Thai typography concerns the representation of the
Thai script
The Thai script (, , ) is the abugida used to write Thai language, Thai, Southern Thai language, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (, ), 16 vowel s ...
in print and on displays, and dates to the earliest printed Thai text in 1819. The
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
was introduced by Western missionaries during the mid-nineteenth century, and the printed word became an increasingly popular medium, spreading modern knowledge and aiding reform as the country modernized. The printing of textbooks for a new education system and newspapers and magazines for a burgeoning press in the early twentieth century spurred innovation in
typography
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
and
type design
Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.
A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...
, and various styles of Thai typefaces were developed through the ages as metal type gave way to newer technologies. Modern media is now served by
digital typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spac ...
, and despite early obstacles including lack of copyright protection, the market now sees contributions by several type designers and digital
type foundries
A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Mono ...
.
The printed Thai script has characters in the line of text, as well as combining characters that appear above or below them. One of the main distinguishing features among typefaces is the ''head'' of characters, also referred to as the ''terminal loop''. While these loops are a major element of conventional handwritten Thai and traditional typefaces, the loopless style, which resembles
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...
Latin characters and is also referred to as ''Roman-like'', was introduced in the 1970s and has become highly popular. It is widely used in advertising and as
display typeface
A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use in display type (display copy) at large sizes for titles, headings, pull quotes, and other eye-catching elements, rather than for extended passages of body text.
Display typefaces will ...
s, though its use as body-text font has been controversial. Classification systems of Thai typefaces—primarily based on the terminal loop—have been proposed, as has terminology for
type anatomy, though they remain under development as the field continues to progress.
History
First printing of Thai
Prior to the introduction of printing,
Thai script
The Thai script (, , ) is the abugida used to write Thai language, Thai, Southern Thai language, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (, ), 16 vowel s ...
had evolved along a calligraphic tradition, with most written records in the form of folding-book manuscripts known as ''
samut khoi
Folding-book manuscripts are a type of writing material historically used in Mainland Southeast Asia, particularly in the areas of present-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. They are known as ''parabaik'' in Burmese, ''samut thai'' in Thai o ...
''.
Records mentioning printing first appear during the reign of King
Narai
King Narai the Great (, , ) or Ramathibodi III ( ) was the 27th monarch of Ayutthaya Kingdom, the 4th and last monarch of the Prasat Thong dynasty. He was the king of Ayutthaya Kingdom from 1656 to 1688 and arguably the most famous king of the ...
(1656–1688) of the
Ayutthaya Kingdom
The Ayutthaya Kingdom or the Empire of Ayutthaya was a Thai people, Thai kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (city), Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. Europe ...
, though the first documented printing of the
Thai language
Thai,In or Central Thai (historically Siamese;Although "Thai" and "Central Thai" have become more common, the older term, "Siamese", is still used by linguists, especially when it is being distinguished from other Tai languages (Diller 2008:6 ...
did not occur until 1788, in the early
Rattanakosin period, when the French Catholic missionary
Arnaud-Antoine Garnault had a
catechism
A catechism (; from , "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of Catholic theology, doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult co ...
and a
primer
Primer may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Primer'' (film), a 2004 feature film written and directed by Shane Carruth
* ''Primer'' (video), a documentary about the funk band Living Colour
Literature
* Primer (textbook), a te ...
printed in
Pondicherry
Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...
in
French India
French India, formally the (), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''de facto'' incorporated into the ...
. The texts, printed in
romanized Thai, were distributed in Siam, and Garnault later set up a
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
in Bangkok.
The printing of Thai script was pioneered by Protestant missionaries. In 1819,
Ann Hasseltine Judson
Ann Hasseltine Judson (December 22, 1789 – October 24, 1826), nicknamed "Nancy", was one of the first female American foreign missionaries.
Biography
Ann Hasseltine attended the Bradford Academy and during a revival there read ''Strictures ...
, an American Baptist missionary based in Burma, translated the
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...
, as well as a catechism and a
tract
Tract may refer to:
Geography and real estate
* Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots
* Land lot or tract, a section of land
* Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census
...
, into Thai.
She had learned the language from settled Thai war captives who had been relocated following the
fall of Ayutthaya
Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemispher ...
in 1767. The catechism was printed at the
Serampore Mission Press
The Serampore Mission Press was a book and newspaper publisher that operated in Serampore, Danish India, from 1800 to 1837.
