HTML Charset – HTML Character Sets
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The browser displays a particular web-page after analyzing its character set. Hence, it is important to define a proper character set so that the browser displays it correctly. The default HTML charset used is UTF-8 that contains a wide array of symbols, characters, and entities. HTML character set used in the web-page is defined in the meta tag of the head.
Syntax-
<meta charset= “UTF-8”>
HTML Character Encoding
Character encoding refers to the unlocking of codes, representing a particular byte of the character. The computer understands every character that is mapped to a code.
Character encoding uses a key to crack the mapping. Whenever we input a text from the keyboard, the character encoding maps the characters written to specific bytes, and then the text is displayed, by mapping these bytes back to characters.
One also has to remember that various character sets may affect both functionality and security of web-based applications. Some character sets are weaker in certain types of attack such as SQL injection and cross-sites scripting or XSS.. Thus, the right choice of a character set not only ensures proper display of the web application but also the security of the application.
Popular HTML CharSets
a. ASCII Character Set in HTML
The charset for HTML5 in UTF-8 but in the earlier versions, ASCII was the most popular character set for the web. ASCII, American Standard Code for Information Exchange, defines a unique binary number and supports the numbers from 0 to 9, characters in uppercase and lowercase and special characters as well.
ASCII used only 7 bits for character representation, thus limiting representation of 128 characters only. As a result, many non-english characters were excluded.
- Values from 0 to 31(and 127) are used for control characters.
- For digits, symbols, and letters, it uses the values from 32 to 126.
- Values from 128 to 255 are not used.
Another key feature that cannot be overlooked is the support ability from different languages. ASCII is satisfactory in representing English and a few other languages, but fails when it comes to the Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and similar languages. This limitation puts a pressure on the creation of more expansive character sets like the UTF-8 that can support more characters.
b. Windows-1252 (HTML ANSI Character Set)
Up until Windows-95, windows-1252 was the default character set. It was an enhanced version of ASCII, supporting additional international characters. It is represented with 8 bits, thus representing 256 characters. Since it has been the default character set of Windows, all browsers support it.
- Values from 0-127 are similar to that of ASCII.
- Values from 128-159 are not taken into account.
- It uses similar values from 160 to 255, as of UTF-8.
c. ISO-8859-1
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The default character set of HTML 4 was ISO-8859-1, which was also an extension to ASCII. Though all HTML 4 processors also support UTF-8.
HTML 4 charset definition-
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1">
HTML 4 supporting UTF-8-
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8">
- Values from 0-127 are similar to that of ASCII.
- It does not use the values from 128 to 159.
- It continues from 256 with more than 10,000 characters.
d. UTF-8
As discussed above, the default character set of HTML 5 is UTF-8. It was developed by The Unicode Consortium and covers almost all the punctuations, symbols, and characters in the world. The meta tag of the head defines it.
<meta charset= “UTF-8”>
Different Character Sets in HTML
| Number | ASCII | ANSI | 8859 | UTF-8 | Description |
