What is the Kedmanee layout?

Kedmanee is the standard Thai keyboard layout, the one shipped on virtually all Thai computers and phones. It places Thai characters on the physical QWERTY keys, with two characters per key accessed normally and with Shift.

Why are there two characters on each key?

Thai has far more characters than there are keys, so each key carries one character in its normal state and another when Shift is held. The unshifted layer holds the most frequent consonants and vowels; less common characters and tone marks sit on the shifted layer.

Is Kedmanee the same as Pattachote?

No. Pattachote is an alternative Thai layout designed for faster typing and more even hand balance, but it never became popular. Kedmanee is by far the more widespread standard, which is why this reference uses it.

Where are the tone marks on the keyboard?

The four tone marks sit mostly on the number-row and home-row keys, several on the shifted layer. Because they are combining marks, you type the base consonant and vowel first and add the tone mark afterward.

Does this match my phone's Thai keyboard?

Phone keyboards rearrange keys for touch and often hide the shifted layer behind a long-press, but the character set is the same Kedmanee standard. The desktop grid shown here is the canonical reference for which character maps to which letter.

What is the Thai Kedmanee Keyboard Reference?

Displays the Thai Kedmanee keyboard layout overlaid on a QWERTY board, showing which Thai character each key produces in both the normal and shifted state. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Thai Kedmanee Keyboard Reference

Name: Thai Kedmanee Keyboard Reference
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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If you type Thai on a physical keyboard, you are almost certainly using the Kedmanee layout — the standard that maps Thai characters onto a QWERTY physical keyboard. This reference shows exactly which Thai character each key produces, both in the normal (unshifted) state and with Shift held down.

The Kedmanee layout and its two layers

Thai has 44 consonants plus dozens of vowel signs, tone marks, and special characters — far more than there are keys on a standard keyboard. Kedmanee solves this by placing two characters on each key:

Unshifted layer → common consonants and frequently used vowels
Shifted layer   → less-common consonants, all four tone marks, punctuation

Each physical key (the letter printed on the key cap) carries one Thai character normally and a different one with Shift held. There is no third or fourth layer in everyday Thai typing — unlike some scripts that require additional modifier keys.

Typing order matters: consonant first, then vowel, then tone

Thai combining characters stack onto the consonant they modify, so the order in which you type them is important even though the marks appear visually above or below the letter:

Type the base consonant (or the leading vowel if it precedes the consonant, such as เ or แ).
Type the following vowel or vowels.
If a tone mark is needed, type it last — it stacks onto the consonant as a combining character.

For example, to type ก้ (mid-class consonant ก with falling tone mark ้), you press the key for ก first, then Shift + the key that carries ้.

Why Kedmanee, not Pattachote?

The Pattachote layout was designed in the 1960s by Suth Pattachote to be more ergonomically balanced, placing vowels under one hand and consonants under the other, similar to Dvorak for English. Despite its design advantages, it never achieved widespread adoption. Kedmanee arrived first, was bundled with typewriters and early computers, and became the default — so virtually every Thai keyboard, every OS Thai input method, and every Thai typing course teaches Kedmanee. Pattachote remains a minority preference among fast typists who make an effort to learn it.

Phone keyboards and this reference

Mobile Thai keyboards display characters differently — they often merge the shifted layer behind a long-press, rearrange keys for thumb reach, or use a swipe input. But the underlying character set is the same Kedmanee standard, so this desktop grid remains the correct reference for which character maps to which physical key when you sit down at a desktop or laptop keyboard. Use the search box to locate any character quickly, then note its key and layer.