Mac OS Roman
Encyclopedia
Mac OS Roman is a character encoding
primarily used by Mac OS
to represent text. It encodes 256 characters, the first 128 of which are identical to ASCII
, with the remaining characters including mathematical symbols, diacritic
s, and additional punctuation marks. It is suitable for use to represent English
and several other Western languages. Mac OS Roman is a superset of the original Macintosh character set, used in System 1
.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
identifies this encoding using the string "macintosh". The MIME
Content-Type for this encoding is therefore "text/plain; charset=macintosh". Mac OS Roman is also referred to as MacRoman or the Apple Standard Roman character set.
With the release of Mac OS X
, Mac OS Roman and all other "scripts" (as the Mac OS called them) were replaced by UTF-8
as the standard character encoding for the Macintosh operating system. However, default character encoding in Java for Mac OS X is still MacRoman (see Mac Dev Center), and the keyboard layout
with its combination of control
, option
, and dead key
s still map to the original characters in MacRoman.
equivalent right below and its decimal code at the bottom.
>
The (usually nonprintable) character 0x11 mapped to the Command key
glyph (⌘) in many fonts, particularly those intended for use as system fonts. It is mappable to the Unicode character U+2318 "Place of Interest Sign" (⌘). The codes 0x12, 0x13, and 0x14 were also used for icons to indicate the shift, option, and control keys in menu items. The codes 0xA2, 0xA3, 0xA9, 0xB1, and 0xB5 coincidentally have the same character assignment as ISO-8859-1 (and thus Unicode
). Before Mac OS 8.5
, the character 0xDB mapped to currency sign
(¤), Unicode character U+00A4. The character 0xF0 is a solid Apple logo. The Unicode equivalent U+F8FF is in the Corporate Private Use Area, but it is probably not supported on non-Apple platforms.
Character encoding
A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
primarily used by Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
to represent text. It encodes 256 characters, the first 128 of which are identical to ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
, with the remaining characters including mathematical symbols, diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s, and additional punctuation marks. It is suitable for use to represent English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and several other Western languages. Mac OS Roman is a superset of the original Macintosh character set, used in System 1
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
identifies this encoding using the string "macintosh". The MIME
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
Content-Type for this encoding is therefore "text/plain; charset=macintosh". Mac OS Roman is also referred to as MacRoman or the Apple Standard Roman character set.
With the release of Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Mac OS Roman and all other "scripts" (as the Mac OS called them) were replaced by UTF-8
UTF-8
UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks...
as the standard character encoding for the Macintosh operating system. However, default character encoding in Java for Mac OS X is still MacRoman (see Mac Dev Center), and the keyboard layout
Keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific mechanical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key–meaning associations of a computer, typewriter, or other typographic keyboard....
with its combination of control
Control key
In computing, a Control key is a modifier key which, when pressed in conjunction with another key, will perform a special operation ; similar to the Shift key, the Control key rarely performs any function when pressed by itself...
, option
Option key
The Option key is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two option keys on modern Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar....
, and dead key
Dead key
A dead key is a special kind of a modifier key on a typewriter or computer keyboard that is typically used to attach a specific diacritic to a base letter. The dead key does not generate a character by itself but modifies the character generated by the key struck immediately after...
s still map to the original characters in MacRoman.
Codepage layout
The following table shows how characters are encoded in Macintosh Roman. Each character is shown with its UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
equivalent right below and its decimal code at the bottom.
The (usually nonprintable) character 0x11 mapped to the Command key
Command key
The Command key, also historically known as the Apple key, open-Apple key or meta key is a modifier key present on Apple Keyboards. The Command key's purpose is to allow the user to enter keyboard shortcut commands to GUI applications...
glyph (⌘) in many fonts, particularly those intended for use as system fonts. It is mappable to the Unicode character U+2318 "Place of Interest Sign" (⌘). The codes 0x12, 0x13, and 0x14 were also used for icons to indicate the shift, option, and control keys in menu items. The codes 0xA2, 0xA3, 0xA9, 0xB1, and 0xB5 coincidentally have the same character assignment as ISO-8859-1 (and thus Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
). Before Mac OS 8.5
Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It represented the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, some six years previously. It puts more emphasis on color than previous operating systems...
, the character 0xDB mapped to currency sign
Currency (typography)
The currency sign is a character used to denote a currency, when the symbol for a particular currency is unavailable. It is particularly common in place of symbols, such as that of the Colón , which are absent from most character sets and fonts...
(¤), Unicode character U+00A4. The character 0xF0 is a solid Apple logo. The Unicode equivalent U+F8FF is in the Corporate Private Use Area, but it is probably not supported on non-Apple platforms.
External links
- http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/ROMAN.TXT
- http://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/Text/Text-30.html#HEADING30-9 Description of Mac OS Roman