| 32 | space | ||||
| 33 | ! | ! | ! | ! | exclamation mark |
| 34 | “ | “ | “ | “ | quotation mark |
| 35 | # | # | # | # | number sign |
| 36 | $ | $ | $ | $ | dollar sign |
| 37 | % | % | % | % | percent sign |
| 38 | & | & | & | & | ampersand |
| 39 | ‘ | ‘ | ‘ | ‘ | apostrophe |
| 40 | ( | ( | ( | ( | left parenthesis |
| 41 | ) | ) | ) | ) | right parenthesis |
| 42 | * | * | * | * | asterisk |
| 43 | + | + | + | + | plus sign |
| 44 | , | , | , | , | comma |
| 45 | – | – | – | – | hyphen-minus |
| 46 | . | . | . | . | full stop |
| 47 | / | / | / | / | solidus |
| 48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | digit zero |
| 49 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | digit one |
| 50 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | digit two |
| 51 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | digit three |
| 52 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | digit four |
| 53 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | digit five |
| 54 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | digit six |
| 55 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | digit seven |
| 56 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | digit eight |
| 57 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | digit nine |
| 58 | : | : | : | : | colon |
| 59 | ; | ; | ; | ; | semicolon |
| 60 | < | < | < | < | less-than sign |
| 61 | = | = | = | = | equals sign |
| 62 | > | > | > | > | greater-than sign |
| 63 | ? | ? | ? | ? | question mark |
| 64 | @ | @ | @ | @ | commercial at |
| 65 | A | A | A | A | Latin capital letter A |
| 66 | B | B | B | B | Latin capital letter B |
| 67 | C | C | C | C | Latin capital letter C |
| 68 | D | D | D | D | Latin capital letter D |
| 69 | E | E | E | E | Latin capital letter E |
| 70 | F | F | F | F | Latin capital letter F |
| 71 | G | G | G | G | Latin capital letter G |
| 72 | H | H | H | H | Latin capital letter H |
| 73 | I | I | I | I | Latin capital letter I |
| 74 | J | J | J | J | Latin capital letter J |
| 75 | K | K | K | K | Latin capital letter K |
| 76 | L | L | L | L | Latin capital letter L |
| 77 | M | M | M | M | Latin capital letter M |
| 78 | N | N | N | N | Latin capital letter N |
| 79 | O | O | O | O | Latin capital letter O |
| 80 | P | P | P | P | Latin capital letter P |
| 81 | Q | Q | Q | Q | Latin capital letter Q |
| 82 | R | R | R | R | Latin capital letter R |
| 83 | S | S | S | S | Latin capital letter S |
| 84 | T | T | T | T | Latin capital letter T |
| 85 | U | U | U | U | Latin capital letter U |
| 86 | V | V | V | V | Latin capital letter V |
| 87 | W | W | W | W | Latin capital letter W |
| 88 | X | X | X | X | Latin capital letter X |
| 89 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Latin capital letter Y |
| 90 | Z | Z | Z | Z | Latin capital letter Z |
| 91 | [ | [ | [ | [ | left square bracket |
| 92 | \ | \ | \ | \ | reverse solidus |
| 93 | ] | ] | ] | ] | right square bracket |
| 94 | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | circumflex accent |
| 95 | _ | _ | _ | _ | low line |
| 96 | ` | ` | ` | ` | grave accent |
| 97 | a | a | a | a | Latin small letter a |
| 98 | b | b | b | b | Latin small letter b |
| 99 | c | c | c | c | Latin small letter c |
| 100 | d | d | d | d | Latin small letter d |
| 101 | e | e | e | e | Latin small letter e |
| 102 | f | f | f | f | Latin small letter f |
| 103 | g | g | g | g | Latin small letter g |
| 104 | h | h | h | h | Latin small letter h |
| 105 | i | i | i | i | Latin small letter i |
| 106 | j | j | j | j | Latin small letter j |
| 107 | k | k | k | k | Latin small letter k |
| 108 | l | l | l | l | Latin small letter l |
| 109 | m | m | m | m | Latin small letter m |
| 110 | n | n | n | n | Latin small letter n |
