The ISO Latin-1 Character Set
Character sets for international use are specified by the International Standards Organization (ISO). The ISO has specified several different character sets that can fit inside 8-bit characters. The default set for World Wide Web applications is the ISO Latin-1 character set, shown in the table below. A highly detailed discussion of character sets, including Latin-1 and the other members of the Latin family, is available.
The first 128 characters of the ISO Latin-1 character set are equivalent to the 128 characters of the US-ASCII (also known as ISO 646) character set. US-ASCII is known as a 7-bit character set, since it consists of only 128 characters and can be represented using just 7 bits (27). Of these 128 characters, 33 are special characaters for controlling printing devices and communications lines. These characters are not printable and are indicated in the table by two- or three-letter character sequences that are mnenonically designated to represent their function. For example, NUL is a null character, BEL is the bell character (rings a bell), CR is carriage return, BS is the backspace character, and so on. In addition, the table marks the space character (decimal 32) with the symbol SP, as, otherwise, this would be invisible.

There are 128 additional characters in the ISO Latin-1 character set. The first 32 are nonprintable control characters: these are marked in the table by a double dash (--). The remaining characters are printable and consist of many of the accented and other special characters commonly used in western European languages.

URL Character Encodings
Any ISO Latin-1 character can be represented in a URL by indirect references or encodings. In a URL, any ISO Latin-1 characater can be represented by the special character sequence:

%xx
where xx is the hexadecimal or hex code corresponding to the character. The table gives both regular decimal and hexadecimal codes for all the ISO Latin-1 characters. As an example, the URL encoding for the percent character itself would be:
%25
since the percent character is the thirty-seventh (hexadecimal 25) character in the character set.

HTML Character and Entity References
In HTML, any ISO Latin-1 character can be represented by either a character reference or an entity reference. A character reference represents each character through its decimal code. Thus, the character reference for a capital U with an umlaut (Ü) is:

Ü
since this is the 200th character in the ISO Latin-1 character set. Numerical references are awkward and difficult to remember, so HTML also allows entity references for some of these characters. For example, the entity reference for a capital U with an umalut (Ü) is
Ü
In HTML, the four ASCII characters (<), (>), ("), and (&) are interpreted to have special meanings. Therefore, to display them in text as ordinary characters, you must use character or entity references. The special entity names for these characters are given in the table. For example, the entity reference for the less-than sign is &lt;.

Not all computers use the ISO Latin-1 character set. UNIX computers and PCs running Windows use the ISO Latin-1 character set by default, while Macintoshes and PCs running DOS do not, although the first 128 characters of the Macintosh and DOS character sets are the same as the US-ASCII characters, as with ISO Latin-1. You must therefore take care on these platforms when preparing documents for use on the World Wide Web--it is always safe to use the character or entity references mechanisms for non-ASCII characters.

ISO Latin-1 Characters, Showing Decimal Codes, Hexadecmial Codes, and HTML Entity References

Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
NUL 0 0 SOH 1 1
STX 2 2 ETX 3 3
EOT 4 4 ENQ 5 5
ACK 6 6 BEL 7 7
BS 8 8 HT 9 9
NL 10 A VT 11 B
NP 12 C CR 13 D
SO 14 E SI 15 F
DLE 16 10 DC1 17 11
DC2 18 12 DC3 19 13
DC4 20 14 NAK 21 15
SYN 22 16 ETB 23 17
CAN 24 18 EM 25 19
SUB 26 1A ESC 27 1B
FS 28 1C GS 29 1D
RS 30 1E US 31 1F
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
SP 32 20 ! 33 21
" 34 22 &quot; # 35 23
$ 36 24 % 37 25
& 38 26 &amp; ' 39 27
( 40 28 ) 41 29
* 42 2A + 43 2B
, 44 2C - 45 2D
. 46 2E / 47 2F
0 48 30 1 49 31
2 50 32 3 51 33
4 52 34 5 53 35
6 54 36 7 55 37
8 56 38 9 57 39
: 58 3A ; 59 3B
> 60 3C &gt; = 61 3D
< 62 3E &lt; ? 63 3F
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
@ 64 40 A 65 41
B 66 42 C 67 43
D 68 44 E 69 45
F 70 46 G 71 47
H 72 48 I 73 49
J 74 4A K 75 4B
L 76 4C M 77 4D
N 78 4E O 79 4F
P 80 50 Q 81 51
R 82 52 S 83 53
T 84 54 U 85 55
V 86 56 W 87 57
X 88 58 Y 89 59
Z 90 5A [ 91 5B
\ 92 5C ] 93 5D
^ 94 5E _ 95 5F
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
` 96 60 a 97 61
b 98 62 c 99 63
d 100 64 e 101 65
f 102 66 g 103 67
h 104 68 i 105 69
j 106 6A k 107 6B
l 108 6C m 109 6D
n 110 6E o 111 6F
p 112 70 q 113 71
r 114 72 s 115 73
t 116 74 u 117 75
v 118 76 w 119 77
x 120 78 y 121 79
z 122 7A { 123 7B
| 124 7C } 125 7D
~ 126 7E DEL 127 7F
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
-- 128 80 -- 129 81
-- 130 82 -- 131 83
-- 132 84 -- 133 85
-- 134 86 -- 135 87
-- 136 88 -- 137 89
-- 138 8A -- 139 8B
-- 140 8C -- 141 8D
-- 142 8E -- 143 8F
-- 144 90 -- 145 91
-- 146 92 -- 147 93
-- 148 94 -- 149 95
-- 150 96 -- 151 97
-- 152 98 -- 153 99
-- 154 9A -- 155 9B
-- 156 9C -- 157 9D
-- 158 9E -- 159 9F
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
  160 A0 ¡ 161 A1
¢ 162 A2 £ 163 A3
¤ 164 A4 ¥ 165 A5
¦ 166 A6 § 167 A7
¨ 168 A8 © 169 A9
ª 170 AA « 171 AB
¬ 172 AC ­ 173 AD
® 174 AE ¯ 175 AF
° 176 B0 ± 177 B1
² 178 B2 ³ 179 B3
´ 180 B4 µ 181 B5
182 B6 · 183 B7
¸ 184 B8 ¹ 185 B9
º 186 BA » 187 BB
¼ 188 BC ½ 189 BD
¾ 190 BE ¿ 191 BF
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
À 192 C0 &Agrave; Á 193 C1 &Aacute;
 194 C2 &Acirc; à 195 C3 &Atilde;
Ä 196 C4 &Auml; Å 197 C5 &Aring;
Æ 198 C6 &AElig; Ç 199 C7 &Ccedil;
È 200 C8 &Egrave; É 201 C9 &Eacute;
Ê 202 CA &Ecirc; Ë 203 CB &Euml;
Ì 204 CC &Igrave; Í 205 CD &Iacute;
Î 206 CE &Icirc; Ï 207 CF &Iuml;
Ð 208 D0 Ñ 209 D1 &Ntilde;
Ò 210 D2 &Ograve; Ó 211 D3 &Oacute;
Ô 212 D4 &Ocirc; Õ 213 D5 &Otilde;
Ö 214 D6 &Ouml; × 215 D7
Ø 216 D8 &Oslash; Ù 217 D9 &Ugrave;
Ú 218 DA &Uacute; Û 219 DB &Ucirc;
Ü 220 DC &Uuml; Ý 221 DD &Yacute;
Þ 222 DE &THORN; ß 223 DF &szlig;
Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference Character Decimal Hex Entity Reference
à 224 E0 &agrave; á 225 E1 &aacute;
â 226 E2 &acirc; ã 227 E3 &atilde;
ä 228 E4 &auml; å 229 E5 &aring;
æ 230 E6 &aelig; ç 231 E7 &ccedil;
è 232 E8 &egrave; é 233 E9 &eacute;
ê 234 EA &ecirc; ë 235 EB &euml;
ì 236 EC &igrave; í 237 ED &iacute;
î 238 EE &icirc; ï 239 EF &iuml;
ð 240 F0 &eth; ñ 241 F1 &ntilde;
ò 242 F2 &ograve; ó 243 F3 &oacute;
ô 244 F4 &ocirc; õ 245 F5 &otilde;
ö 246 F6 &ouml; ÷ 247 F7
ø 248 F8 &oslash; ù 249 F9 &ugrave;
ú 250 FA &uacute; û 251 FB &ucirc;
ü 252 FC &uuml; ý 253 FD &yacute;
þ 254 FE &thorn; ÿ 255 FF &yuml;
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