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  Emacs allows editing text with international characters by supporting
all the related activities:

@itemize @bullet
@item
You can visit files with non-ASCII characters, save non-ASCII text, and
pass non-ASCII text between Emacs and programs it invokes (such as
compilers, spell-checkers, and mailers).  Setting your language
environment (@pxref{Language Environments}) takes care of setting up the
coding systems and other options for a specific language or culture.
Alternatively, you can specify how Emacs should encode or decode text
for each command; see @ref{Specify Coding}.

@item
You can display non-ASCII characters encoded by the various scripts.
This works by using appropriate fonts on X and similar graphics
displays (@pxref{Defining Fontsets}), and by sending special codes to
text-only displays (@pxref{Specify Coding}).  If some characters are
displayed incorrectly, refer to @ref{Undisplayable Characters}, which
describes possible problems and explains how to solve them.

@item
You can insert non-ASCII characters or search for them.  To do that,
you can specify an input method (@pxref{Select Input Method}) suitable
for your language, or use the default input method set up when you set
your language environment.  (Emacs input methods are part of the Leim
package, which must be installed for you to be able to use them.)  If
your keyboard can produce non-ASCII characters, you can select an
appropriate keyboard coding system (@pxref{Specify Coding}), and Emacs
will accept those characters.  Latin-1 characters can also be input by
using the @kbd{C-x 8} prefix, see @ref{Single-Byte Character Support,
C-x 8}.  On X Window systems, your locale should be set to an
appropriate value to make sure Emacs interprets keyboard input

  The users of international character sets and scripts have established
many more-or-less standard coding systems for storing files.  Emacs
internally uses a single multibyte character encoding, so that it can
intermix characters from all these scripts in a single buffer or string.
This encoding represents each non-ASCII character as a sequence of bytes
in the range 0200 through 0377.  Emacs translates between the multibyte
character encoding and various other coding systems when reading and
writing files, when exchanging data with subprocesses, and (in some
cases) in the @kbd{C-q} command (@pxref{Multibyte Conversion}).

in that buffer.

@cindex Lisp files, and multibyte operation
@cindex multibyte operation, and Lisp files
@cindex unibyte operation, and Lisp files
@cindex init file, and non-ASCII characters
@cindex environment variables, and non-ASCII characters
  With @samp{--unibyte}, multibyte strings are not created during
initialization from the values of environment variables,
@file{/etc/passwd} entries etc.@: that contain non-ASCII 8-bit
characters.

  Emacs normally loads Lisp files as multibyte, regardless of whether
you used @samp{--unibyte}.  This includes the Emacs initialization
file, @file{.emacs}, and the initialization files of Emacs packages

@code{locale-charset-language-names} and @code{locale-language-names},
and selects the corresponding language environment if a match is found.
(The former variable overrides the latter.)  It also adjusts the display
table and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, the
preferred coding system as needed for the locale, and---last but not
least---the way Emacs decodes non-ASCII characters sent by your keyboard.

  If you modify the @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}
environment variables while running Emacs, you may want to invoke the
@code{set-locale-environment} function afterwards to readjust the
language environment from the new locale.

specifically for interactive input.  In Emacs, typically each language
has its own input method; sometimes several languages which use the same
characters can share one input method.  A few languages support several
input methods.

  The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters
into another alphabet; this allows you to use one other alphabet
instead of ASCII.  The Greek and Russian input methods
work this way.

  A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
characters into one letter.  Many European input methods use composition
to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence that consists of a
letter followed by accent characters (or vice versa).  For example, some
methods convert the sequence @kbd{a'} into a single accented letter.
These input methods have no special commands of their own; all they do
is compose sequences of printing characters.

language environment that it is meant to be used with.  The variable
@code{current-input-method} records which input method is selected.

@findex toggle-input-method
@kindex C-\
  Input methods use various sequences of ASCII characters to stand for
non-ASCII characters.  Sometimes it is useful to turn off the input
method temporarily.  To do this, type @kbd{C-\}
(@code{toggle-input-method}).  To reenable the input method, type
@kbd{C-\} again.