| 111 | o | o | o | o | Latin small letter o |
| 112 | p | p | p | p | Latin small letter p |
| 113 | q | q | q | q | Latin small letter q |
| 114 | r | r | r | r | Latin small letter r |
| 115 | s | s | s | s | Latin small letter s |
| 116 | t | t | t | t | Latin small letter t |
| 117 | u | u | u | u | Latin small letter u |
| 118 | v | v | v | v | Latin small letter v |
| 119 | w | w | w | w | Latin small letter w |
| 120 | x | x | x | x | Latin small letter x |
| 121 | y | y | y | y | Latin small letter y |
| 122 | z | z | z | z | Latin small letter z |
| 123 | { | { | { | { | left curly bracket |
| 124 | | | | | | | | | vertical line |
| 125 | } | } | } | } | right curly bracket |
| 126 | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | tilde |
| 127 | DEL | ||||
| 128 | € | euro sign | |||
| 129 | | | | NOT USED | |
| 130 | ‚ | single low-9 quotation mark | |||
| 131 | ƒ | Latin small letter f with hook | |||
| 132 | „ | double low-9 quotation mark | |||
| 133 | … | horizontal ellipsis | |||
| 134 | † | dagger | |||
| 135 | ‡ | double dagger | |||
| 136 | ˆ | modifier letter circumflex accent | |||
| 137 | ‰ | per mille sign | |||
| 138 | Š | Latin capital letter S with caron | |||
| 139 | ‹ | single left-pointing angle quotation mark | |||
| 140 | Π| Latin capital ligature OE | |||
| 141 | | | | NOT USED | |
| 142 | Ž | Latin capital letter Z with caron | |||
| 143 | | | | NOT USED | |
| 144 | | | | NOT USED | |
| 145 | ‘ | left single quotation mark | |||
| 146 | ’ | right single quotation mark | |||
| 147 | “ | left double quotation mark | |||
| 148 | ” | right double quotation mark | |||
| 149 | • | bullet | |||
| 150 | – | en dash | |||
| 151 | — | em dash | |||
| 152 | ˜ | small tilde | |||
| 153 | ™ | trade mark sign | |||
| 154 | š | Latin small letter s with caron | |||
| 155 | › | single right-pointing angle quotation mark | |||
| 156 | œ | Latin small ligature oe | |||
| 157 | | | | NOT USED | |
| 158 | ž | Latin small letter z with caron | |||
| 159 | Ÿ | Latin capital letter Y with diaeresis | |||
| 160 | no-break space | ||||
| 161 | ¡ | ¡ | ¡ | inverted exclamation mark | |
| 162 | ¢ | ¢ | ¢ | cent sign | |
| 163 | £ | £ | £ | pound sign | |
| 164 | ¤ | ¤ | ¤ | currency sign | |
| 165 | ¥ | ¥ | ¥ | yen sign | |
| 166 | ¦ | ¦ | ¦ | broken bar | |
| 167 | § | § | § | section sign | |
| 168 | ¨ | ¨ | ¨ | diaeresis | |
| 169 | © | © | © | copyright sign | |
| 170 | ª | ª | ª | feminine ordinal indicator | |
| 171 | « | « | « | left-pointing double angle quotation mark | |
| 172 | ¬ | ¬ | ¬ | not sign | |
| 173 | | | | soft hyphen | |
| 174 | ® | ® | ® | registered sign | |
| 175 | ¯ | ¯ | ¯ | macron | |
| 176 | ° | ° | ° | degree sign | |
| 177 | ± | ± | ± | plus-minus sign | |
| 178 | ² | ² | ² | superscript two | |
| 179 | ³ | ³ | ³ | superscript three | |
| 180 | ´ | ´ | ´ | acute accent | |
| 181 | µ | µ | µ | micro sign | |
| 182 | ¶ | ¶ | ¶ | pilcrow sign | |
| 183 | · | · | · | middle dot | |
| 184 | ¸ | ¸ | ¸ | cedilla | |
| 185 | ¹ | ¹ | ¹ | superscript one | |
| 186 | º | º | º | masculine ordinal indicator | |
| 187 | » | » | » | right-pointing double angle quotation mark | |
| 188 | ¼ | ¼ | ¼ | vulgar fraction one quarter | |
| 189 | ½ | ½ | ½ | vulgar fraction one half | |
| 190 | ¾ | ¾ | ¾ | vulgar fraction three quarters | |
| 191 | ¿ | ¿ | ¿ | inverted question mark | |
| 192 | À | À | À | Latin capital letter A with grave | |
| 193 | Á | Á | Á | Latin capital letter A with acute | |
| 194 | Â | Â | Â | Latin capital letter A with circumflex | |
| 195 | Ã | Ã | Ã | Latin capital letter A with tilde | |
| 196 | Ä | Ä | Ä | Latin capital letter A with diaeresis | |
| 197 | Å | Å | Å | Latin capital letter A with ring above | |
