ARCHIVED: What is the Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) character set?

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Latin-1, also called ISO-8859-1, is an 8-bit character set endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and represents the alphabets of Western European languages. As its name implies, it is a subset of ISO-8859, which includes several other related sets for writing systems like Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Arabic. It is used by most Unix systems as well as Windows. DOS and Mac OS, however, use their own sets.

Latin-1 is occasionally, though imprecisely, referred to as Extended ASCII. This is because the first 128 characters of its set are identical to the US ASCII standard. The remainder of the set contains accented characters and symbols.

The following tables describe the Latin-1 character set. The first table contains characters that may not be valid or correctly displayable for all fonts, platforms, and browsers. The second table provides descriptions for these characters as well as the set's non-printing characters.

Table 1: Complete Latin-1 character set

Dec	Hex	Char	Dec	Hex	Char	Dec	Hex	Char	Dec	Hex	Char
0	00	NUL	64	40	@	128	80	PAD	192	C0	À
1	01	SOH	65	41	A	129	81	HOP	193	C1	Á
2	02	STX	66	42	B	130	82	BPH	194	C2	Â
3	03	ETX	67	43	C	131	83	NBH	195	C3	Ã
4	04	EOT	68	44	D	132	84	IND	196	C4	Ä
5	05	ENQ	69	45	E	133	85	NEL	197	C5	Å
6	06	ACK	70	46	F	134	86	SSA	198	C6	Æ
7	07	BEL	71	47	G	135	87	ESA	199	C7	Ç
8	08	BS	72	48	H	136	88	HTS	200	C8	È
9	09	TAB	73	49	I	137	89	HTJ	201	C9	É
10	0A	LF	74	4A	J	138	8A	VTS	202	CA	Ê
11	0B	VT	75	4B	K	139	8B	PLD	203	CB	Ë
12	0C	FF	76	4C	L	140	8C	PLU	204	CC	Ì
13	0D	CR	77	4D	M	141	8D	RI	205	CD	Í
14	0E	SO	78	4E	N	142	8E	SS2	206	CE	Î
15	0F	SI	79	4F	O	143	8F	SS3	207	CF	Ï
16	10	DLE	80	50	P	144	90	DCS	208	D0	Ð
17	11	DC1	81	51	Q	145	91	PU1	209	D1	Ñ
18	12	DC2	82	52	R	146	92	PU2	210	D2	Ò
19	13	DC3	83	53	S	147	93	STS	211	D3	Ó
20	14	DC4	84	54	T	148	94	CCH	212	D4	Ô
21	15	NAK	85	55	U	149	95	MW	213	D5	{
22	16	SYN	86	56	V	150	96	SPA	214	D6	Ö
23	17	ETB	87	57	W	151	97	EPA	215	D7	×
24	18	CAN	88	58	X	152	98	SOS	216	D8	Ø
25	19	EM	89	59	Y	153	99	SGCI	217	D9	Ù
26	1A	SUB	90	5A	Z	154	9A	SCI	218	DA	Ú
27	1B	ESC	91	5B	[	155	9B	CSI	219	DB	Û
28	1C	FS	92	5C	\	156	9C	ST	220	DC	Ü
29	1D	GS	93	5D	]	157	9D	OSC	221	DD	Ý
30	1E	RS	94	5E	^	158	9E	PM	222	DE	Þ
31	1F	US	95	5F	_	159	9F	APC	223	DF	ß
32	20	SPC	96	60	`	160	A0	NBS	224	E0	à
33	21	!	97	61	a	161	A1	¡	225	E1	á
34	22	"	98	62	b	162	A2	¢	226	E2	â
35	23	#	99	63	c	163	A3	£	227	E3	ã
36	24	$	100	64	d	164	A4	¤	228	E4	ä
37	25	%	101	65	e	165	A5	¥	229	E5	å
38	26	&	102	66	f	166	A6	¦	230	E6	æ
39	27	'	103	67	g	167	A7	§	231	E7	ç
40	28	(	104	68	h	168	A8	¨	232	E8	è
41	29	)	105	69	i	169	A9	©	233	E9	é
42	2A	*	106	6A	j	170	AA	ª	234	EA	ê
43	2B	+	107	6B	k	171	AB	«	235	EB	ë
44	2C	,	108	6C	l	172	AC	¬	236	EC	ì
45	2D	-	109	6D	m	173	AD		237	ED	í
46	2E	.	110	6E	n	174	AE	®	238	EE	î
47	2F	/	111	6F	o	175	AF	¯	239	EF	ï
48	30	0	112	70	p	176	B0	°	240	F0	ð
49	31	1	113	71	q	177	B1	±	241	F1	ñ
50	32	2	114	72	r	178	B2	²	242	F2	ò
51	33	3	115	73	s	179	B3	³	243	F3	ó
52	34	4	116	74	t	180	B4	´	244	F4	ô
53	35	5	117	75	u	181	B5	µ	245	F5	õ
54	36	6	118	76	v	182	B6	¶	246	F6	ö
55	37	7	119	77	w	183	B7	·	247	F7	÷
56	38	8	120	78	x	184	B8	¸	248	F8	ø
57	39	9	121	79	y	185	B9	¹	249	F9	ù
58	3A	:	122	7A	z	186	BA	º	250	FA	ú
59	3B	;	123	7B	{	187	BB	»	251	FB	û
60	3C	<	124	7C	\|	188	BC	¼	252	FC	ü
61	3D	=	125	7D	}	189	BD	½	253	FD	ý
62	3E	>	126	7E	~	190	BE	¾	254	FE	þ
63	3F	?	127	7F	DEL	191	BF	¿	255	FF	ÿ