  If you type @kbd{C-\} and you have not yet selected an input method,

  To display a list of all the supported input methods, type @kbd{M-x
list-input-methods}.  The list gives information about each input
method, including the string that stands for it in the mode line.

@node Multibyte Conversion
@section Unibyte and Multibyte Non-ASCII characters

  When multibyte characters are enabled, character codes 0240 (octal)
through 0377 (octal) are not really legitimate in the buffer.  The valid
non-ASCII printing characters have codes that start from 0400.

  If you type a self-inserting character in the range 0240 through
0377, or if you use @kbd{C-q} to insert one, Emacs assumes you
intended to use one of the ISO Latin-@var{n} character sets, and
converts it to the Emacs code representing that Latin-@var{n}

creating the coding system for the codepage, you can use it as any
other coding system.  For example, to visit a file encoded in codepage
850, type @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c cp850 @key{RET} C-x C-f @var{filename}
@key{RET}}.

  In addition to converting various representations of non-ASCII
characters, a coding system can perform end-of-line conversion.  Emacs
handles three different conventions for how to separate lines in a file:
newline, carriage-return linefeed, and just carriage-return.

@table @kbd

predictable.  For example, the coding system @code{iso-latin-1} has
variants @code{iso-latin-1-unix}, @code{iso-latin-1-dos} and
@code{iso-latin-1-mac}.

  The coding system @code{raw-text} is good for a file which is mainly
ASCII text, but may contain byte values above 127 which are not meant to
encode non-ASCII characters.  With @code{raw-text}, Emacs copies those
byte values unchanged, and sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to
@code{nil} in the current buffer so that they will be interpreted
properly.  @code{raw-text} handles end-of-line conversion in the usual
way, based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants to
specify the kind of end-of-line conversion to use.

  In contrast, the coding system @code{no-conversion} specifies no
character code conversion at all---none for non-ASCII byte values and
none for end of line.  This is useful for reading or writing binary
files, tar files, and other files that must be examined verbatim.  It,
too, sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil}.

  The easiest way to edit a file with no conversion of any kind is with
the @kbd{M-x find-file-literally} command.  This uses
@code{no-conversion}, and also suppresses other Emacs features that
might convert the file contents before you see them.  @xref{Visiting}.

  The coding system @code{emacs-mule} means that the file contains
non-ASCII characters stored with the internal Emacs encoding.  It
handles end-of-line conversion based on the data encountered, and has
the usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion.

@node Recognize Coding
@section Recognizing Coding Systems

the buffer.

  The default value of @code{inhibit-iso-escape-detection} is
@code{nil}.  We recommend that you not change it permanently, only for
one specific operation.  That's because many Emacs Lisp source files
in the Emacs distribution contain non-ASCII characters encoded in the
coding system @code{iso-2022-7bit}, and they won't be
decoded correctly when you visit those files if you suppress the
escape sequence detection.

@vindex coding

of the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line}), or type @kbd{C-h C @key{RET}}.

@findex unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
  The command @code{unify-8859-on-decoding-mode} enables a mode that
``unifies'' the Latin alphabets when decoding text.  This works by
converting all non-ASCII Latin-@var{n} characters to either Latin-1 or
Unicode characters.  This way it is easier to use various
Latin-@var{n} alphabets together.  In a future Emacs version we hope
to move towards full Unicode support and complete unification of
character sets.

  You can insert any possible character into any Emacs buffer, but
most coding systems can only handle some of the possible characters.
This means that it is possible for you to insert characters that
cannot be encoded with the coding system that will be used to save the
buffer.  For example, you could start with an ASCII file and insert a
few Latin-1 characters into it, or you could edit a text file in
Polish encoded in @code{iso-8859-2} and add some Russian words to it.
When you save the buffer, Emacs cannot use the current value of
@code{buffer-file-coding-system}, because the characters you added
cannot be encoded by that coding system.