The Press was founded by the British Baptist missionaries William Carey, William Ward, and Joshua Marshman, collectively ...
in Danish-controlled
Serampore
Serampore (also called Serampur, Srirampur, Srirampore, Shreerampur, Shreerampore, Shrirampur or Shrirampore) is a city in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Srirampore subdivision. It is a part ...
, on the outskirts of
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
, at the end of the year. It is the earliest known printing of the Thai script, though no remaining copies have been found.
The type was probably cast by mission printer George H. Hough, who had worked with the Judsons in Burma. The same
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...
may have later been used in 1828 to print ''A Grammar of the Thai or Siamese Language'' by
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
Captain
James Low.
The book was printed at the Baptist Mission Press in Calcutta, an offshoot of the Serampore mission, and is the oldest known extant printed material in the Thai script.
In 1823, a set of the font was purchased by Samuel Milton for the
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...
(LMS)'s printing operations in
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.
The LMS press did not see much Thai output until the early 1830s, when Protestant missionaries began taking up residence in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...
.
Karl Gützlaff
Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (8 July 1803 – 9 August 1851), anglicised as Charles Gutzlaff, was a Germans, German Lutheran missionary to the Far East, notable as one of the first Protestant missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand (1828) and in ...
's translation of the
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...
was printed in 1834, and is the earliest surviving printing of
the Bible in the Thai script.
The type used is clearly different from that of Low's grammar, and may have been a newer font cast later.
Introduction to the country
Thai-script printing reached Siam when the American missionary doctor
Dan Beach Bradley
Dan Beach Bradley (July 18, 1804 – June 23, 1873) was an American Protestant missionary to Siam from 1835 until his death. He is credited with numerous firsts, including, bringing the first Thai-script printing press to Siam, publishing the fir ...
arrived in Bangkok in 1835, bringing with him from the Singapore printing operation (which had been acquired by the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...
(ABCFM) the year before) an old printing press, together with a set of Thai type.
Bradley, working with a few other missionaries, successfully operated the press the following year. They were soon joined by a printer from the
Baptist Board for Foreign Missions, who brought new printing equipment, and thus were able to start producing religious material for distribution. The ABCFM and Baptist ministries later established separate printing houses, but initially, they relied on sharing the original set of type brought from Singapore.
The missionaries initially ordered new type from Singapore and Penang, but they found the quality unsatisfactory. They finally succeeded in casting their own type in 1841.
Although the missionaries saw limited success in proselytizing, their introduction of printing had far-reaching effects, and Bradley in particular became well known as a printer and produced many influential secular works. In 1839, the government of King
Rama III
Nangklao (born Thap; 31 March 1788 – 2 April 1851), also known by his regnal name Rama III, was the third king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, ruling from 21 July 1824 to 2 April 1851.
Nangklao was the eldest surviving son of King Rama II. ...
hired the ABCFM press to produce the country's first printed official document: 9,000 copies of a royal edict prohibiting the use or sale of opium.
Bradley authored and printed several medical treatises, launched the first Thai-language newspaper—the ''
Bangkok Recorder''—in 1844, and published several books, including ''
Nirat London''—the first Thai work for which copyright fees were paid—in 1861.
His press gained the attention of elite Thais, especially Prince
Mongkut
Mongkut (18 October 18041 October 1868) was the fourth Monarchy of Thailand, king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IV. He reigned from 1851 until his death in 1868.
The reign of Mongkut was marked by significant modernization ini ...
(who was then ordained as a monk and would later become King Rama IV), who set up his own printing press at
Wat Bowonniwet
Wat Bowaniwet Wihan Ratchaworawihan (; , ) is a major Buddhist temple (''wat'') in Phra Nakhon district, Bangkok, Thailand. Being the residence of Nyanasamvara Suvaddhana, the late Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, it is the final resting place of ...
, cast his own Thai type, and created a new script, known as
Ariyaka, to print the Pali language used for Buddhist texts.
When he became king in 1851, Mongkut established a royal press in the
Grand Palace
The Grand Palace (, Royal Institute of Thailand. (2011). ''How to read and how to write.'' (20th Edition). Bangkok: Royal Institute of Thailand. . ) is a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the officia ...
, which printed official publications including the newly established ''
Royal Gazette''.
The earliest typefaces used by these printing establishments were based on the handwriting style of the period, and accordingly featured mostly angular shapes in a single thickness, and were slanted throughout. As Bradley refined his craft, he shifted to upright types with outlines in the shape of vertical rectangles (as seen used in the ''Bangkok Recorder''), and later, with ''Nirat London'', introduced rounded curves. His work would greatly influence later printers.
