Codepages

Better codepage classification and design

Microsoft has improved codepage design for the NT and Windows 95 operating systems. A codepage is a list of selected character codes, arranged in a certain order, that support specific languages or groups of languages that share common scripts. For example, codepage 1253 provides character codes for Greek and codepage 1252 lists character codes for US English and other languages that use the Latin script.

The encoding order of the character codes in a codepage enables the operating system to return the appropriate character code to an application when a user presses a key on the keyboard. When a new codepage is loaded, a new set of character codes is returned to the application.

Using the OS/2 table data in a TrueType font, an application can determine which codepages a specific font supports and can then present script or language system options to the user. In Windows 95, the user can change codepages on-the-fly without changing the default language system in use.