Aksara Bali is everywhere on this island. It is carved into temple gates, printed on street signs, written on offerings. It is not a museum piece — it is the script my culture wrote itself in.
And I grew up unable to read most of it.
That is not a unique failure on my part. It is what happens to a script over a couple of generations when everything around it — school, phones, the entire internet — runs in Latin characters. The script does not die dramatically. It just quietly stops being convenient, and then it stops being known.
Aksara Bali converts Latin text into Balinese script as you type. It handles Sanskrit, and the V=W equivalency that trips people up. It is meant for learning: type your name, see it in the script, notice how the vowels attach, and start to build the mapping in your head that school never gave you.
It is not perfect and I will not pretend otherwise. Transliteration has conventions that vary by region and by scholar, and this tool picks one path through that. Do not use it for anything ceremonial, legal, or going into print without someone who genuinely knows the script checking it first. It is a learning tool, not an authority.
It runs entirely in your browser. There is no account, and what you type is not sent anywhere.
It is free, and it will stay free. This one was never going to be a product.