Expansion
The introduction of printing paved the way for the modernization of the country under the reign of Mongkut's successor
Chulalongkorn
Chulalongkorn (20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910), posthumously honoured as King Chulalongkorn the Great, was the fifth king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama V. Chulalongkorn's reign from 1868 until his death in 1910 was cha ...
(King Rama V, r. 1868–1910). Bradley was joined in the field by
Samuel J. Smith
Samuel Jones Smith (6 July 1820 – 10 October 1909) was a Baptist missionary of Indo-British birth who became well-known as a printer and publisher in Siam (Thailand). He was adopted in Burma by American missionaries John Taylor Jones and his ...
and several other printers in the 1860s, and they started a trend of book publishing, producing numerous books of fact as well as popular literature.
The widespread circulation of texts which had previously been confined to manuscripts transformed society's conception of knowledge. Dozens of private printing enterprises arose during the following decades, and the
Vajirañāṇa Library
The National Library of Thailand (, ) is the legal depositary and copyright library for Thailand. It was officially established on 12 October 1905, after the merger of the three existing royal libraries, and is one of the oldest national librar ...
was established as a central repository of knowledge as well as a publishing regulator: it oversaw the production of a new genre of books known as
cremation volumes, and in effect helped standardize the language's orthography. A distinctive typeface from this period is now known as Thong Siam, named for its use in the ''Flag Regulations for the Kingdom of Siam'', printed in 1899 by W. Drugulin in
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, Germany.
The typewriter was also introduced to the country around this time. The first
Thai-language typewriter
Typewriters with the capability to print the Thai script were first developed in 1891 by Edwin Hunter McFarland, based on double-keyboard Smith Premier models. They became widely popular, especially for government use, though their production was ...
was developed by
Edwin McFarland in 1892. Typewriters became widely adopted by the government, and helped transform the country's administration into a modern bureaucracy. They also modified the language. Since the typewriters of the day were unable to accommodate all Thai characters, McFarland decided to exclude two less-used consonants—''
kho khuat'' and ''kho khon''—leading to their eventual obsolescence.
The first formal schools were established during Chulalongkon's reign, and as basic education further expanded under his successor
Vajiravudh
Vajiravudh (1 January 188126 November 1925) was the sixth Monarchy of Thailand, king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama VI. He reigned from 1910 until his death in 1925. King Vajiravudh is best known for his efforts to create and pro ...
(King Rama VI, r. 1910–1925), so did demand for textbooks to facilitate teaching. Several printing houses specialized in the production of schoolbooks, among them Aksoranit Press, whose typeface Witthayachan is notable for the period. The Catholic Mission of Bangkok was also influential in pioneering education, and established
Assumption College, one of the oldest schools in the country. Among the works printed by its Assumption Press are the primary-school Thai textbook ''
Darunsuksa'' by the French priest and teacher
F. Hilaire, which was first published in 1914 and remains in print over a century later. The press's preferred typeface, Farang Ses, designed in 1913, was the first to employ thick and thin strokes reflecting
old-style serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...
Latin typefaces, and became extremely popular, with its derivatives widely used into the digital age. (Examples: Angsana UPC, Kinnari)
The reign of Vajiravudh also saw the beginnings of a flourishing press, and the newspaper industry underwent explosive growth into the 1930s, followed closely by
pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...
s.
The new stage for public discourse contributed to the
abolition of absolute monarchy in 1932, and as newspapers became more politically vocal, demand rose for large
display type
A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use in display type (display copy) at large sizes for titles, headings, pull quotes, and other eye-catching elements, rather than for extended passages of body text.
Display typefaces will ...
s for their headlines. Many new fonts were created, mostly influenced by the wood-carved style introduced by Chinese immigrants, who dominated the market as dedicated
type foundries
A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Mono ...
were opened. Printing and typesetting became an established craft, and dedicated trade schools began teaching in 1932. Italic (or oblique) type was introduced, with the earliest example found in 1925,
and bold type after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, but apart from more refined font sizes, not much innovation was seen in regard to body-text typefaces for several decades. Meanwhile, a trend emerged in the form of craft shops offering services creating custom hand-drawn decorative text for copperplate printing. An angular, blocky text style emerged during this period, and was use especially for magazine covers and
logotype
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in a ...
.
It also became popular in sign-making, mostly replacing the
Blackletter
Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...
-like Naris style (named after its designer
Prince Naris) that had been in use since the late nineteenth century.
