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The Czech and Slovak Character Encoding Mess Explained
Version: 1.12
Contents of this page is Public Domain and may be used without
restriction. It is NOT warranted to be correct.
Please send any corrections and additions to Lukas Petrlik
<L.Petrlik -at- centrum dot cz>.
The latest version of this text is available
here.
This text is an informal description of some of the character encodings,
which are currently used in Czech Republic and Slovakia (former
Czechoslovakia). These are:
Kamenicky,
PC Latin 2,
ISO Latin 2,
KOI-8 CS2,
cp1250 (MS Windows CS and EE),
Macintosh CE and
Cork.
All of them (except Cork) are ASCII
extensions.
There are other encodings as well, esp. several EBCDIC-based encodings
for mainframes. These are not covered here.
Kamenicky
Kamenicky encoding (aka KEYBCS2) is used on IBM compatible PC's. It is
defined by the behavior of the Public Domain "KEYBCS2" utility, written
in 1986 by Kamenicky brothers. Until recently it was the most popular
encoding on PC's, because it saved all the graphical symbols. Many
printers can print Kamenicky-encoded texts, the FidoNET people and many
others still use it.
When IBM
and Microsoft
came with PC Latin 2 (cp852), the situation slowly
changed towards its acceptance.
Some of the local software vendors use the cp895 for Kamenicky encoding (the
first localized FoxPro used it), but this code page is defined by neither
IBM nor Microsoft (according to a message from Jan Toman
<janto@microsoft.com>,
there is no official cp895 specification). Some
software comes in both cp852 (PC Latin 2) and cp895 (Kamenicky) versions.
See also the Kamenicky encoding table.
PC Latin 2
The PC Latin 2 (alias PC L2) is used on PC's. Most of the current DOS and
OS/2 programs use it by default or have an option for using it, because IBM
and Microsoft use it and the Czechoslovak standard CSN 36 9103 recommends
its use on PC's. It has all of the ISO 8859-2 printable characters, but the
accented letters have different positions. The encoding is defined by IBM
as code page 852.
MS DOS manuals describe cp852 as "Slavic (Latin II)" code page. Note
that some of the languages covered by cp852 are not Slavonic languages,
eg. Hungarian.
Most Czech and Slovak users know it only under the name Latin 2 (used by
IBM) and don't even know that PC Latin 2 is very different from ISO Latin 2.
See also the PC Latin 2 table.
ISO Latin 2
ISO Latin 2 is the ISO 8859-2 (1987) standard.
It is recommended by ISO for use with modern Albanian, Croatian, Czech,
English, German, Hungarian, Polish, Rumanian, Slovak and Slovene.
It is used mostly on Unices and other Nice Systems.
IBM code page 912 is the same as ISO 8859-2.
An almost ISO 8859-2 compliant character encoding is defined by CSN
36 9103 under the name KOI-8 L2
(see "The CSN 36 9103 Standard" below).
The encoding is registered by ISO under the registration number 139.
See also the ISO Latin 2 table.
KOI-8 CS2
This encoding is defined by CSN 36 9103. It treats `ch' and `CH' as single
letters (as used in the Czech alphabet) and you can get the most used
accented character positions simply by setting the sign bit. This encoding
was used on old terminals, but now it seems to be dead. Some well known
software (the T602 text editor) still has options for using it.
See also the KOI-8 CS2 table.
MS Windows Encoding
The MS Windows (3.1, WfW, W95 and NT) CS and EE editions use cp1250, which
has all the printable characters of ISO Latin 2, but 14 characters have
different positions (8 of them are used in Czech/Slovak). It also uses the
positions 128-159 for printable characters (this is the C1 area, which is
used for control purposes in ISO Latin 2 and other ISO 2022 conforming
codes).
Thus it not true that cp1250 is a superset of ISO 8859-2.
The code page 1250 is also used in the Hungarian and Polish editions of
Windows.
