Articles
Document Processing Workflow
The Digital Bangkok Recorder project provides a digital archive of 19th-century Thai newspapers, primarily focusing on the preservation of Dr. Dan Beach Bradley’s newspaper publications. The project uses a workflow centered on semi-automated transcription to prioritise historical accuracy, archaic spellings and original layout as they appeared in print. The project makes these historical records accessible for research and long-term study. The workflow is summarized below as a multi-step process from with the acquisition of high-resolution digital images to online publication.
November 20, 2025
Thai Lunar Calendar 101
The Thai Lunar Calendar is very different from the western Gregorian calendar. Familiarity with it will help readers understand the dates used Thai newspapers on this site. This article only covers the basics. For a more complete description see J.C. Eade’s book “The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia.” Notable Thai Calendars The most commonly encountered calendars in Thailand over the last few hundred years are: Thai Lunar / Chulasakarat (จุลศักราช) Epoch: March 22, 638 AD.
December 22, 2025
Experimenting with LLMs for Optical Character Recognition
This digital preservation project started some years ago now but was paused due to other commitments. Recently though I’ve had time to get back to work on it and this time bring some state-of-the-art tools to the job, namely LLMs – Large Language Models.
November 7, 2024
The Importance of Preserving the Nation's Culture
ความสำคัญในการบำรุงวัฒนธรรมของชาติ “The Importance of Preserving the Nation’s Culture” was published by the Department for Publicity in 1941 under the government of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram (1897 – 1964).
March 7, 2017