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.

Thai Kedmanee Keyboard Reference

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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 QWERTY keys. This reference shows exactly which Thai character each key produces, both normally and with Shift held.

How it works

Thai has more characters than keys, so the Kedmanee layout uses two layers:

unshifted layer → common consonants and vowels
shifted layer   → less common letters, tone marks, symbols

Each physical key (q, w, e, …) therefore carries two Thai characters. To enter a tone mark, you type the base consonant and its vowel first, then add the tone mark, since marks are combining characters that stack onto the preceding letter.

Notes and tips

The most frequent Thai letters cluster on the home row for typing speed, just as QWERTY does for English. Kedmanee — not the rival Pattachote layout — is the de facto standard on desktops and underlies the character set on Thai phone keyboards too, even though touch keyboards rearrange the keys visually. Use the search box to find where any character lives, then practice the finger positions for the consonants you type most.