Some features of document style that seems to be Thai specific, are summarized with examples.
The original of this document was prepared by a DocSII member of Japan being based on the document EPW2-53-3 (EP/WG2, INSTAC in JSA, 2003-01-15), for triggering the discussion with the experts of Thai document styles/layouts in the office of publisher "Aksornsophon", Bangkok. The discussion proceeded item by item of this document.
The comments provided by the experts of Thai documents are added to this document. They are shown with indentation and yellow background in such a style as this paragraph.
The following paper sizes are dealt with (see "PageMaker"):
Letter (8.5*11) Legal (8.5*14) A4 (8.265*11.693) A3 (11.693*16.535) A5 (5.827*8.268) B5 (6.929*9.842) 500*335 Browser-small (6.944*4.653) 600*450 Browser-large (8.3333*6.25) 640*480 (8.889*6.667) 800*600 SVGA/Slide (11.111*8.333) 1024*768 (14.22210.667) 648*486 NTSC video (9*6.75) 768*576 PAL video (10.667*8) Magazine (8.375*10.825) Magazine narrow (8.125*10.875) Magazine wide (9*10.875) Magazine broad (10*12) Compact disk (4.722*4.75) Letterhalf (5.5*8.5) Legalhalf (7*8.5)
Gutter spaces are different with each other. Does it depend on the accuracy of bookbinding?
Correct.
There is no colophon. That is similar to the structure of Western Books. Colophon info such as title, author and the date of issue are described just after the title page.
In a table of content, page numbers are described by Thai numerals as well as Arabic numerals.
Indentation in a Thai text is 3 through 4 em. It is larger than that in Japanese text.
The first line of the first paragraph has sometimes no indentation.
A paragraph space is identical to a line space or larger than a line space.
The paragraph space larger than line space makes it possible to compose a paragraph without indentation of the first line.
Due to the multiple story of Thai character, a line space of Thai text is larger than that of English text. A line may sometimes touch an adjacent line.
In a page with multiple columns, the adjacent columns are sometimes separated by a rule. (A rule between columns is unusual in Japanese composition.)
Most punctuation's, e.g., """, "'", ".", "!", "?", "-", "(", ")", ":", are derived from a Western composition.
There may be no particular rules to locate a space before or after a "(" or ")".
There is one space just before an open parenthesis and no space just after an open parenthesis. In general, there is no space just before a close parenthesis and one space just after a close parenthesis. In an actual composition the description within parentheses may be condensed into a line, in case the number of words within parentheses is small.
A period "." is employed to indicate an abbreviation.
A period is employed to indicate an abbreviation. Sometimes a period may be located just after an each initial, and may be located after a sequence of all the initials.
A leader is located at the position of baseline or meanline.
A leader at baseline is more frequently employed than a leader at meanline. When a leader means an omission of texts just before or after a paragraph, a longer leader is used. A leader within a paragraph means an interruption for consideration or appropriate wording.
Are they used in the same purpose as in Western texts?
A colon is occasionally employed for picture captions, notes, etc. An interrogation is sometimes used in a dialog of a novel.
Quotation marks are sometimes located at special positions.
Large quotation marks are used for design-oriented quotation. An open quotation mark is usually used in combination with a close quotation mark.
A dropcap is frequently used. In some case, whole character ("tam" in the following example) makes a dropcap. Only a consonant may configure a dropcap.
A dropcap is a presentation style imported from Western composition and thus is not used in a traditional Thai composition. The number of characters for dropcap depends on a style design for the document.
In some Thai composition, underlines are interrupted by characters. It could be Thai specific.
When an underline is used, a subscript is apt to be avoided (in particular, in handwritten text). Printing companies have some tools, which support an interrupted underline. Today a bold, Italic or distinguishable font is employed instead of underline. Italic fonts are often used for quotation and bold for emphasizing.
Footnote of Thai composition seems to be similar to that of Western composition. We have few examples of footnote, in particular, with reference mark in Thai texts.
It's not clear whether the composition is actually used today or not.
