The readers—donors in their 50s and 60s, many of whom wore reading glasses—found the report effortless to read. One donor wrote back: "I don't know what font you used, but for the first time, I read a 20-page report without eye strain."

The Thonburi font was created in the 1960s by a team of Thai typographers and designers led by Mr. Prayoon Pamornmontri, a renowned Thai font designer. At the time, the Thai government was seeking to modernize the country's education system and promote literacy among the population. As part of this effort, the government commissioned the development of a new font that would be easy to read, write, and reproduce.

The Thonburi font was designed to meet these requirements, with a focus on simplicity, clarity, and legibility. The font was named after the Thonburi district in Bangkok, where the design team was based. Initially, the Thonburi font was used in educational materials, textbooks, and government publications, but its popularity soon spread to other areas, including advertising, signage, and digital media.

The graphic designer, a young woman named Maya, chose a clean, modern sans-serif font for the headings. For the body text, she wanted something that felt rooted, trustworthy, and slightly humanist—but not distracting.

Named after the former capital of Siam (now part of Bangkok), Thonburi was designed for clarity in both Latin and Thai scripts. But Maya was only using the Latin characters for English text.

And sometimes, the most useful tool is the one that never asks for applause.