Thai font · COMMERCIAL

Browallia New

By Narongsak Chaiwong

Typography & Licensing Specialist, ThaiGraph · June 13, 2026

Information verified as of June 2026

What Browallia New is

Browallia New is a looped Thai sans-serif designed by Unity Progress and bundled with Microsoft Windows, shipping in four cuts: Regular, Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic. The copyright notice dates the design to 1992, with later portions by Monotype (2004) and Microsoft (2015). Like Angsana New and Cordia New, it exists on hundreds of millions of machines because Windows put it there, not because anyone chose it.

The three families cover distinct classifications within Unity Progress’s UPC series. Angsana is the old-style serif, Cordia the geometric sans, and Browallia the humanist sans — influenced by Western humanist sans-serif typefaces, drawn with monoline strokes and a crisp appearance. Browallia New is the Unicode-era successor to BrowalliaUPC, the code-page original from the 1990s.

In Thai office typography, Browallia New has always been the third option: less default than Angsana New for documents, less common than Cordia New for the sans role. It shows up in slide decks, spreadsheets, and templates where someone wanted a Thai sans with slightly more warmth than Cordia.

Character design and tone

Browallia New is a humanist looped sans: monoline strokes, open apertures, and full circular heads on consonants like ก, ถ, and ภ. The humanist skeleton gives it a softer, more even texture than the geometric Cordia New, whose curves are more compass-drawn.

The face was tuned for 1990s office printing and low-resolution screens, and it reads that way today. At 14–16pt in a Word document it does its job without comment. At display sizes the monoline strokes go thin and characterless; there are no heavier weights than Bold to compensate. Tone marks and vowel signs sit conservatively, which keeps Thai office documents legible but contributes to the loose line fit typical of the UPC families.

The bundled Latin covers code page 1252, sized to pair with the Thai for bilingual office work. It is serviceable and nothing more.

Weights and availability

Browallia New ships in exactly four cuts — Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold Italic — and Microsoft has never extended the family. The font file names are Browa.ttf, Browab.ttf, Browai.ttf, and Browaz.ttf.

Microsoft’s product table lists it in every Windows release from XP (version 2.20) through Windows 11, plus Windows Server editions, and it is available within Office applications. There is no Google Fonts release, no variable font, and no webfont package. On macOS and Linux it is simply absent unless Office installed it.

Where Browallia New comes from

Browallia New ships with Windows; there is no legitimate free download. Unity Progress, the Bangkok type house behind the UPC series, licensed the family to Microsoft in the 1990s, and Microsoft has distributed it as a system font ever since. Any site offering a free Browallia New download is redistributing Microsoft-licensed files without authorisation.

If a machine lacks the font, the correct routes are a licensed Windows installation with the Thai language pack or a licensed Office install. For projects that cannot guarantee either, three free fonts cover the same territory:

• Sarabun — looped humanist sans, eight weights, SIL Open Font License
• Noto Sans Thai — nine weights, looped and loopless cuts, OFL
• TH Sarabun New — the government document standard, GPL with font exception

Best use cases

Browallia New belongs in Microsoft Office workflows on Thai Windows systems and almost nowhere else. Defensible briefs:

• Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents exchanged within Thai organisations that standardised on it
• Matching legacy corporate templates from the 2000s that specify it
• CSS fallback stacks — font-family: 'Browallia New', sans-serif; — for Thai users on Windows, behind a proper webfont

Where it doesn’t fit: web embedding (the license prohibits it), branding and editorial design (two weights, dated drawing), and any new project starting from zero. New documents in Thailand’s public sector should use TH Sarabun New, the National Font that displaced the UPC families in official use after 2010.

Pairings

Browallia New pairs within the Windows Thai bundle it shipped with. Three pairings:

• Angsana New — the old-style serif of the same UPC set, for document body-and-heading splits
• Cordia New — the geometric sibling, though mixing the two sans faces rarely earns its keep
• Tahoma — the Latin UI companion on Thai Windows systems of the same era

See /learn/typography/ for guidance on replacing system-font stacks with deliberate choices.

Licensing

Browallia New is proprietary software licensed from Microsoft: it may be used on systems with valid Windows or Office licences, and nothing more. Redistribution, webfont embedding, and bundling in non-Microsoft products require a separate licence through Microsoft’s font licensing channels. The terms are documented on the Microsoft Typography page for Browallia New. For open-licensed substitutes, Sarabun and Noto Sans Thai carry the same looped-sans role with no restrictions, and the full catalogue is in the fonts directory.

Information verified as of June 2026