Windows-1256

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).

IBM uses code page 1256 (CCSID 1256, euro sign extended CCSID 5352, and the further extended CCSID 9448) for Windows-1256.[1][2][3][4]

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.[5][6]

Character set

Since the original code page left 9 values (bytes) marked as "NOT USED" in the original specification,[7] these bytes were used later for additional characters needed for the Perso-Arabic script (for the Persian and Urdu languages), plus the euro sign.[8]

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.

Windows-1256[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

	_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

  Letter   Number   Punctuation   Symbol   Other   Undefined

See also

• LMBCS-4

References

1. "Code page 1256 information document". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
2. "CCSID 1256 information document". Archived from the original on 2016-03-27.
3. "CCSID 5352 information document". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29.
4. "CCSID 9448 information document". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29.
5. "Historical trends in the usage of character encodings for websites, September 2019". w3techs.com.
6. "Frequently Asked Questions". w3techs.com.
7. Archiveddocs. "Code Page 1256 Windows Arabic". docs.microsoft.com.
8. "cp1256 to Unicode table" (PDF). www.unicode.org. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
9. Unicode mappings of windows 1256 with "best fit"
10. Code Page CPGID 01256 (pdf) (PDF), IBM
11. Code Page CPGID 01256 (txt), IBM
12. International Components for Unicode (ICU), ibm-1256_P110-1997.ucm, 2002-12-03
13. International Components for Unicode (ICU), ibm-5352_P100-1998.ucm, 2002-12-03
14. International Components for Unicode (ICU), ibm-9448_X100-2005.ucm, 2005-11-15

External links

• Windows 1256 reference chart
• IANA Charset Name Registration of windows-1256