| 198 | Æ | Æ | Æ | Latin capital letter AE | |
| 199 | Ç | Ç | Ç | Latin capital letter C with cedilla | |
| 200 | È | È | È | Latin capital letter E with grave | |
| 201 | É | É | É | Latin capital letter E with acute | |
| 202 | Ê | Ê | Ê | Latin capital letter E with circumflex | |
| 203 | Ë | Ë | Ë | Latin capital letter E with diaeresis | |
| 204 | Ì | Ì | Ì | Latin capital letter I with grave | |
| 205 | Í | Í | Í | Latin capital letter I with acute | |
| 206 | Î | Î | Î | Latin capital letter I with circumflex | |
| 207 | Ï | Ï | Ï | Latin capital letter I with diaeresis | |
| 208 | Ð | Ð | Ð | Latin capital letter Eth | |
| 209 | Ñ | Ñ | Ñ | Latin capital letter N with tilde | |
| 210 | Ò | Ò | Ò | Latin capital letter O with grave | |
| 211 | Ó | Ó | Ó | Latin capital letter O with acute | |
| 212 | Ô | Ô | Ô | Latin capital letter O with circumflex | |
| 213 | Õ | Õ | Õ | Latin capital letter O with tilde | |
| 214 | Ö | Ö | Ö | Latin capital letter O with diaeresis | |
| 215 | × | × | × | multiplication sign | |
| 216 | Ø | Ø | Ø | Latin capital letter O with stroke | |
| 217 | Ù | Ù | Ù | Latin capital letter U with grave | |
| 218 | Ú | Ú | Ú | Latin capital letter U with acute | |
| 219 | Û | Û | Û | Latin capital letter U with circumflex | |
| 220 | Ü | Ü | Ü | Latin capital letter U with diaeresis | |
| 221 | Ý | Ý | Ý | Latin capital letter Y with acute | |
| 222 | Þ | Þ | Þ | Latin capital letter Thorn | |
| 223 | ß | ß | ß | Latin small letter sharp s | |
| 224 | à | à | à | Latin small letter a with grave | |
| 225 | á | á | á | Latin small letter a with acute | |
| 226 | â | â | â | Latin small letter a with circumflex | |
| 227 | ã | ã | ã | Latin small letter a with tilde | |
| 228 | ä | ä | ä | Latin small letter a with diaeresis | |
| 229 | å | å | å | Latin small letter a with ring above | |
| 230 | æ | æ | æ | Latin small letter ae | |
| 231 | ç | ç | ç | Latin small letter c with cedilla | |
| 232 | è | è | è | Latin small letter e with grave | |
| 233 | é | é | é | Latin small letter e with acute | |
| 234 | ê | ê | ê | Latin small letter e with circumflex | |
| 235 | ë | ë | ë | Latin small letter e with diaeresis | |
| 236 | ì | ì | ì | Latin small letter i with grave | |
| 237 | í | í | í | Latin small letter i with acute | |
| 238 | î | î | î | Latin small letter i with circumflex | |
| 239 | ï | ï | ï | Latin small letter i with diaeresis | |
| 240 | ð | ð | ð | Latin small letter eth | |
| 241 | ñ | ñ | ñ | Latin small letter n with tilde | |
| 242 | ò | ò | ò | Latin small letter o with grave | |
| 243 | ó | ó | ó | Latin small letter o with acute | |
| 244 | ô | ô | ô | Latin small letter o with circumflex | |
| 245 | õ | õ | õ | Latin small letter o with tilde | |
| 246 | ö | ö | ö | Latin small letter o with diaeresis | |
| 247 | ÷ | ÷ | ÷ | division sign | |
| 248 | ø | ø | ø | Latin small letter o with stroke | |
| 249 | ù | ù | ù | Latin small letter u with grave | |
| 250 | ú | ú | ú | Latin small letter u with acute | |
| 251 | û | û | û | Latin small letter with circumflex | |
| 252 | ü | ü | ü | Latin small letter u with diaeresis | |
| 253 | ý | ý | ý | Latin small letter y with acute | |
| 254 | þ | þ | þ | Latin small letter thorn | |
| 255 | ÿ | ÿ | ÿ | Latin small letter y with diaeresis |
Summary
In this article, we’ve discussed the character sets used in HTML5. Predominantly, UTF-8 is the default character set of HTML. We’ve also looked at some other character sets such as ASCII, ANSI, ISO-8859. Web-pages are displayed only after its character set has been analyzed, thus making it important for us to delve into character sets. The character set of a document is specified in the <meta> tag of <head>.
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