@item C-x @key{RET} x @var{coding} @key{RET}
Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring selections to and from
other programs through the window system.

@item C-x @key{RET} X @var{coding} @key{RET}
Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring @emph{one}
selection---the next one---to or from the window system.
@end table

@vindex keyboard-coding-system
  The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k} (@code{set-keyboard-coding-system})
or the Custom option @code{keyboard-coding-system}
specifies the coding system for keyboard input.  Character-code
translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals with keys that
send non-ASCII graphic characters---for example, some terminals designed
for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.

  By default, keyboard input is translated based on your system locale
setting.  If your terminal does not really support the encoding
implied by your locale (for example, if you find it inserts a
non-ASCII character if you type @kbd{M-i}), you will need to set
@code{keyboard-coding-system} to @code{nil} to turn off encoding.
You can do this by putting

@lisp
(set-keyboard-coding-system nil)

  There is a similarity between using a coding system translation for
keyboard input, and using an input method: both define sequences of
keyboard input that translate into single characters.  However, input
methods are designed to be convenient for interactive use by humans, and
the sequences that are translated are typically sequences of ASCII
printing characters.  Coding systems typically translate sequences of
non-graphic characters.

@kindex C-x RET x
@kindex C-x RET X

  The default for translation of process input and output depends on the
current language environment.

@vindex file-name-coding-system
@cindex file names with non-ASCII characters
  The variable @code{file-name-coding-system} specifies a coding system
to use for encoding file names.  If you set the variable to a coding
system name (as a Lisp symbol or a string), Emacs encodes file names
using that coding system for all file operations.  This makes it
possible to use non-ASCII characters in file names---or, at least, those
non-ASCII characters which the specified coding system can encode.

  If @code{file-name-coding-system} is @code{nil}, Emacs uses a default
coding system determined by the selected language environment.  In the
default language environment, any non-ASCII characters in file names are
not encoded specially; they appear in the file system using the internal
Emacs representation.

  @strong{Warning:} if you change @code{file-name-coding-system} (or the
language environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems can

these buffers under the visited file name, saving may use the wrong file
name, or it may get an error.  If such a problem happens, use @kbd{C-x
C-w} to specify a new file name for that buffer.

@vindex locale-coding-system
@cindex decoding non-ASCII keyboard input on X
  The variable @code{locale-coding-system} specifies a coding system
to use when encoding and decoding system strings such as system error
messages and @code{format-time-string} formats and time stamps.  That
coding system is also used for decoding non-ASCII keyboard input on X
Window systems.  You should choose a coding system that is compatible
with the underlying system's text representation, which is normally
specified by one of the environment variables @env{LC_ALL},
@env{LC_CTYPE}, and @env{LANG}.  (The first one, in the order
specified above, whose value is nonempty is the one that determines

characters.@footnote{The Emacs installation instructions have information on
additional font support.}

  Emacs creates two fontsets automatically: the @dfn{standard fontset}
and the @dfn{startup fontset}.  The standard fontset is most likely to
have fonts for a wide variety of non-ASCII characters; however, this is
not the default for Emacs to use.  (By default, Emacs tries to find a
font that has bold and italic variants.)  You can specify use of the
standard fontset with the @samp{-fn} option, or with the @samp{Font} X
resource (@pxref{Font X}).  For example,

  Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the standard fontset are
created automatically.  Their names have @samp{bold} instead of
@samp{medium}, or @samp{i} instead of @samp{r}, or both.

@cindex startup fontset
  If you specify a default ASCII font with the @samp{Font} resource or
the @samp{-fn} argument, Emacs generates a fontset from it
automatically.  This is the @dfn{startup fontset} and its name is
@code{fontset-startup}.  It does this by replacing the @var{foundry},
@var{family}, @var{add_style}, and @var{average_width} fields of the
font name with @samp{*}, replacing @var{charset_registry} field with

font to use for that character set.  You can use this construct any
number of times in defining one fontset.

