Windows-1256 is a code page used to write Arabic (and possibly some other languages that use Arabic script, like Persian and Urdu) under Microsoft Windows. This code page is not compatible with ISO 8859-6 and MacArabic encodings.
It encodes every abstract single letter of the basic Arabic alphabet, not every concrete visual form of isolated, initial, medial, final or ligatured letter shape variants (i.e. it encodes characters, not glyphs). The Arabic letters in the C0-FF range are in Arabic alphabetic order, but some Latin characters are interspersed among them. These are some Windows-1252 Latin characters used for French, since this European language has some historic relevance in former French colonies in North Africa such as Morocco and Algeria. This allowed French and Arabic text to be intermixed when using Windows 1256 without any need for code-page switching (however, upper-case letters with diacritics were not included).
Unicode is preferred over Windows 1256 in modern applications, especially on the Internet; meaning the dominant UTF-8 encoding for web pages (see also Arabic script in Unicode, for complete coverage, unlike for e.g. Windows 1256 or ISO-8859-6 that do not cover extras). Less than 0.1% of all web pages use Windows-1256 in September 2019.[1][2]
Character set
Since the original code page left 9 values (bytes) marked as "NOT USED" in the original specification, [3] these bytes were used later for additional characters needed for the Perso-Arabic script (for the Persian and Urdu languages), plus the Euro Sign. [4]
The following table shows the extended version of Windows-1256. Each character is shown with its Unicode equivalent and its decimal code.
Here every Arabic letter is shown in isolated form. The actual forms of the letters inside Arabic words are rendered by a combination of software rules and appropriate font support.
_0 | _1 | _2 | _3 | _4 | _5 | _6 | _7 | _8 | _9 | _A | _B | _C | _D | _E | _F | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0_ 0 |
NUL 0000 |
SOH 0001 |
STX 0002 |
ETX 0003 |
EOT 0004 |
ENQ 0005 |
ACK 0006 |
BEL 0007 |
BS 0008 |
HT 0009 |
LF 000A |
VT 000B |
FF 000C |
CR 000D |
SO 000E |
SI 000F |
1_ 16 |
DLE 0010 |
DC1 0011 |
DC2 0012 |
DC3 0013 |
DC4 0014 |
NAK 0015 |
SYN 0016 |
ETB 0017 |
CAN 0018 |
EM 0019 |
SUB 001A |
ESC 001B |
FS 001C |
GS 001D |
RS 001E |
US 001F |
2_ 32 |
SP 0020 |
! 0021 |
" 0022 |
# 0023 |
$ 0024 |
% 0025 |
& 0026 |
' 0027 |
( 0028 |
) 0029 |
* 002A |
+ 002B |
, 002C |
- 002D |
. 002E |
/ 002F |
3_ 48 |
0 0030 |
1 0031 |
2 0032 |
3 0033 |
4 0034 |
5 0035 |
6 0036 |
7 0037 |
8 0038 |
9 0039 |
: 003A |
; 003B |
< 003C |
= 003D |
> 003E |
? 003F |
4_ 64 |
@ 0040 |
A 0041 |
B 0042 |
C 0043 |
D 0044 |
E 0045 |
F 0046 |
G 0047 |
H 0048 |
I 0049 |
J 004A |
K 004B |
L 004C |
M 004D |
N 004E |
O 004F |
5_ 80 |
P 0050 |
Q 0051 |
R 0052 |
S 0053 |
T 0054 |
U 0055 |
V 0056 |
W 0057 |
X 0058 |
Y 0059 |
Z 005A |
[ 005B |
\ 005C |
] 005D |
^ 005E |
_ 005F |
6_ 96 |
` 0060 |
a 0061 |
b 0062 |
c 0063 |
d 0064 |
e 0065 |
f 0066 |
g 0067 |
h 0068 |
i 0069 |
j 006A |
k 006B |
l 006C |
m 006D |
n 006E |
o 006F |
7_ 112 |
p 0070 |
q 0071 |
r 0072 |
s 0073 |
t 0074 |
u 0075 |
v 0076 |
w 0077 |
x 0078 |
y 0079 |
z 007A |
{ 007B |
| 007C |
} 007D |
~ 007E |
DEL 007F |
8_ 128 |
€ 20AC |
پ 067E |
‚ 201A |
ƒ 0192 |
„ 201E |
… 2026 |
† 2020 |
‡ 2021 |
ˆ 02C6 |
‰ 2030 |
ٹ 0679 |
‹ 2039 |
Œ 0152 |
چ 0686 |
ژ 0698 |
ڈ 0688 |
9_ 144 |
گ 06AF |
‘ 2018 |
’ 2019 |
“ 201C |
” 201D |
• 2022 |
– 2013 |
— 2014 |
ک 06A9 |
™ 2122 |
ڑ 0691 |
› 203A |
œ 0153 |
ZWNJ 200C |
ZWJ 200D |
ں 06BA |
A_ 160 |
NBSP 00A0 |
، 060C |
¢ 00A2 |
£ 00A3 |
¤ 00A4 |
¥ 00A5 |
¦ 00A6 |
§ 00A7 |
¨ 00A8 |
© 00A9 |
ھ 06BE |
« 00AB |
¬ 00AC |
SHY 00AD |
® 00AE |
¯ 00AF |
B_ 176 |
° 00B0 |
± 00B1 |
² 00B2 |
³ 00B3 |
´ 00B4 |
µ 00B5 |
¶ 00B6 |
· 00B7 |
¸ 00B8 |
¹ 00B9 |
؛ 061B |
» 00BB |
¼ 00BC |
½ 00BD |
¾ 00BE |
؟ 061F |
C_ 192 |
ہ 06C1 |
ء 0621 |
آ 0622 |
أ 0623 |
ؤ 0624 |
إ 0625 |
ئ 0626 |
ا 0627 |
ب 0628 |
ة 0629 |
ت 062A |
ث 062B |
ج 062C |
ح 062D |
خ 062E |
د 062F |
D_ 208 |
ذ 0630 |
ر 0631 |
ز 0632 |
س 0633 |
ش 0634 |
ص 0635 |
ض 0636 |
× 00D7 |
ط 0637 |
ظ 0638 |
ع 0639 |
غ 063A |
ـ 0640 |
ف 0641 |
ق 0642 |
ك 0643 |
E_ 224 |
à 00E0 |
ل 0644 |
â 00E2 |
م 0645 |
ن 0646 |
ه 0647 |
و 0648 |
ç 00E7 |
è 00E8 |
é 00E9 |
ê 00EA |
ë 00EB |
ى 0649 |
ي 064A |
î 00EE |
ï 00EF |
F_ 240 |
ً 064B |
ٌ 064C |
ٍ 064D |
َ 064E |
ô 00F4 |
ُ 064F |
ِ 0650 |
÷ 00F7 |
ّ 0651 |
ù 00F9 |
ْ 0652 |
û 00FB |
ü 00FC |
LRM 200E |
RLM 200F |
ے 06D2 |
See also
References
- ^ "Historical trends in the usage of character encodings for websites, September 2019". w3techs.com.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". w3techs.com.
- ^ Archiveddocs. "Code Page 1256 Windows Arabic". docs.microsoft.com.
- ^ "cp1256 to Unicode table" (PDF). www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2019-05-31.