Thai keyboard layouts

Kedmanee, the standard layout

The first Thai typewriter, developed in 1891 by Edwin McFarland, used a keyboard with a separate key for every character, and even then had no room for ฃ and ฅ, which helped push both letters out of use. When typewriters moved to the Shift key, the McFarland business developed a new arrangement, released in 1931, which put the most frequent characters on the home row. It became the layout of nearly every Thai typewriter and later of every Thai computer keyboard. The name Kedmanee, after one of the people credited with designing it, came into use only around 1970, to tell it apart from a newly proposed rival.

In 1988 the Thai Industrial Standards Institute made it the national standard for computer keyboards as TIS 820-2531, and revised it in 1995 as TIS 820-2538, which is the current version. The standard also says how bilingual keycaps should look: Thai on the right half of each key, English on the left, in different colours.

What the 1995 revision changed

TIS 820-2538 sorts characters into three groups: those every Thai keyboard must have in a fixed place (the 42 consonants in use, the vowels, tone marks, Thai digits and common signs); optional characters with a fixed place if present (ฃ and ฅ, nikkhahit and phinthu, and the rare signs ◌๎ yamakkan, ๏ fong man and ๛ khomut); and optional characters with no fixed place, such as ๚ angkhan khu. It puts ฃ and ฅ on the key above Enter, or next to left Shift on keyboards that lack it.

Windows, however, still installs the older arrangement for four keys, and so do most printed keycaps. The differences are small but real, and they explain why a key sometimes gives a different character from the one on its cap:

The on-screen keyboard offers both, so you can practise on whichever matches your keys.

Pattachote, the layout that did not catch on

In 1965 Sarit Pattachote, an engineer at the Royal Irrigation Department, analysed typing on Kedmanee and found it heavily unbalanced: about 70 percent of keystrokes fell to the right hand, and the right little finger did nearly a fifth of all the work. He designed a new layout from letter frequencies that spread the load across the stronger fingers and both hands. Tests found it about a quarter faster, and the government endorsed it: offices were told to buy Pattachote typewriters and typists were sent for retraining.

It failed anyway. Typists, schools and businesses were invested in Kedmanee and saw no reason to switch, and by 1973 the attempt to standardise on Pattachote had been dropped. Every major system still offers it, and a few typists swear by it, but it is rare.

A newer community design, the Manoonchai layout, takes the same idea further with modern letter statistics. It is included in the standard Linux keyboard layouts and in some online typing tutors.

ISO, ANSI and Thai keycaps

Physical keyboards come in two main shapes. ANSI, the American shape, has a wide key above Enter and a long left Shift. ISO, common in Europe, has a tall Enter key, an extra key beside it and an extra key next to left Shift. Keyboards sold in Thailand are usually the ANSI shape. The Thai layout works on both: TIS 820-2538 places ฃ and ฅ on the key above Enter and moves them next to left Shift where that key is missing, and Windows gives ฃ and ฅ on both keys.

• Thai keycaps carry Thai legends beside the Latin ones, usually following the Windows arrangement above. Check that a keyboard is Kedmanee (nearly all are) and that its shape matches what you are used to.
• Stickers for an English keyboard are cheap and fine while you learn; transparent ones keep the Latin letters visible.
• Dual-language mechanical keyboards and keycap sets with Thai legends exist from several makers, with the Thai printed or moulded into each cap. The layout does not change, only the printing, so any keyboard can type Thai.
• Apple keyboards and Macs. macOS has two Thai input sources, Thai (Kedmanee) and Thai – Pattachote. Unicode’s record of the Mac layouts shows a few punctuation keys in different places from Windows, and none of the rare TIS 820-2538 signs (๏ ๛ ◌๎) on the normal or Shift layers. On a Mac, turn on the Keyboard Viewer from the input menu to see what every key gives.

How to add Thai to your system

The steps below follow each vendor’s own help pages, checked in October 2026 for the versions named. Menu names change between versions; look for the nearest equivalent if yours differ.

Windows 11

1. Open Settings, then Time & language, then Language & region.
2. If Thai is not listed, choose Add a language and install Thai. Otherwise, select the … button next to a language and choose Language options.
3. Under Keyboards, choose Add a keyboard and pick Thai Kedmanee (or Thai Pattachote, or a non-ShiftLock version).
4. Switch with Windows key + Space, or from the input indicator on the taskbar.
5. For one-key switching, go to Time & language, Typing, Advanced keyboard settings, Input language hot keys; select Between input languages, Change Key Sequence, and choose Grave Accent.

Microsoft’s language and keyboard help page has the details.

macOS 27

1. Open System Settings, then Keyboard.
2. Under Text Input, choose Edit, then the add button.
3. Search for Thai, select Thai (or Thai – Pattachote) and choose Add.
4. Switch from the input menu in the menu bar, with Control-Space, or set the Globe key or Caps Lock to change input source in Keyboard settings.

Apple’s Mac User Guide covers input sources.

iPhone and iPad (iOS 27)

1. Open Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Keyboards.
2. Choose Add New Keyboard and pick Thai.
3. Switch while typing by touching and holding the globe key, then choosing Thai.

iPadOS works the same way. See Apple’s iPhone keyboard guide. Where a language offers more than one layout, it is chosen by tapping the language in the Keyboards list.

Android (Gboard)

1. In any app, tap a text field, then the settings button at the top of the keyboard, then Languages and Add keyboard.
2. Pick Thai, choose the layout you want and tap Done.
3. Switch by touching and holding the space bar, or with the language key if you have turned it on.

The same can be done from the Settings app under System, Keyboard, On-screen keyboard, Gboard, Languages. Google’s Gboard help has the steps, and our Android guide also covers the Samsung Keyboard and physical keyboards.

ChromeOS

1. Select the time at the bottom right, then Settings.
2. Under Device, select Keyboard, then Change input settings.
3. Under Input methods, add Thai.
4. Switch with Ctrl + Shift + Space (or Ctrl + Space for the previous one), or turn on Show input options in the shelf.

See the Chromebook help page.

Linux (GNOME)

1. Open Settings, then Keyboard.
2. Under Input Sources, choose Add Input Source, pick Thai and select a layout: Thai (which is Kedmanee), Thai (TIS-820.2538), Thai (Pattachote) or Thai (Manoonchai).
3. Switch with Super + Space or from the indicator in the top bar.

The GNOME Help page describes it. KDE Plasma, Xfce and other desktops offer the same layouts in their own keyboard settings, because they all draw on the same layout collection.