See also the Windows cp1250 table.
MacOS CentralEurope
The MacOS CE (aka Macintosh CE) character set is intended for use with
Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak and
Slovenian. The encoding is currently used in Czech, Polish and
Hungarian MacOS localizations.
See also the MacOS CE table.
Cork
The Cork (aka T1) encoding is used by most European TUGs (national TeX Users
Groups) for TeX internal T1 font encoding. The encoding was defined in 1990
on the TUG meeting held in Cork.
The TeX DC font family is T1-encoded.
This encoding is not ASCII extension, because it contains printable
characters in the lowest 32 positions (0 - 31), which are used for control
purposes in ASCII.
See also the Cork encoding table.
The CSN 36 9103 Standard
The standard uses an obscure language and requires careful reading. If you
cannot understand the following text, it is because I followed its "good"
example. :)
The Czechoslovak standard CSN 36 9103 defines the following character
encodings: KOI-8 K1, KOI-8 L2, KOI-8 CS2, DKOI K1, DKOI K2, DKOI L2 and DKOI
CS2. KOI-8 codes conform to ISO recommendations (they are ASCII-based) and
DKOI don't (DKOI are EBCDIC-based encodings).
The standard is Czechoslovak extension of the CMEA
(Council of Mutual Economic Assistance) standard ST SEV 358-88.
The new encodings (which aren't defined in the CMEA standard) are KOI-8 L2,
KOI-8 CS2, DKOI L2 and DKOI CS2. The remaining encodings are for the
cyrillic alphabet used for communication within CMEA -- these were never in
regular use in our country. The definition of KOI-8 L2 is stated to conform
to ISO 8859-2 (1987), except for the characters $, _ and the currency symbol
(164), which have different graphic representations. KOI-8 L2 is also known
as "charset CSN_369103" by RFC 1345, because it is the only character
encoding registered by ISO (ISO IR 139).
The Appendix 5 ``8-bit Codes for Personal Computers'' contains an
informative description of the character encoding PC Latin 2 defined by IBM.
This encoding is known as IBM Code Page 852, but the cp number is not
mentioned in the standard.
The CSN 36 9103 standard had to be revised in 1996.
See also the KOI-8 L2 table.
Tables
Table of English and Czech Accent Names Used in ISO Latin 2 and KOI-8 L2
<![CDATA[
English name Czech Name (CSN 36 9103)
Slovak Name
----------------------------------------------------------------------
acute accent ......... čárka nad písmenem, silný přízvuk
dĺžeň, čiarka, akút
breve ................ breve
caron ................ háček
mäkčeň
cedilla .............. háček pod písmenem, cedilie
circumflex accent .... vokáň
vokáň, cirkumflex
diaeresis ............ dvě tečky nad písmenem, přehláska
trema, dve bodky
dot above ............ tečka nad písmenem
bodka
double acute accent .. dvojčárka
ogonek ............... ocásek
ring above ........... kroužek nad písmenem
krúžok
stroke ............... přeškrtnutí
]]>
[Missing: some Slovak accent names]
TeX and RFC 1345 Accent Representations
<![CDATA[
English name TeX RFC 1345
----------------------------------------------------------
acute accent ......... \'{x}, \'{\i} ............... x' ''
breve ................ \u{x} ....................... x( '(
caron ................ \v{x} ....................... x< '<
cedilla ............... \c{x} ....................... x, ',
circumflex accent .... \^{x} ....................... x> '>
diaeresis ............ \"{x} ....................... x: ':
dot above ............ \.{x} ....................... x. '.
double acute accent .. \H{x} ....................... x" '"
grave accent ......... \`{x} ....................... x! '!
macron ............... \={x} ....................... x- 'm
ogonek ............... \k{x} (LaTeX) ................ x; ';
ring above ........... \accent23x, \aa ............. x0 aa '0
stroke ............... \l, \L, \o, \O .............. x/
tilde ................ \~{x} ....................... x? '?