Table 2: Descriptions of selected characters

Dec	Hex	Description
0	00	null
1	01	start of heading
2	02	start of text
3	03	end of text
4	04	end of transmission
5	05	enquiry
6	06	acknowledge
7	07	bell
8	08	backspace
9	09	character tabulation
10	0A	line feed
11	0B	line tabulation
12	0C	form feed
13	0D	carriage return
14	0E	shift out
15	0F	shift in
16	10	datalink escape
17	11	device control one
18	12	device control two
19	13	device control three
20	14	device control four
21	15	negative acknowledge
22	16	synchronous idle
23	17	end of transmission block
24	18	cancel
25	19	end of medium
26	1A	substitute
27	1B	escape
28	1C	file separator
29	1D	group separator
30	1E	record separator
31	1F	unit separator
32	20	space
127	7F	delete
128	80	padding character
129	81	high octet preset
130	82	break permitted here
131	83	no break here
132	84	index
133	85	next line
134	86	start of selected area
135	87	end of selected area
136	88	character tabulation set
137	89	character tabulation with justification
138	8A	line tabulation set
139	8B	partial line forward
140	8C	partial line backward
141	8D	reverse line feed
142	8E	single shift two
143	8F	single shift three
144	90	device control string
145	91	private use one
146	92	private use two
147	93	set transmit state
148	94	cancel character
149	95	message waiting
150	96	start of guarded area
151	97	end of guarded area
152	98	start of string
153	99	single graphic character introducer
154	9A	single character introducer
155	9B	control sequence introducer
156	9C	string terminator
157	9D	operating system command
158	9E	privacy message
159	9F	application program command
160	A0	non-breaking space
161	A1	inverted exclamation mark
162	A2	cent sign
163	A3	pound sterling sign
164	A4	currency sign
165	A5	yen sign
166	A6	broken bar
167	A7	section sign
168	A8	diaeresis (umlaut)
169	A9	copyright sign
170	AA	feminine ordinal
171	AB	left angle quote
172	AC	not sign
173	AD	soft hyphen
174	AE	registered sign
175	AF	macron
176	B0	degree sign
177	B1	plus-minus sign
178	B2	superscript two
179	B3	superscript three
180	B4	acute accent
181	B5	micro sign
182	B6	paragraph sign (pilcrow)
183	B7	middle dot
184	B8	cedilla
185	B9	superscript one
186	BA	masculine ordinal
187	BB	right angle quote
188	BC	one-fourth fraction
189	BD	one-half fraction
190	BE	three-quarter fraction
191	BF	inverted question mark
192	C0	capital a with grave accent
193	C1	capital a with acute accent
194	C2	capital a with circumflex
195	C3	capital a with tilde
196	C4	capital a with diaeresis
197	C5	capital a with ring
198	C6	capital ae ligature
199	C7	capital c with cedilla
200	C8	capital e with grave accent
201	C9	capital e with acute accent
202	CA	capital e with circumflex
203	CB	capital e with diaeresis
204	CC	capital i with grave accent
205	CD	capital i with acute accent
206	CE	capital i with circumflex
207	CF	capital i with diaeresis
208	D0	capital eth
209	D1	capital n with tilde
210	D2	capital o with grave accent
211	D3	capital o with acute accent
212	D4	capital o with circumflex
213	D5	capital o with tilde
214	D6	capital o with diaeresis
215	D7	multiplication sign
216	D8	capital o with slash
217	D9	capital u with grave accent
218	DA	capital u with acute accent
219	DB	capital u with circumflex
220	DC	capital u with diaeresis
221	DD	capital y with acute accent
222	DE	capital thorn
223	DF	small sharp s
224	E0	small a with grave accent
225	E1	small a with acute accent
226	E2	small a with circumflex
227	E3	small a with tilde
228	E4	small a with diaeresis
229	E5	small a with ring
230	E6	small ae ligature
231	E8	small c with cedilla
232	E7	small e with grave accent
233	E9	small e with acute accent
234	EA	small e with circumflex
235	EB	small e with diaeresis
236	EC	small i with grave accent
237	ED	small i with acute accent
238	EE	small i with circumflex
239	EF	small i with diaeresis
240	F0	small eth
241	F1	small n with tilde
242	F2	small o with grave accent
243	F3	small o with acute accent
244	F4	small o with circumflex
245	F5	small o with tilde
246	F6	small o with diaeresis
247	F7	division sign
248	F8	small o with slash
249	F9	small u with grave accent
250	FA	small u with acute accent
251	FB	small u with circumflex
252	FC	small u with diaeresis
253	FD	small y with acute accent
254	FE	small thorn
255	FF	small y with diaeresis