Transition from metal type
Between 1957 and 1962, the printing technologies of
hot metal typesetting
In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mo ...
and
phototypesetting
Phototypesetting is a method of Typesetting, setting type which uses photography to make columns of Sort (typesetting), type on a scroll of photographic paper.
It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publ ...
were introduced by major publishers. Thai Watana Panich (TWP) adopted the
Monotype system, and partnered with the
Monotype Corporation
Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use wit ...
to develop Thai
Monotype typefaces
Monotype fonts were developed by the Monotype company. This name has been used by three firms. Two of them had their roots in "hot metal" or lead type in the printing industry. They did not adapt when the market changed as computer, offset and p ...
for its use. Around the same period, Kurusapa Press (the printing business of the
Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
) developed the Kurusapa typeface for use with photocomposing machines, and the Ministry of Education received a grant from the Tokyo Book Development Centre and the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
to develop a new typeface, now known as Unesco. These typefaces similarly featured a uniform stroke width and smooth curves, but mostly failed to gain traction among the wider industry, and the Monotype system soon became obsolete with the advent of
offset printing
Offset printing is a common printing technique in which the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithography, lithographic process, which ...
. An exception was Thai Medium 621, which was adopted for TWP's schoolbooks, became widely recognized, and remained popular into the following decades.

The 1970s brought
dry-transfer lettering, introduced to Thailand by
DHA Siamwalla through a partnership with
Mecanorma of the Netherlands. Compatibility with the new offset-printing technology helped boost its popularity for creating display lettering in advertising, news printing, and the creation of political materials, especially during the 1973–1976 democracy movement. Most of the fonts were designed by
Manop Srisomporn, who made a major innovation in the form of loopless characters, which abandoned conventional letter shapes for simple, minimalist forms. The best known of these typefaces,
Manoptica, was designed to invoke the characteristics of the
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...
typeface
Helvetica
Helvetica, also known by its original name Neue Haas Grotesk, is a widely-used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the f ...
, and was released in 1973. The style, widely perceived as modern and trendy, became extremely popular, especially in advertising, and remains so to the present.
Among publishers, phototypesetting became widely adopted in the 1970s–1980s, marking the end of metal type in the Thai publishing industry. ''
Thairath
''Thairath'' (, lit. ''Thai State'') is a daily newspaper in Thai published in Bangkok and distributed nationwide. The paper is a broadsheet published with two sections. The first section is devoted to news. Although the news section is best kn ...
'', the country's best-selling newspaper, developed new typefaces for use with its
Compugraphic
Compugraphic Corporation, commonly called cg, was an American producer of typesetting systems and phototypesetting equipment, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, a few miles from where it was founded. This company is distinct from Compugraphics, ...
machines in 1974. Tom Light, designed by Thongterm Samerasut and released by the
East Asiatic (Thailand) Company, was created as a body-text font for the newspaper, and featured geometrical designs invoking a sense of modernity. More typefaces, including ChuanPim, UThong and Klonglarn, emerged at the end of the decade.
Digital typography

Computer systems with Thai-language support were introduced in the late 1960s in the form of card-punch machines and line printers by IBM. On-screen interactive display of Thai text became available in the 1980s, and
DOS
DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...
-based word processors such as
CU Writer, released in 1989, saw widespread adoption.
The advent of
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...
arrived with the Apple
Macintosh
Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
, which was first imported in 1985 by
Sahaviriya OA, who also developed the first Thai
computer font
A computer font is implemented as a digital data file containing a set of graphically related glyphs. A computer font is designed and created using a font editor. A computer font specifically designed for the computer screen, and not for printi ...
s in
PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language and dynamically typed, stack-based programming language. It is most commonly used in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm, but as a Turing complete programming language, it c ...
format. More refined typefaces were soon released by emerging dedicated
type design
Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.
A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...
companies, notably the DB series by Suraphol Vesaratchavej and
Parinya Rojarayanond of Dear Book (later known as DB Design), and the PSL series by PSL SmartLetter. These new typefaces, as well as digital fonts based on earlier classic types, were widely adopted as the media industry boomed amidst rapid economic growth, until halted by the
1997 financial crisis.
During this early period of computerization, the proliferation of software systems led to interoperability issues, prompting
NECTEC
Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) is a statutory government organization under the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. Its ...
(Thailand's central computer research institute) to issue several standards covering language handling. For
TrueType
TrueType is an Computer font#Outline fonts, outline font standardization, standard developed by Apple Inc., Apple in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe Inc., Adobe's PostScript fonts#Type 1, Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. It has become the ...
fonts, proper positioning of some combining characters required the use of private use area glyphs, but these were defined differently between
Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
and
Mac OS
Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series.
