ASCII, Windows-1252, UTF-8
and the First 256 Characters

Ever notice that the first 32 ASCII characters are control characters? Well according to Unicode, so are the first 32 characters of the 128-255 range (often falsely referred to as "high ASCII")! These very same characters are often legally used in Windows programs, so people falsely assume these codes are universal. 

For instance, an em-dash can be inserted in most Windows editing programs by typing ALT+0151. But in Unicode (and thus HTML or XML), the character reference — is invalid - it points to an illegal control code (see below). If you happen to actually see an em-dash in your browser when the author has used — it's due to a bug in the browser. So if you are accustomed to typing ALT+nnn, where nnn is in the 128-159 range, you'd better check to see what the real Unicode equivalent is. Either use the entity — (if you're using HTML) or use the character reference — or its hex equivalent —.

Be sure to check out Jukka Korpela's On the use of some MS Windows characters in HTML for an excellent discussion of these issues...

^ means Control character follows (^A = CTRL+A)
Italicized names are names of Control characters

 
Characters 0 to 31 are control characters in the 0 - 127 standard ASCII code set.
 
Dec Hex Glyph Entity name Description
0 00  X   X  ^@ NUL
1 01  X   X  ^A SOH
2 02  X   X  ^B STX
3 03  X   X  ^C ETX
4 04  X   X  ^D EOT
5 05  X   X  ^E ENQ
6 06  X   X  ^F ACK
7 07  X   X  ^G BEL
8 08  X   X  ^H BS
9 09  X   X  ^I HT
10 0A  X   X  ^J LF
11 0B  X   X  ^K VT
12 0C  X   X  ^L FF
13 0D  X   X  ^M CR
14 0E  X   X  ^N SO
15 0F  X   X  ^O SI
16 10  X   X  ^P ACK
17 11  X   X  ^Q DC1
18 12  X   X  ^R DC2
19 13  X   X  ^S DC3
20 14  X   X  ^T DC4
21 15  X   X  ^U NAK
22 16  X   X  ^V SYN
23 17  X   X  ^W ETB
24 18  X   X  ^X CAN
25 19  X   X  ^Y EM
26 1A  X   X  ^Z SUB
27 1B  X   X  ^] ESC
28 1C  X   X  ^< FS
29 1D  X   X  ^/ GS
30 1E  X   X  ^= RS
31 1F  X   X  ^- US
 
Characters 32 - 127 are the "printable" ASCII characters.
 
Dec Hex Glyph Entity name Description
32 20     space
33 21 !   exclamation mark
34 22 " quot double quote
35 23 #   number sign
36 24 $   dollar sign
37 25 %   percent sign
38 26 & amp ampersand
39 27 ' apos single quote
40 28 (   left parenthesis
41 29 )   right parenthesis
42 2A *   asterisk
43 2B +   plus sign
44 2C ,   comma
45 2D -   minus sign
46 2E .   period
47 2F /   slash, virgule
48 30 0   digit zero
49 31 1   digit one
50 32 2   digit two
51 33 3   digit three
52 34 4   digit four
53 35 5   digit five
54 36 6   digit six
55 37 7   digit seven
56 38 8   digit eight
57 39 9   digit nine
58 3A :   colon
59 3B ;   semicolon
60 3C < lt less than sign
61 3D =   equals sign
62 3E > gt greater than sign
63 3F ?   question mark
64 40 @   at sign
65 41 A   latin capital letter A
66 42 B   latin capital letter B
67 43 C   latin capital letter C
68 44 D   latin capital letter D
69 45 E   latin capital letter E
70 46 F   latin capital letter F
71 47 G   latin capital letter G
72 48 H   latin capital letter H
73 49 I   latin capital letter I
74 4A J   latin capital letter J
75 4B K   latin capital letter K
76 4C L   latin capital letter L
77 4D M   latin capital letter M
78 4E N   latin capital letter N
79 4F O   latin capital letter O
80 50 P   latin capital letter P
81 51 Q   latin capital letter Q
82 52 R   latin capital letter R
83 53 S   latin capital letter S
84 54 T   latin capital letter T
85 55 U   latin capital letter U
86 56 V   latin capital letter V
87 57 W   latin capital letter W
88 58 X   latin capital letter X
89 59 Y   latin capital letter Y
90 5A Z   latin capital letter Z
91 5B [   left bracket
92 5C \   back slash
93 5D ]   right bracket
94 5E ^   circumflex
95 5F _   underline
96 60 `   accent
97 61 a   latin small letter a
98 62 b   latin small letter b
99 63 c   latin small letter c
100 64 d   latin small letter d
101 65 e   latin small letter e
102 66 f   latin small letter f
103 67 g   latin small letter g
104 68 h   latin small letter h
105 69 i   latin small letter i
106 6A j   latin small letter j
107 6B k   latin small letter k
108 6C l   latin small letter l
109 6D m   latin small letter m
110 6E n   latin small letter n
111 6F o   latin small letter o
112 70 p   latin small letter p
113 71 q   latin small letter q
114 72 r   latin small letter r
115 73 s   latin small letter s
116 74 t   latin small letter t
117 75 u   latin small letter u
118 76 v   latin small letter v
119 77 w   latin small letter w
120 78 x   latin small letter x
121 79 y   latin small letter y
122 7A z   latin small letter z
123 7B {   left brace
124 7C |   vertical bar
125 7D }   right brace
126 7E ~   tilde
127 7F  X   X  DEL
 
