ISO 8859-2 Character Set

Character table

The lower 128 characters of ISO/IEC 8859-2:1987 coded character set are equal to ANSI X3.4-1968 (commonly referred as ASCII, American Standard Code for Information Interchange). Following are 32 extended control characters, and from 0xA0 to 0xFF all the printable characters are located [1].

The table below describes the the 96 printable characters. The first column is the RFC 1345 [2] digraph, following are ISO 8859-2 hexadecimal code (second column), ISO 10646 BMP/Unicode 16-bit hexadecimal code (third column), and the descriptive name of the character (fourth column).

<NS>  /xA0  <U00A0>  NO-BREAK SPACE
<A;>  /xA1  <U0104>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH OGONEK
<'(>  /xA2  <U02D8>  BREVE
<L/>  /xA3  <U0141>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH STROKE
<Cu>  /xA4  <U00A4>  CURRENCY SIGN
<L<>  /xA5  <U013D>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH CARON
<S'>  /xA6  <U015A>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH ACUTE
<SE>  /xA7  <U00A7>  SECTION SIGN
<':>  /xA8  <U00A8>  DIAERESIS
<S<>  /xA9  <U0160>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CARON
<S,>  /xAA  <U015E>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH CEDILLA
<T<>  /xAB  <U0164>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CARON
<Z'>  /xAC  <U0179>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH ACUTE
<-->  /xAD  <U00AD>  SOFT HYPHEN
<Z<>  /xAE  <U017D>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH CARON
<Z.>  /xAF  <U017B>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH DOT ABOVE
<DG>  /xB0  <U00B0>  DEGREE SIGN
<a;>  /xB1  <U0105>  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH OGONEK
<';>  /xB2  <U02DB>  OGONEK
<l/>  /xB3  <U0142>  LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH STROKE
<''>  /xB4  <U00B4>  ACUTE ACCENT
<l<>  /xB5  <U013E>  LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CARON
<s'>  /xB6  <U015B>  LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH ACUTE
<'<>  /xB7  <U02C7>  CARON (Mandarin Chinese third tone)
<',>  /xB8  <U00B8>  CEDILLA
<s<>  /xB9  <U0161>  LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CARON
<s,>  /xBA  <U015F>  LATIN SMALL LETTER S WITH CEDILLA
<t<>  /xBB  <U0165>  LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CARON
<z'>  /xBC  <U017A>  LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH ACUTE
<'">  /xBD  <U02DD>  DOUBLE ACUTE ACCENT
<z<>  /xBE  <U017E>  LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON
<z.>  /xBF  <U017C>  LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH DOT ABOVE
<R'>  /xC0  <U0154>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH ACUTE
<A'>  /xC1  <U00C1>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
<A>>  /xC2  <U00C2>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
<A(>  /xC3  <U0102>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH BREVE
<A:>  /xC4  <U00C4>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS
<L'>  /xC5  <U0139>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH ACUTE
<C'>  /xC6  <U0106>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH ACUTE
<C,>  /xC7  <U00C7>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA
<C<>  /xC8  <U010C>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CARON
<E'>  /xC9  <U00C9>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
<E;>  /xCA  <U0118>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH OGONEK
<E:>  /xCB  <U00CB>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
<E<>  /xCC  <U011A>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER E WITH CARON
<I'>  /xCD  <U00CD>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH ACUTE
<I>>  /xCE  <U00CE>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX
<D<>  /xCF  <U010E>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH CARON
<D/>  /xD0  <U0110>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH STROKE
<N'>  /xD1  <U0143>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH ACUTE
<N<>  /xD2  <U0147>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH CARON
<O'>  /xD3  <U00D3>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH ACUTE
<O>>  /xD4  <U00D4>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX
<O">  /xD5  <U0150>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
<O:>  /xD6  <U00D6>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS
<*X>  /xD7  <U00D7>  MULTIPLICATION SIGN
<R<>  /xD8  <U0158>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R WITH CARON
<U0>  /xD9  <U016E>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH RING ABOVE
<U'>  /xDA  <U00DA>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH ACUTE
<U">  /xDB  <U0170>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
<U:>  /xDC  <U00DC>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS
<Y'>  /xDD  <U00DD>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE
<T,>  /xDE  <U0162>  LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CEDILLA
<ss>  /xDF  <U00DF>  LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S (German)
<r'>  /xE0  <U0155>  LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH ACUTE
<a'>  /xE1  <U00E1>  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE
<a>>  /xE2  <U00E2>  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX
<a(>  /xE3  <U0103>  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH BREVE
<a:>  /xE4  <U00E4>  LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS
<l'>  /xE5  <U013A>  LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH ACUTE
<c'>  /xE6  <U0107>  LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH ACUTE
<c,>  /xE7  <U00E7>  LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA
<c<>  /xE8  <U010D>  LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CARON
<e'>  /xE9  <U00E9>  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE
<e;>  /xEA  <U0119>  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH OGONEK
<e:>  /xEB  <U00EB>  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH DIAERESIS
<e<>  /xEC  <U011B>  LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH CARON
<i'>  /xED  <U00ED>  LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH ACUTE
<i>>  /xEE  <U00EE>  LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX
<d<>  /xEF  <U010F>  LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CARON
<d/>  /xF0  <U0111>  LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH STROKE
<n'>  /xF1  <U0144>  LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH ACUTE
<n<>  /xF2  <U0148>  LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CARON
<o'>  /xF3  <U00F3>  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH ACUTE
<o>>  /xF4  <U00F4>  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH CIRCUMFLEX
<o">  /xF5  <U0151>  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
<o:>  /xF6  <U00F6>  LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS
<-:>  /xF7  <U00F7>  DIVISION SIGN
<r<>  /xF8  <U0159>  LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH CARON
<u0>  /xF9  <U016F>  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH RING ABOVE
<u'>  /xFA  <U00FA>  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH ACUTE
<u">  /xFB  <U0171>  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DOUBLE ACUTE
<u:>  /xFC  <U00FC>  LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS
<y'>  /xFD  <U00FD>  LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH ACUTE
<t,>  /xFE  <U0163>  LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CEDILLA
<'.>  /xFF  <U02D9>  DOT ABOVE (Mandarin Chinese light tone)