In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...
systems, causing font files for each to be incompatible. Certain software, especially those by Adobe, had long-standing issues with above-line mark positioning. The adoption of the
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. Derived from TrueType, it retains TrueType's basic structure but adds many intricate data structures for describing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corpora ...
format is expected to alleviate the issue.
Copyright regulations also lagged behind the rapid innovation and spread of information, and type designers had difficulty commercializing their work, leading to a slump following the initial period.
Even after new copyright law that provided protection for computer programs was issued in 1994, the
copyrightability of typefaces remained unclear. The issue came to the forefront in 2002, when PSL began suing publishers who used its fonts unlicensed for copyright infringement. This led to heated discussions and conflicts with the publishing industry, who believed font designs to be in the Public Domain and saw PSL's practice as predatory litigation. Ultimately, the campaign led to a new awareness and acceptance of computer fonts as a copyright-protected good, especially as the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court made a ruling in favour of PSL in 2003 that fonts were protected as computer programs.

One of the responses to the issue was a proliferation of freely licensed computer fonts. Earlier, in 2001, NECTEC had released three such typefaces, Kinnari, Garuda and Norasi, under its
National Fonts project, intending them as public alternatives to the widely used, yet licence-restricted, commercial typefaces that came bundled with major operating systems and applications.
(For Windows systems, these were the UPC series of fonts by Unity Progress, which were based on major earlier types.) The project was expanded upon in 2007, when the
Software Industry Promotion Agency
Software consists of computer programs that instruct the execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications.
The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital computers in the mid-20th cen ...
together with the Department of Intellectual Property released thirteen typefaces following a national competition. Most notable among them is Sarabun, which in 2010 was made the official typeface for all government documents, replacing the previous ''de facto'' standard Angsana (a UPC font family derived from Farang Ses).
The community website F0nt.com, which hosts freely licensed fonts mostly by amateurs and hobbyists, was established in 2004.
Trade associations of the printing industry also later released their own freely licensed typefaces.
The changed landscape led to a gradual resurgence in digital type design, with new players joining the market, including Cadson Demak, which focuses on custom designs for corporate users.
Anuthin Wongsunkakon, one of the company's 2002 co-founders, had designed among the first custom fonts in the market for
AIS, one of Thailand's three main mobile operators, who wished to build a stronger brand identity at a time when all three companies shared the same font in their marketing material.
The industry grew from then, and the fields of digital typography and type design saw increased public awareness, especially in the 2010s. In 2013, Thailand's twelve digital type foundries joined up to found Typographic Association Bangkok to promote the industry.
Among the trends seen during this period is a sharp rise in popularity of the loopless or Roman-like style introduced by Manop, which began seeing use as body text in some magazines in 1999. Type designers have also introduced Thai typefaces with wider ranges of
font weight
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design.
For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regula ...
, mostly in the loopless style, though their use continues to be a point of debate.
Type anatomy
There is not yet a single standard terminology for Thai
typeface anatomy
Typeface anatomy describes the graphic elements that make up letters in a typeface.
Strokes
The ''strokes'' are the components of a letterform. Strokes may be ''straight'', as in , or ''curved'', as in . If straight, they may be ''horizont ...
, and type designers have variably observed several features: Parinya in 2003 described six: heads, tails, mid-stroke loops, serrations, beaks, and flags.
Other authors have also mentioned the stroke/line, pedestals/feet, and spurs/limbs.

;Head
:The head, also described as the first or terminal loop, is one of the most distinguishing features of Thai script, and conventionally appears as simple loops (e.g. ), curled loops or crowns (), and kinked/serrated crowns (). It may either face left or right, and may appear top (), bottom (), or in the middle of the character ().
;Tail
:The tail appears as ascenders (e.g. ), descenders (), arch/oblique tails (), looped/coiled tails (), and a middle tail (). They mostly project above the
mean line
In typography, the mean line is the imaginary line at the top of the x-height.
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography
Round glyphs will tend to break ( overshoot) the mean line slightly in many typefaces, since thi ...
or below the
baseline.
;Mid-stroke loop
:The mid-stroke or second loop can be at the top (touching the mean line, e.g. ) or the bottom (touching the baseline, )
;Serration
:Serration or broken lines, apart from in the crown, is found in the canopy (e.g. ) and the looped descender tail of .
;Beak
:The beak appears in several characters (e.g. ), with a single appearance, though designs vary among typefaces.