Characters 128 to 159 are Unicode control characters.
 
Dec Hex Glyph Entity name Suggestion
128 80  X   X  Try 8364/20ac = € = euro
129 81  X   X 
130 82  X   X  Try 8218/201a = ‚ = sbquo
131 83  X   X  Try 402/0192 = ƒ = fnof
132 84  X   X  Try 8222/201e = „ = bdquo
133 85  X   X  Try 8230/2026 = … = hellip
134 86  X   X  Try 8224/x2020 = † = dagger
135 87  X   X  Try 8225/2021 = ‡ = Dagger
136 88  X   X  Try 710/02c6 = ˆ = circ
137 89  X   X  Try 8240/2030 = ‰ = permil
138 8A  X   X  Try 352/0160 = Š = Scaron
139 8B  X   X  Try 8249/2039 = ‹ = lsaquo
140 8C  X   X  Try 338/0152 = Œ = OElig
141 8D  X   X 
142 8E  X   X  Try 381/017d  = Ž
143 8F  X   X 
144 90  X   X 
145 91  X   X  Try 8216/2018 = ‘ = lsquo
146 92  X   X  Try 8217/2019 = ’ = rsquo
147 93  X   X  Try 8220/201c = “ = ldquo
148 94  X   X  Try 8221/201d = ” = rdquo
149 95  X   X  Try 8226/2022 = • = bull
150 96  X   X  Try 8211/x2013 = – = ndash
151 97  X   X  Try 8212/x2014 = — = mdash
152 98  X   X  Try 732/02dc = ˜ = tilde
153 99  X   X  Try 8482/2122 = ™ = trade
154 9A  X   X  Try 353/0161 = š = scaron
155 9B  X   X  Try 8250/203a = › = rsaquo
156 9C  X   X  Try 339/0153 = œ = oelig
157 9D  X   X 
158 9E  X   X  Try 382/017e = ž 
159 9F  X   X  Try 376/0178 = Ÿ = &Yuml
 
Characters 160 - 255 comprise the Latin 1 Supplement (iso-8859-1).
 
