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).

Unicode and UTF-8 are preferred to Windows 1256 in modern applications. 0.2% of all web pages use Windows-1256 in February 2016.^[1][2]

Code page layout

The following table shows 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.

Legend:

Alphabetic   Control character   Numeric digit   Punctuation

Extended punctuation   Graphic character   International   Undefined

Windows-1256

	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F
0_	NUL 0000 0	SOH 0001 1	STX 0002 2	ETX 0003 3	EOT 0004 4	ENQ 0005 5	ACK 0006 6	BEL 0007 7	BS 0008 8	HT 0009 9	LF 000A 10	VT 000B 11	FF 000C 12	CR 000D 13	SO 000E 14	SI 000F 15
1_	DLE 0010 16	DC1 0011 17	DC2 0012 18	DC3 0013 19	DC4 0014 20	NAK 0015 21	SYN 0016 22	ETB 0017 23	CAN 0018 24	EM 0019 25	SUB 001A 26	ESC 001B 27	FS 001C 28	GS 001D 29	RS 001E 30	US 001F 31
2_	SP 0020 32	! 0021 33	" 0022 34	# 0023 35	$ 0024 36	% 0025 37	& 0026 38	' 0027 39	( 0028 40	) 0029 41	* 002A 42	+ 002B 43	, 002C 44	- 002D 45	. 002E 46	/ 002F 47
3_	0 0030 48	1 0031 49	2 0032 50	3 0033 51	4 0034 52	5 0035 53	6 0036 54	7 0037 55	8 0038 56	9 0039 57	: 003A 58	; 003B 59	< 003C 60	= 003D 61	> 003E 62	? 003F 63
4_	@ 0040 64	A 0041 65	B 0042 66	C 0043 67	D 0044 68	E 0045 69	F 0046 70	G 0047 71	H 0048 72	I 0049 73	J 004A 74	K 004B 75	L 004C 76	M 004D 77	N 004E 78	O 004F 79
5_	P 0050 80	Q 0051 81	R 0052 82	S 0053 83	T 0054 84	U 0055 85	V 0056 86	W 0057 87	X 0058 88	Y 0059 89	Z 005A 90	[ 005B 91	\ 005C 92	] 005D 93	^ 005E 94	_ 005F 95
6_	` 0060 96	a 0061 97	b 0062 98	c 0063 99	d 0064 100	e 0065 101	f 0066 102	g 0067 103	h 0068 104	i 0069 105	j 006A 106	k 006B 107	l 006C 108	m 006D 109	n 006E 110	o 006F 111
7_	p 0070 112	q 0071 113	r 0072 114	s 0073 115	t 0074 116	u 0075 117	v 0076 118	w 0077 119	x 0078 120	y 0079 121	z 007A 122	{ 007B 123	| 007C 124	} 007D 125	~ 007E 126	DEL 007F 127
8_	€ 20AC 128	پ 067E 129	‚ 201A 130	ƒ 0192 131	„ 201E 132	… 2026 133	† 2020 134	‡ 2021 135	ˆ 02C6 136	‰ 2030 137	ٹ 0679 138	‹ 2039 139	Œ 0152 140	چ 0686 141	ژ 0698 142	ڈ 0688 143
9_	گ 06AF 144	‘ 2018 145	’ 2019 146	“ 201C 147	” 201D 148	• 2022 149	– 2013 150	— 2014 151	ک 06A9 152	™ 2122 153	ڑ 0691 154	› 203A 155	œ 0153 156	ZWNJ 200C 157	ZWJ 200D 158	ں 06BA 159
A_	NBSP 00A0 160	، 060C 161	¢ 00A2 162	£ 00A3 163	¤ 00A4 164	¥ 00A5 165	¦ 00A6 166	§ 00A7 167	¨ 00A8 168	© 00A9 169	ھ 06BE 170	« 00AB 171	¬ 00AC 172	SHY 00AD 173	® 00AE 174	¯ 00AF 175
B_	° 00B0 176	± 00B1 177	² 00B2 178	³ 00B3 179	´ 00B4 180	µ 00B5 181	¶ 00B6 182	· 00B7 183	¸ 00B8 184	¹ 00B9 185	؛ 061B 186	» 00BB 187	¼ 00BC 188	½ 00BD 189	¾ 00BE 190	؟ 061F 191
C_	ہ 06C1 192	ء 0621 193	آ 0622 194	أ 0623 195	ؤ 0624 196	إ 0625 197	ئ 0626 198	ا 0627 199	ب 0628 200	ة 0629 201	ت 062A 202	ث 062B 203	ج 062C 204	ح 062D 205	خ 062E 206	د 062F 207
D_	ذ 0630 208	ر 0631 209	ز 0632 210	س 0633 211	ش 0634 212	ص 0635 213	ض 0636 214	× 00D7 215	ط 0637 216	ظ 0638 217	ع 0639 218	غ 063A 219	ـ 0640 220	ف 0641 221	ق 0642 222	ك 0643 223
E_	à 00E0 224	ل 0644 225	â 00E2 226	م 0645 227	ن 0646 228	ه 0647 229	و 0648 230	ç 00E7 231	è 00E8 232	é 00E9 233	ê 00EA 234	ë 00EB 235	ى 0649 236	ي 064A 237	î 00EE 238	ï 00EF 239
F_	ً 064B 240	ٌ 064C 241	ٍ 064D 242	َ 064E 243	ô 00F4 244	ُ 064F 245	ِ 0650 246	÷ 00F7 247	ّ 0651 248	ù 00F9 249	ْ 0652 250	û 00FB 251	ü 00FC 252	LRM 200E 253	RLM 200F 254	ے 06D2 255
	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F

References

1. http://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/character_encoding
2. http://w3techs.com/faq

External links

• Windows 1256 reference chart
• IANA Charset Name Registration of windows-1256
• Unicode mapping table for Windows 1256
• Unicode mappings of windows 1256 with "best fit"