ศาลาชุมนุม

[tootrickylady]

Sawadee ka everyone,

In the past i had found a site that showed all of the Thai alphabet in several different styles of writing (newpaper, handwriting etc) all were copied and studied and now the book I wrote them in is LOST ... disaster, as I can't read thai when it's been stylized, newspaper headlines and signs can be very out of the ordinary. Now I can't find a site with this information on, can anyone out there help.

Please.... Steph

[David and Bui]

Try here: http://www.thai-language.com/ref/typographical-styles

[tootrickylady]

David, thank you that will help although a bit long winded to do all the letters in order in 62 different fonts. 62 I never thought there could be that many lol.
But it could definately replace my lost work I was looking for a site that showed each letter in order in 6 different styles.
So I will stop making excuses and make a start on these letters (maybe not all 62 though )

Thanks for your help. Steph

[David and Bui]

Steph,

Font JS Wansika Italic is a very common script for writing signs, formal cards, and the like. If you can learn to write this one, the Thais will praise you highly.

[claude06thailand]

Steph,

Font JS Wansika Italic is a very common script for writing signs, formal cards, and the like. If you can learn to write this one, the Thais will praise you highly.

[tootrickylady]

Thanks all, I'm on to it, lots of study to do now. Thanks again for your help

Steph

[Pantip]

This site has many lovely Thai font and where I often download Thai font from.
Thai font developers let us download free

Code: Select all

http://www.f0nt.com/release

[tod-daniels]

While slightly off-topic of this post, I recently started using the one of the AUA books from the pair designed to teach Reading and Writing.

This one has an orange cover and is called; "R - Text (mostly reading)". Interestingly enough in Appendix 1; Handwriting, it covers the way you can “adjust” your handwritten Thai. It shows how to write it in a more natural way without losing the important aspects which Thais look for in character identification.

Being a 53 y/o guy, I totally HATE it when I show something to Thais that I’ve written down, and they say, “What beautiful handwriting” . To me that means it looks like a little Thai kids as in; over written, with each character clearly delineated and written correctly. I certainly don’t take it as a compliment, regardless of what they mean it to be.

Using this book’s appendix, and after writing page after page of Thai characters in my notebook; I’ve slowly morphed that “over-drawn” Thai which foreigners (and Thai kids) are taught when learning to write into a style of handwritten Thai which is “more my own” .

Granted some of the advanced techniques where they show how Thais write a ร or ส with a ไม้หันอากาศ and ไม้โท all hooked together are clearly beyond my ability.

Still it is a very interesting book with many samples of handwritten Thai by both women and men.

I’d urge anyone who wants to develop their “own style” of handwritten Thai to pick this book up.

Then again, if you’re not bothered by Thais telling you what “beautiful” (as in child-like) handwriting you have, give the book a pass. ..

[Toffeeman]

Then again, if you’re not bothered by Thais telling you what “beautiful” (as in child-like) handwriting you have, give the book a pass. ..

I have had similar comments about my handwriting. They say how beautiful it is as it is not joined up. But having such terrible English handwriting, which I often can't read myself, I am enjoying the compliments. I am sure as I become more proficient it will get messier.

[tod-daniels]

I didn't mean to imply that a person's handwriting would get "messier" by following the suggestions in the book. Seeing as there is NO cursive in Thai you can't really "join the letters up". To me Thai is like printing in English, each character hasta be represented separately.

What I meant was, the book shows you how to write Thai more like a Thai adult would. I remember learning to write English and how painstaking it was to correctly get all the components of the capital and lower case letters.

It's the same in Thai, when they're kids they start out writing them REALLY big, in those alphabet tracing books, where they write them so carefully. Then they switch to much narrower lined paper, and start writing really small. Once they gain proficiency in writing, the letters morph into the style of the person writing.

I found it interesting in the book that on quite a few of the characters the "heads" are either omitted entirely, or barely represented; ไ, ใ, โ, ถ, ภ, ผ, พ being the examples which spring to mind. Obviously the first three can be discerned by the different "tops" without anything other than a stick as the vertical stroke. The two ผ, พ are differentiated by the way the letter is written; the ผ definitely looks more like two "u's" in english, and พ is more angled almost like writing two "v's" together. Also there is a clear height difference in the center "peak" between the two (this is apparently the delineator thais look for first). For the ถ, ภ again it's the way the letter slants or curves when written although there are sometimes "vestigial heads" too.

I just thought it was interesting, seeing as every Thai school I've been too just pounds home the drills of writing each character carefully and exactly as it is on an alphabet chart.

My handwriting in English isn't all that bad, mostly because I can only write in cursive for my signature. Everything else I write is done in all upper case block letter printing.

I have found after practicing with the suggestions from the book I am definitely developing not only my own "style" of characters. I am also increasing the speed at which I can write Thai with no loss in readability, seeing as my teachers can still read my answers just fine.