Dec Hex Glyph Entity name Description
160 A0   nbsp non-breaking space
161 A1 ¡ iexcl inverted exclamation mark
162 A2 ¢ cent cent sign
163 A3 £ pound pound sign
164 A4 ¤ curren currency sign
165 A5 ¥ yen yen sign = yuan sign
166 A6 ¦ brvbar broken bar = broken vertical bar
167 A7 § sect section sign
168 A8 ¨ uml diaeresis = spacing diaeresis
169 A9 © copy copyright sign
170 AA ª ordf feminine ordinal indicator
171 AB « laquo left-pointing double angle quotation mark
172 AC ¬ not not sign
173 AD ­ shy soft hyphen = discretionary hyphen
174 AE ® reg registered sign
175 AF ¯ macr macron = spacing macron = overline
176 B0 ° deg degree sign
177 B1 ± plusmn plus-minus sign = plus-or-minus sign
178 B2 ² sup2 superscript two = squared
179 B3 ³ sup3 superscript three = cubed
180 B4 ´ acute acute accent = spacing acute
181 B5 µ micro micro sign
182 B6 para pilcrow sign = paragraph sign
183 B7 · middot middle dot
184 B8 ¸ cedil cedilla = spacing cedilla
185 B9 ¹ sup1 superscript one = superscript digit one
186 BA º ordm masculine ordinal indicator
187 BB » raquo right-pointing double angle quotation mark
188 BC ¼ frac14 fraction one quarter
189 BD ½ frac12 fraction one half
190 BE ¾ frac34 fraction three quarters
191 BF ¿ iquest inverted question mark
192 C0 À Agrave latin capital letter A with grave
193 C1 Á Aacute latin capital letter A with acute
194 C2 Â Acirc latin capital letter A with circumflex
195 C3 Ã Atilde latin capital letter A with tilde
196 C4 Ä Auml latin capital letter A with diaeresis
197 C5 Å Aring latin capital letter A with ring above
198 C6 Æ AElig latin capital ligature AE
199 C7 Ç Ccedil latin capital letter C with cedilla
200 C8 È Egrave latin capital letter E with grave
201 C9 É Eacute latin capital letter E with acute
202 CA Ê Ecirc latin capital letter E with circumflex
203 CB Ë Euml latin capital letter E with diaeresis
204 CC Ì Igrave latin capital letter I with grave
205 CD Í Iacute latin capital letter I with acute
206 CE Î Icirc latin capital letter I with circumflex
207 CF Ï Iuml latin capital letter I with diaeresis
208 D0 Ð ETH latin capital letter ETH
209 D1 Ñ Ntilde latin capital letter N with tilde
210 D2 Ò Ograve latin capital letter O with grave
211 D3 Ó Oacute latin capital letter O with acute
212 D4 Ô Ocirc latin capital letter O with circumflex
213 D5 Õ Otilde latin capital letter O with tilde
214 D6 Ö Ouml latin capital letter O with diaeresis
215 D7 × times multiplication sign
216 D8 Ø Oslash latin capital letter O with stroke
217 D9 Ù Ugrave latin capital letter U with grave
218 DA Ú Uacute latin capital letter U with acute
219 DB Û Ucirc latin capital letter U with circumflex
220 DC Ü Uuml latin capital letter U with diaeresis
221 DD Ý Yacute latin capital letter Y with acute
222 DE Þ THORN latin capital letter THORN
223 DF ß szlig latin small letter sharp s = ess-zed
224 E0 à agrave latin small letter a with grave
225 E1 á aacute latin small letter a with acute
226 E2 â acirc latin small letter a with circumflex
227 E3 ã atilde latin small letter a with tilde
228 E4 ä auml latin small letter a with diaeresis
229 E5 å aring latin small letter a with ring above
230 E6 æ aelig latin small ligature ae
231 E7 ç ccedil latin small letter c with cedilla
232 E8 è egrave latin small letter e with grave
233 E9 é eacute latin small letter e with acute
234 EA ê ecirc latin small letter e with circumflex
235 EB ë euml latin small letter e with diaeresis
236 EC ì igrave latin small letter i with grave
237 ED í iacute latin small letter i with acute
238 EE î icirc latin small letter i with circumflex
239 EF ï iuml latin small letter i with diaeresis
240 F0 ð eth latin small letter eth
241 F1 ñ ntilde latin small letter n with tilde
242 F2 ò ograve latin small letter o with grave
243 F3 ó oacute latin small letter o with acute
244 F4 ô ocirc latin small letter o with circumflex
245 F5 õ otilde latin small letter o with tilde
246 F6 ö ouml latin small letter o with diaeresis
247 F7 ÷ divide division sign
248 F8 ø oslash latin small letter o with stroke
249 F9 ù ugrave latin small letter u with grave
250 FA ú uacute latin small letter u with acute
251 FB û ucirc latin small letter u with circumflex
252 FC ü uuml latin small letter u with diaeresis
253 FD ý yacute latin small letter y with acute
254 FE þ thorn latin small letter thorn with
255 FF ÿ yuml latin small letter y with diaeresis