Before Unicode

Before the creation of Unicode, the computing world actively used hundreds of different 8-bit character encodings, which placed a selection of characters in slots numbered from 0 to 255. Each encoding had a name, but which encoding was in use was not always actively flagged in a text file - and opening a text file with the wrong encoding often led to unintelligible text.

Document Interchange

The creation of Unicode - a single standard character encoding containing all characters for all languages - meant complete and reliable text transfer between different Unicode-supporting applications and different Unicode-aware operating systems. No questions, no options, just complete reproduction of all text, whatever the language.

One Font, All Languages

With a standard large character set, we can at last have one font file for all languages - no need for separate Latin, Greek and Cyrillic fonts. You can enter multilingual, multiscript text in one document with one font, so long as that font covers all of the script systems that you need.

Application Support

The vast majority of today's office applications, design applications and web browsers are fully Unicode aware, giving support for a rich array of script systems and languages. The only thing you need to unlock this flexibility is a font which contains the Unicode characters needed to represent the languages you need.

The Future

Unicode is a rigorously-defined, well-tested standard, but work on improving it goes on. Today we're at version 5 of the standard, covering more script systems and more languages in more depth than ever before. Dalton Maag is keen to assist clients in embracing the international opportunities that using Unicode can give.