ready: Latin plus Devanagari stacks, Hindi and Gujarati wordmarks, pure-silk tags, zari frames and bandhani grounds, each with the script line at a size that passes the print check on its material. Our templates guide explains how to use them.
Care labels and declarations in Hindi
The Care tab writes the fibre composition, the care wording and the Indian Legal Metrology declarations onto the label as editable text, under the symbol row. Every line can be retyped in Hindi or Gujarati, or given a second line in the other script. The symbols are language-free, so a bilingual care label is the ISO 3758 symbol row plus two short text blocks rather than two full labels.
- Symbols first, then words. The symbols carry the instruction for anyone; the Hindi line makes it certain for the customer who does not read English.
- Keep the Hindi line to the instructions that matter, usually "hand wash cold, dry in shade, iron on reverse", rather than translating the whole block.
- Declarations stay as the rules require. The manufacturer's name and address, country of origin, MRP and consumer-care contact are written in the form the Legal Metrology rules ask for; a Hindi version can be added beside them, not instead of them. Our care label requirements guide covers what is mandatory.
- Printed satin, 30 x 60 mm or longer. Two scripts of care text need the length; the care label size guide shows what fits.
From the canvas to the loom
When you press Quick Quote, the designer attaches the label at print resolution and a one-page spec sheet that names the fold, sizes, material, colours and the font families used, including the Devanagari or Gujarati family. That is what we set the loom or the printer from, so the script is reproduced from the font you chose rather than redrawn by hand, which is where most script labels from other suppliers go wrong.
Before production we send a sample preview with the script rendered at size. Ask someone who reads the language to check it: the matras, the conjuncts and the headline bar are a two-minute read for them and a reprint for everyone else. We reply with a price within 2 hours on a working day, and production is 7-10 days after approval.
Hindi and Gujarati labels made at Labelwala
We make woven and printed labels in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and we have been doing it for 25 years. Gujarati labels for Surat, Ahmedabad and Rajkot boutiques and Hindi labels for kurta, saree and ethnic-wear brands across the north are regular orders, and the designer's Indic fonts are the ones our production uses.
- Minimum order: 1,000 pieces per design.
- Quotes: we usually reply within 2 hours on a working day.
- Production: 7-10 days once artwork is approved. Rush jobs run 3-5 days.
- Sample: a sample preview with the script rendered before any run.
- Other scripts: Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Punjabi and others from outlined SVG artwork.
- Delivery: across India and worldwide.
If you would rather send the brand name and let us set it, WhatsApp us the name in the script and in English, the garment and the fold, and we will design it in the tool and send the preview. We are rated 5.0 on Google from 27 reviews.
Common mistakes with Indic text on labels
- Artwork made in software without Indic shaping, with the matras in the wrong place.
- A thick-and-thin Devanagari face woven at 3 mm, with the thin strokes gone.
- Line height reduced to fit, so the matras above and below are clipped.
- The script line set at the same point size as the English and looking lighter.
- Two scripts in two colours on a woven label.
- A long Hindi care text on a woven label instead of printed satin.
- A conjunct-heavy brand name in the lightest font in the panel.
- Nobody who reads the script checking the proof.
- A live-text PDF in a font the factory does not have, instead of outlined SVG.
- Transliteration spelled one way on the label and another on the hang tag.
Checklist for a Hindi or Gujarati label
- Text typed in the designer, or uploaded as outlined SVG?
- Font chosen for the job: heavy even-stroke for woven wordmarks, sans for small text?
- Letter body at or above the material's floor?
- Line height left at the script's default, with room for marks above and below?
- Bilingual lines at the same visual weight, one colour on woven?
- Material matched to the text: woven for the wordmark, printed satin for care and taglines?
- Label size chosen to fit the script, rather than the type shrunk to fit the label?
- Print check showing no warnings on the script line?
- Spelling and matras checked by a reader?
- Spec sheet lists the font family you used?
What we would recommend
For a Hindi or Gujarati brand label: a woven damask label with the script wordmark in Baloo 2, Khand, Rasa or Hind Vadodara at 4 mm or more, one thread colour on a cream or dark ground, the English transliteration under it at the floor size in the matching weight; and a printed satin care label with the ISO 3758 symbols and the key instructions in both scripts. Design it in the tool so the script is shaped, give the Indic line its full height, and have a reader check the proof.
A label made that way reads as the brand's name in the shop and on the marketplace, in both scripts, and it weaves the first time.