;Flag
:The flag, or double-storey line, is used in the consonants and the vowel . It does not form a contrasting feature against other characters.
;Stroke
:Features of the stroke or line include stems (vertical front, back, or middle lines), canopies or upper lines (usually as an arch), bases or lower lines (a horizontal stroke along the baseline), oblique lines, and creases or stroke reversals.
;Pedestal
:The pedestal or foot is found in a few characters, either attached to the descender as part of the tail ( and ), or unattached ( and )
;Spur
:The spur or limb is an element found in some typefaces. It appears like a serif at the angle of the base of some characters.
Typeface styles and classification
The established conventional handwriting styles of Thai script fall broadly into two categories: angular and rounded, with the former forming the majority. The angular styles, in common use until at least the mid-twentieth century, are probably derived from the manuscript traditions of the early Rattanakosin period (though they have lost the marked slant found in most historical manuscripts). The Alak calligraphic style, in particular, is still associated with the
royal scribes' artistic tradition, and is used for the official manuscript editions of the constitution.
Thai typefaces can likewise be classified as angular or round, although the majority of today's typefaces are in the rounded style and thus the distinction no longer usefully reflects typographical usage. Most Thai typefaces also include characters for the basic Latin script, and some applications classify them as serif or sans-serif based on their Latin characters, though this often has little bearing on their Thai counterparts. More often, typefaces are mainly categorized based on the shape of the head of Thai characters, i.e. whether or not the font features the traditional loop. While earlier designs that truncate or omit the loop had been used in sign-making and as decorative text since the nineteenth century, it is the Roman-like loopless style introduced in the 1970s that has received the most attention in the age of digital type design.
Thai type classification is still undergoing development, with input from several organizations and academics. While the
Royal Institute and NECTEC had included classification systems in their typeface-design guidelines released in 1997 and 2001, they were not widely adopted, and a standard system has not been agreed upon.
More recently, design company Cadson Demak has contributed to a classification model that assigns typefaces to three main categories—traditional (looped), display (topical) and modern (loopless)—with several subcategories to each.
Traditional
Typefaces of the traditional or looped category are distinguished by the looped terminal as the character head, reflecting the conventional handwriting styles after which the earliest types were designed. They are subcategorized into the following styles:
File:DB Bradley Angular X ส.png, Handwriting
File:Angsana New ส.png, Old style
File:DB PongMai X ส.png, Wood type
File:Browallia New ส.png, Humanist
File:Cordia New ส.png, Geometric
File:DB ChuanPim X ส.png, Geometric humanist
File:ThongLor ส.png, Neo-geometric
;Handwriting
:This style includes most early fonts, as well as those directly influenced by calligraphic handwriting styles, and many of them feature angular letter shapes. Today they are used, mainly as display type, to convey a sense of venerability. (Examples: Bradley Square, Bradley Curved, Thong Siam)
;Old style
:Influenced by
old-style serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...
Latin typefaces and typified by 1913's Farang Ses, this style employs contrasting thick and thin strokes, and was used for government documents into the 2000s. (Examples: Angsana UPC, Kinnari)
;Wood type
:Developed as display type for large headlines in the 1930s, the style was introduced by Chinese immigrants, and some probably appeared as
wood type
In letterpress printing, wood type is movable type made out of wood. First used in China for printing body text, wood type became popular during the nineteenth century for making large display typefaces for printing posters, because it was lig ...
before being cast in metal. (Examples: DB Zair, DB PongMai, DB PongRong)
;Humanist
:First created by Monotype for Thai Watana Panich's school textbooks, this style is influenced by Western
humanist sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...
typefaces and employs monoline strokes with a crisp appearance. (Examples: Monotype Thai Medium 621, TF Pimai, Browallia UPC, Garuda)
;Geometric
:This style employs geometric designs to create a futuristic appearance, with influences from
geometric sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...
Latin typefaces. The style's original type, Tom Light, was first designed as body-text font for the ''Thairath'' newspaper. (Examples: Tom Light (C-1), EAC Tomlight, Cordia UPC)
;Geometric humanist
:The style was introduced with ChuanPim, which was the first typeface created with the specific consideration of allowing it to blend in together with Latin script. (Example: EAC Chuanpim)
;Neo-geometric
:Typified by ThongLor, created by Cadson Demak with more white space to allow for increases in font weight, the style features a modular design, with strokes in separate segments. (Example: ThongLor)
Display
The display category includes typefaces derived from styles of originally hand-drawn display lettering, which were purpose-made for uses including signage, book covers, and labels. They are subcategorized into two genres: ''script'' and ''decorative''. The script type features letters distinctively shaped by their writing implement, while the decorative genre covers a large variety of designs, including those incorporating traditional patterns or stylized motifs. A prominent style among the script genre is Blackletter, while constructivism is one of the major decorative styles.