]]>
The Czech Alphabet
<![CDATA[
a a' b c c< d d< e e' e<
f g h ch i i' j k l m
n n< o o' p q r r< s s<
t t< u u' u0 v w x y y'
z z<
]]>
The digraph "ch" is treated as single character.
The Czech characters "r<", "e<"
and "u0" are not used in the Slovak language.
The ISO 639 abbreviation for the Czech language is "cs".
The two letter ISO 3166 country code for Czech Republic is "CZ".
Note that the ISO 639/ISO 3166 convention is that language names are
written in lower case and country codes are written in upper case.
The Slovak Alphabet
<![CDATA[
a a' a: b c c< d d< dz dz<
e e' f g h ch i i' j k
l l' l< m n n< o o' o> p
q r r' s s< t t< u u' v
w x y y' z z<
]]>
Digraphs "ch", "dz" and "dz<"
are treated as single characters in the Slovak
language.
The Slovak characters "a:", "o>",
"r'", "l'" and "l<" are not used
in the Czech language.
The ISO 639 abbreviation for the Slovak language is "sk".
The two letter ISO 3166 country code for Slovakia is "SK".
Charset Tables
Format of the tables is described in RFC 1345
(see "Sources Used").
The following additional
mnemonics are used for characters missing in RFC 1345:
@CH CAPITAL CZECH LETTER CH (the digraph "CH") [CSN]
@ch SMALL CZECH LETTER CH (the digraph "ch") [CSN]
@I, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH CEDILLA
@i, LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CEDILLA
@j. LATIN SMALL LETTER I DOTLESS
@SS LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S (German) (the digraph "SS")
@U, LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH CEDILLA
@u, LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH CEDILLA
See also comments in the tables.
<![CDATA[
&charset ISO_8859-2:1987
&rem source: ECMA registry
&rem Extracted from RFC 1345
&alias iso-ir-101
&g1esc x2d42 &g2esc x2e42 &g3esc x2f42
&alias ISO_8859-2
&alias ISO-8859-2
&alias latin2
&alias l2
&rem Code page 912 is IBM's alias for ISO 8859-2:
&alias cp912
&alias 912
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb DO % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
PA HO BH NH IN NL SA ES HS HJ VS PD PU RI S2 S3
DC P1 P2 TS CC MW SG EG SS GC SC CI ST OC PM AC
NS A; '( L/ Cu L< S' SE ': S< S, T< Z' -- Z< Z.
DG a; '; l/ '' l< s' '< ', s< s, t< z' '" z< z.
R' A' A> A( A: L' C' C, C< E' E; E: E< I' I> D<
D/ N' N< O' O> O" O: *X R< U0 U' U" U: Y' T, ss
r' a' a> a( a: l' c' c, c< e' e; e: e< i' i> d<
d/ n' n< o' o> o" o: -: r< u0 u' u" u: y' t, '.
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset IBM852
&rem source: IBM NLS RM Vol2 SE09-8002-01, March 1990
&rem Extracted from RFC 1345 and corrected
&alias cp852
&alias 852
&rem From cp852_DOSLatin2 to Unicode table:
&alias cp852_DOSLatin2
&rem The following aliases are used by CSN 36 9103, but not by RFC 1345:
&alias pclatin2
&alias pcl2
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb DO % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
C, u: e' a> a: u0 c' c, l/ e: O" o" i> Z' A: C'
E' L' l' o> o: L< l< S' s' O: U: T< t< L/ *X c<
a' i' o' u' A; a; Z< z< E; e; NO z' C< s, << >>
.S :S ?S vv vl A' A> E< S, VL VV LD UL Z. z. dl
ur uh dh vr hh vh A( a( UR DR UH DH VR HH VH Cu
d/ D/ D< E: d< N< I' I> e< ul dr FB LB T, U0 TB
O' ss O> N' n' n< S< s< R' U' r' U" y' Y' t, ''
-- '" '; '< '( SE -: ', DG ': '. u" R< r< fS NS
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset KOI-8_L2
&rem The RFC 1345 name for this charset is CSN_369103, but this
&rem CSN standard defines 6 other encodings as well, so the name
&rem shouldn't be used as an alias for KOI-8_L2.