Languages and ISO 8859-2

ISO 8859-2 character set contains all the required characters for the following European languages (listed in the alphabetical order) [3]:

Albanian
Bosnian
Croatian
Czech
English
Finnish
Hungarian
Irish
German
Polish
Romanian
Serbian (Latin transcription)
Slovak
Slovenian
Sorbian (Lusatian)

Common problems

Browsing through the existing ISO 8859-2 fonts I have encountered some common mistakes concerning the glyph outlook:

Characters with codes 0xF0 and 0xD0 represent Croatian (Serbocroatian) lowercase and uppercase letter D with stroke, respectively, and not Icelandic eth. Both uppercase letters (i.e. uppercase D with stroke and uppercase eth) indeed do look identical, though.
Lowercase letters T with caron and D with caron used in Czech and Slovak languages do not have the caron accent sitting on top of them, but rather an apostrophe on the right side in the upper part of the letter. Slovak letter L with caron has apostrophe instead of caron accent in both upper and lower case. See the picture above for illustration.
Polish letter A with ogonek has ogonek hanging down from the right leg of the letter A, not floating somewhere in the middle. Again, see the picture above for the illustration.
There is a dispute going on whether ISO 8859-2 is acceptable for usage with Romanian language or not. The two characters, S WITH CEDILLA and T WITH CEDILLA, are written in Romania with comma below in place of cedilla, and the standard will probably need a revision on places 0xAA, 0xBA, 0xDE and 0xFE.

References

[1]: Roman Czyborra, The ISO 8859 Alphabet Soup, February 27, 1995.
[2]: Keld Simonsen, Character Mnemonics & Character Sets, RFC 1345, June 1992.
[3]: Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Characters and character sets for various languages (Internet draft), August 1995.
[4]: Keld Simonsen, Internationalization section on the Danish Unix User Group FTP site.
[5]: Markku Rossi, GNU enscript, table of ISO 8859-2 including PostScript names and HTML entities, where they exist.

Created 1996-03-12 by P. Peterlin
Last revision 1998-03-14 (P. Peterlin)
Back to ISO 8859-2 Resources