File:DB Ribbin X ส.png, Blackletter
File:9 LP ส.png, Constructivism
;Blackletter
:Also known as the ''ribbon'' style following its appearance of thick and thin lines formed by a broad-nibbed pen, it has been widely used for display signage since the nineteenth century. Best known among them is the Naris style, which has been recreated as a digital typeface. (Examples: Thai Naris, ABC Burgbarn)
;Constructivism
:This angular, blocky style, with its high visual impact, was widely used for pulp magazine covers, and was also preferred by the
People's Party regime that followed the abolition of absolute monarchy, though it fell out of favour in official usage after World War II.
The style has inspired some digital typefaces. (Examples: Tualiam, 9 LP)
Modern
Typefaces of the modern or loopless category are also referred to as Roman-like, reflecting their original inspiration of mimicking the appearance of sans-serif Latin typefaces. They are defined by the lack of distinct terminal loops, though some may not be completely loopless. There are three subcategories:
File:DB Manoptica ส.png, Modern
File:Sukhumvit ส.png, Crossover
;Modern
:The modern style emerged with dry-transfer lettering, with Manoptica considered its main progenitor. The minimalist, loopless design evokes characteristics of sans-serif typefaces, and were designed primarily as display type. (Examples: Manoptica, Manop Mai)
;Obscure loop
:Typefaces of this style feature highly reduced character heads which appear as a small slab or nib, which still help enhance legibility. They include the first loopless typefaces to be used for body-text. (Examples: LC Manop, PSL Display)
;Crossover
:These typefaces were created in the digital age, and many support greater weight gradation, allowing for the development of extended font families. They may be considered flexible enough to be used for both display and text. (Example: Sukhumvit)
Usage and considerations
The proper display of Thai text on computer systems requires support for
complex text rendering. Thai script consists of inline base characters (consonants, vowels and punctuation marks) and combining characters (vowels, tone marks and miscellaneous symbols) that are displayed above or below them, generally separated into four vertical levels (the baseline, two above, and one below). With mechanical
typewriter
A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...
s, each character had a fixed vertical position, with the tone marks in the topmost level. In traditional and digital typesetting, they are shifted downwards if the second level is unoccupied, and above-line marks are shifted slightly leftwards to make way for the base character's ascender, if it has one. Two consonants have unattached pedestals, which are removed when combined with below-line vowels. Thai is written without spaces between words, and
word splitting is required to determine the proper placement of
line breaks.
Justified
text alignment, if desired, must be achieved by distribution, increasing the spacing between character clusters (i.e. between in-line characters but not the above-and-below marks).
Looped vs loopless typefaces
Today, the choice between looped and loopless typeface styles remains among the most major considerations in Thai typography.
Generally, the distinction is seen as analogous to the use of serif and sans-serif typefaces in Latin script—looped terminals are seen as aiding legibility, making the style more suited for body text than loopless fonts. (As such is the case with Thai typefaces featured in
Noto fonts
Noto is a free font family comprising over 100 individual computer fonts, which are together designed to cover all the scripts encoded in the Unicode standard. , Noto covers around 1,000 languages and 162 writing systems. , Noto fonts cover a ...
) However, the comparison is not accurate for the following reasons.
# The loop is an important distinguishing feature between several letter pairs.
# Many typefaces match looped Thai letters with sans-serif Latin characters.
# A few typefaces match loopless Thai letters with serif Latin characters. (Examples: Chonburi, JasmineUPC and KodchiangUPC)
Nevertheless, the popularity of the loopless Roman-like style, with its connotations of modernity, saw its use expanding, especially since the 2000s, from advertising into other media, including print publications. This has been subject to some controversy. ''
Wallpaper
Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...
'' magazine was criticized for using such a typeface as body text when it introduced its Thai edition in 2005, and when
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
adopted one for the user interface of its
iOS 7
iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September 18 ...
mobile operating system in 2013, customer complaints led the company to reverse course in a later update.
While some designers see the opposition to loopless typefaces as a traditionalist rejection of change, critics claim that their overuse hinders legibility, and may cause confusion due to their similarity with Latin characters. The abbreviation , for example, appears nearly identical to the Latin letters W.S.U. when printed in such typefaces.