&rem source: ECMA registry
&rem Extracted from RFC 1345 and changed charset name
&alias koi8l2
&alias iso-ir-139
&g1esc x2d49 &g2esc x2e49 &g3esc x2f49
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb Cu % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
PA HO BH NH IN NL SA ES HS HJ VS PD PU RI S2 S3
DC P1 P2 TS CC MW SG EG SS GC SC CI ST OC PM AC
NS A; '( L/ DO L< S' SE ': S< S, T< Z' -- Z< Z.
DG a; '; l/ '' l< s' '< ', s< s, t< z' '" z< z.
R' A' A> A( A: L' C' C, C< E' E; E: E< I' I> D<
D/ N' N< O' O> O" O: *X R< U0 U' U" U: Y' T, ss
r' a' a> a( a: l' c' c, c< e' e; e: e< i' i> d<
d/ n' n< o' o> o" o: -: r< u0 u' u" u: y' t, '.
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset KEYBCS2
&rem source: the Reality :)
&alias KAMENICKY
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb DO % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
C< u: e' d< a: D< T< c< e< E< L' I' l< l' A: A'
E' z< Z< o> o: O' u0 U' y' O: U: S< L< Y' R< t<
a' i' o' u' n< N< U0 O> s< r< r' R' 14 SE << >>
.S :S ?S vv vl vL Vl Dl dL VL VV LD UL Ul uL dl
ur uh dh vr hh vh vR Vr UR DR UH DH VR HH VH uH
Uh dH Dh Ur uR dR Dr Vh vH ul dr FB LB lB RB TB
a* b* G* p* S* s* m* t* F* H* W* d* 00 /0 e* (U
=3 +- >= =< Iu Il -: ?2 DG .M '. RT nS 2S fS NS
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset CORK
&rem source: DC font sources
&alias T1
&code 0
'! '' '> '? ': '" '0 '< '( 'm '. ', '; .9 <1 >1 "6
"9 :9 << >> -N -M ?? 0s i. @j.
ff fi fl ffi ffl
SP ! " Nb DO % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? -1
A( A; C' C< D< E< E; G( L' L< L/ N' N< NG O" R' R<
S' S< S, T< T, U" U0 Y: Z' Z< Z. IJ I. d/ SE a( a;
c' c< d< e< e; g( l' l< l/ n' n< ng o" r' r< s' s<
s, t< t, u" u0 y: z' z< z. ij !I ?I Pd A! A' A> A?
A: AA AE C, E! E' E> E: I! I' I> I: D- N? O! O' O>
O? O: OE O/ U! U' U> U: Y' TH @SS a! a' a> a? a: aa
ae c, e! e' e> e: i! i' i> i: d- n? o! o' o> o? o:
oe o/ u! u' u> u: y' th ss
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset KOI-8_CS2
&rem source: CSN 36 9103
&alias koi8cs2
&alias koi8cs
&g1esc x2d49 &g2esc x2e49 &g3esc x2f49
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb Cu % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
PA HO BH NH IN NL SA ES HS HJ VS PD PU RI S2 S3
DC P1 P2 TS CC MW SG EG SS GC SC CI ST OC PM AC
NS ?? '' ?? '? ?? '( '. ': ?? '0 ', ?? '" '; '<
Co Rg dr dl ur ul hh -v W* SE a* g* e* m* p* w*
a! a' a< c< d< e< r' @ch u: i' u0 l' l< o: n< o'
o> a: r< s< t< u' e: e' u" y' z< ?? ?? o" e. ss
A! A' A< C< D< E< R' @CH U: I' U0 L' L< O: N< O'
O> A: R< S< T< U' E: E' U" Y' Z< ?? ?? O" E. ??
