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Thai game localization testing: fonts, spacing and line breaks

Glyphs, line spacing and word wrapping all shape the Thai reading experience. In-game LQA reveals issues that localization files alone cannot show.

ซื้อ

“buy”

01Fonts & marks
02Line height & spacing
03Word boundaries
01

The issue

During in-game testing, Thai interfaces showed misplaced characters or marks, crowded lines and words split at inappropriate positions. These issues became visible in the actual interface rather than in the translation file.

02

Why it happens

Font and rendering support

Thai uses vowel and tone marks above or below base characters. Incomplete font coverage, fallback fonts or text shaping may cause incorrect mark positioning.

Line height and container bounds

Too little line height or vertical padding can cause marks to overlap or be cut off. Check this separately from font positioning: adding space will not solve a problem with how glyphs are placed.

Segmentation and wrapping

Thai does not normally separate every word with spaces. Missing segmentation support, an unloaded dictionary or character-by-character wrapping can produce unnatural breaks within words.

03

Recommended solution

  1. Check fonts and marks

    Verify glyph coverage, fallback fonts, and the actual rendering of vowel and tone marks in the game.

  2. Adjust spacing and bounds

    Allow room for stacked marks by adjusting line height, padding and text boxes. Check for overlap and clipping.

  3. Correct line breaking

    Enable or repair Thai segmentation and wrap at appropriate word boundaries without separating base characters from their combining marks.

  4. Review with native-speaking testers

    Have native Thai testers check narrow buttons, long descriptions, dialogue subtitles and different resolutions.

04

Regression checks

Check more than text overflow. Marks should be complete, lines clearly spaced, and word breaks natural in the game. The right fix depends on the fonts and engine used.

In-game LQA checks both the translation and its display, so players can read and understand it.

References

W3C · Thai Script ResourcesW3C · Approaches to line breaking

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