A 2018 pilot study found that Thai readers were more likely to make errors when reading a test passage printed in Roman-like typefaces compared to ones with conventional loops.
Some designers have attributed the trend to a lack of innovation in the looped typeface category during the past few decades; the majority of text typefaces in wide use were derived from just four major pre-digital types: Farang Ses, Thai Medium 621, Tom Light and ChuanPim.
Cadson Demak, itself regarded as a proponent of the loopless style in the 2000s, has since shifted its focus to produce more typefaces with looped terminals.
Several newer typefaces by various creators, such as the Thai ranges for
Neue Frutiger
Frutiger (pronounced ) is a series of typefaces named after its Swiss designer, Adrian Frutiger. Frutiger is a humanist font, humanist sans-serif typeface, intended to be clear and highly legible at a distance or at small text sizes. A popular de ...
,
IBM Plex
IBM Plex is an open source typeface superfamily conceptually designed and developed by Mike Abbink at IBM in collaboration with Bold Monday to reflect the design principles of IBM and to be used for all brand material across the company inter ...
and Noto, are now designed with both looped and loopless varieties as part of the same font family.
Typefaces
Only a few common typefaces are known from the days of cast metal type, including Bradley, Thong Siam, Witthayachan, Farang Ses, and the "Pong" display types.
Several more text typefaces are known from the pre-digital era, including Monotype Thai, Unesco, Kurusapa, ChuanPim, UThong and Klonglarn, while Mecanorma's dry-transfer sheets were offered in dozens of typefaces, mostly named after their designers, e.g. Manop 1, Manop 2, etc.
The number of Thai typefaces exploded in the digital age, reaching about 300–400 by 2001. These computer fonts are usually grouped into series, named after their designer or foundry. The major early typeface series include DB by DB Design, UPC by Unity Progress (several of which are licensed to Microsoft), PSL by PSL SmartLetter, SV by Sahaviriya, JS by JS Technology, and Mac OS fonts designed by Apple (Singapore).
People

People notable for their contribution to the field of Thai typography and type design include:
;
Anuthin Wongsunkakon
:
Anuthin co-founded Cadson Demak in 2002, and is considered one of Thailand's leading type designers. He is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture,
Chulalongkorn University
Chulalongkorn University (CU; ; , ) is a public university, public Autonomous university, autonomous research university in Bangkok, Thailand. The university was originally founded during King Chulalongkorn's reign as a school for training ro ...
. He and his company have designed fonts for Apple and Google, as well as many other businesses.
;
Kamthorn Sathirakul
:Kamthorn (1927–2008) was the director of the Kurusapa Business Organization, and made many contributions to the publishing industry, including introducing offset printing to Thailand. His research and writing led him to be known as a subject expert on the history of Thai printing.
;
Manop Srisomporn
:Having invented the modern loopless style of typefaces, Manop's work is among the most influential in Thai type design. His career spans from the age of hand-drawn text to dry transfer to phototype to digital, when he became among the first to design computer fonts, for Sahaviriya OA. He is now retired.
;
Pairoj Teeraprapa
:Also known as Roj Siamruay, Pairoj is probably best known from his vernacular style of lettering work for film posters, including 2000's ''
Tears of the Black Tiger'', later developed into the typeface SR FahTalaiJone. He received the
Silpathorn Award
The Silpathorn Award, , is an honour for living Thai contemporary artists presented annually by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture of Thailand. The awards were established in 2004 to promote Thai contemporary artists ...
in 2014.
;
Panutat Tejasen
:Panutat was a medical student at
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai University (CMU; ) is a national public research university in northern Thailand founded in 1964. It has a strong emphasis on engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, ...
in the 1980s, when he began teaching himself programming and developing Thai-language software. He created the JS series of fonts, which are among the earliest Thai typefaces for the PC.
;
Parinya Rojarayanond
:Parinya is a co-founder of DB Design, Thailand's first digital type foundry, and pioneered the creation of many Thai PostScript fonts in the early digital age. He received the Silpathorn Award in 2009.
;
Pracha Suveeranont
:Pracha is a graphic designer, known for his work with advertising agency SC Matchbox as well as contributions to the field of typographic design. Among his numerous writings on design and culture, his 2002 book and exhibit, ''10 Faces of Thai Type and the Nation'', helped establish the historical narrative of Thai typography. He received the Silpathorn Award in 2010.
Notes
References
{{Typography
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
Typography
Publishing in Thailand