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset windows-1250
&rem source: cp1250_WinLatin2 to Unicode table, table version 2.00
&alias cp1250_WinLatin2
&rem Unofficial aliases:
&alias cp1250
&alias 1250
&alias wincs
&alias winee
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb DO % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
?? ?? .9 ?? :9 .3 /- /= ?? %0 S< <1 S' T< Z< Z'
?? '6 '9 "6 "9 Sb -N -M ?? TM s< >1 s' t< z< z'
NS '< '( L/ Cu A; BB SE ': Co S, << NO -- Rg Z.
DG +- '; l/ '' m* PI .M ', a; s, >> L< '" l< z.
R' A' A> A( A: L' C' C, C< E' E; E: E< I' I> D<
D/ N' N< O' O> O" O: *X R< U0 U' U" U: Y' T, ss
r' a' a> a( a: l' c' c, c< e' e; e: e< i' i> d<
d/ n' n< o' o> o" o: -: r< u0 u' u" u: y' t, '.
]]>
<![CDATA[
&charset MacOS_CentralEurope
&rem source: MacOS_CentralEurope to Unicode table, table version 0.2
&rem Unofficial aliases:
&alias macintosh_ce
&alias macce
&code 0
NU SH SX EX ET EQ AK BL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
DL D1 D2 D3 D4 NK SY EB CN EM SB EC FS GS RS US
SP ! " Nb DO % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
At A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z <( // )> '> _
'! a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (! !! !) '? DT
A: A- a- E' A; O: U: a' a; C< a: c< C' c' e' Z'
z' D< i' d< E- e- E. o' e. o> o: o? u' E< e< u:
/- DG E; Pd SE Sb PI ss Rg Co TM e; ': != g' @I,
@i, I- =< >= i- K, dP +Z l/ L, l, L< l< L' l' N,
n, N' NO RT n' N< DE << >> .3 NS n< O" O? o" O-
-N -M "6 "9 '6 '9 -: Db o- R' r' R< <1 >1 r< R,
r, S< .9 :9 s< S' s' A' T< t< I' Z< z< U- O' O>
u- U0 U' u0 U" u" @U, @u, Y' y' k, Z. L/ z. G, '<
]]>
To Do
- Script for translating the RFC 1345 tables to "xx to Unicode" tables.
Unicode tables are easier to use, but some of them aren't free.
Acknowledgments
Thanks are due to all the readers who contributed to the improvement
of this FAQ.
Special thanks to Josef Tkadlec
<tkadlec@math.feld.cvut.cz>, who reviewed the tables.
Thanks to Jirina Chudkova for Slovak accent names.
Sources Used
ČSN 36 9103.
Systémy zpracování informací: 8bitově kódované soubory
symbolů (Information processing: 8-bit code for information interchange.)
Vydavatelství norem Praha, 1989.
Gašparíková, Z. - Kamiš, A.: Slovensko-český slovník.
SPN Praha 1987. (The Slovak-Czech Dictionary.)
IBM: IBM OS/2 Warp 4. Klávesnice a kódové stránky. (Keyboards and Code
Pages.)
IBM, 1996.
Knuth, D. E.: The TeXbook.
Addison - Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1986.
Lamport, L.: LaTeX. Addison - Wesley, Reading,
Massachusetts, 1986.
List of IANA Registered Character Sets.
RFC 1345. Character Mnemonics & Character Sets.
[Tables for ISO Latin 2 (ISO_8859-2:1987),
PC Latin 2 (IBM852)
and KOI-8 L2 (CSN_369103).]
The cp1250_WinLatin2 to Unicode table, 2.00.
The MacOS_CentralEurope to Unicode table, 0.2.
[This table also contains verbal description of the code.]