  For the other character sets, Emacs chooses a font based on
@var{fontpattern}.  It replaces @samp{fontset-@var{alias}} with values
that describe the character set.  For the ASCII character font,
@samp{fontset-@var{alias}} is replaced with @samp{ISO8859-1}.

  In addition, when several consecutive fields are wildcards, Emacs
collapses them into a single wildcard.  This is to prevent use of
auto-scaled fonts.  Fonts made by scaling larger fonts are not usable

@example
-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
@end example

@noindent
the font specification for ASCII characters would be this:

@example
-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
@end example

  @xref{Font X}, for more information about font naming in X.

@node Undisplayable Characters
@section Undisplayable Characters

  There may be a some non-ASCII characters that your terminal cannot
display.  Most non-windowing terminals support just a single character
set (use the variable @code{default-terminal-coding-system}
(@pxref{Specify Coding}) to tell Emacs which one); characters which
can't be encoded in that coding system are displayed as @samp{?} by
default.

  Windowing terminals can display a broader range of characters, but
you may not have fonts installed for all of them; characters that have
no font appear as a hollow box.

  If you use Latin-1 characters but your terminal can't display
Latin-1, you can arrange to display mnemonic ASCII sequences
instead, e.g.@: @samp{"o} for o-umlaut.  Load the library
@file{iso-ascii} to do this.

@vindex latin1-display
  If your terminal can display Latin-1, you can display characters
from other European character sets using a mixture of equivalent
Latin-1 characters and ASCII mnemonics.  Use the Custom option
@code{latin1-display} to enable this.  The mnemonic ASCII
sequences mostly correspond to those of the prefix input methods.

@node Single-Byte Character Support
@section Single-byte Character Set Support

set-language-environment} and specify a suitable language environment
such as @samp{Latin-@var{n}}.

  For more information about unibyte operation, see @ref{Enabling
Multibyte}.  Note particularly that you probably want to ensure that
your initialization files are read as unibyte if they contain non-ASCII
characters.

@vindex unibyte-display-via-language-environment
  Emacs can also display those characters, provided the terminal or font
in use supports them.  This works automatically.  Alternatively, if you

this, set the variable @code{unibyte-display-via-language-environment}
to a non-@code{nil} value.

@cindex @code{iso-ascii} library
  If your terminal does not support display of the Latin-1 character
set, Emacs can display these characters as ASCII sequences which at
least give you a clear idea of what the characters are.  To do this,
load the library @code{iso-ascii}.  Similar libraries for other
Latin-@var{n} character sets could be implemented, but we don't have
them yet.

  Normally non-ISO-8859 characters (decimal codes between 128 and 159
inclusive) are displayed as octal escapes.  You can change this for
non-standard ``extended'' versions of ISO-8859 character sets by using the
function @code{standard-display-8bit} in the @code{disp-table} library.

  There are several ways you can input single-byte non-ASCII
characters:

@itemize @bullet
@cindex 8-bit input
@item
If your keyboard can generate character codes 128 (decimal) and up,
representing non-ASCII characters, you can type those character codes
directly.

On a windowing terminal, you should not need to do anything special to
use these keys; they should simply work.  On a text-only terminal, you
should use the command @code{M-x set-keyboard-coding-system} or the

@kbd{Compose} or @kbd{AltGr} keys.  @xref{User Input}.

@item
You can use an input method for the selected language environment.
@xref{Input Methods}.  When you use an input method in a unibyte buffer,
the non-ASCII character you specify with it is converted to unibyte.

@kindex C-x 8
@cindex @code{iso-transl} library
@cindex compose character
@cindex dead character
@item
For Latin-1 only, you can use the
key @kbd{C-x 8} as a ``compose character'' prefix for entry of
non-ASCII Latin-1 printing characters.  @kbd{C-x 8} is good for
insertion (in the minibuffer as well as other buffers), for searching,
and in any other context where a key sequence is allowed.

@kbd{C-x 8} works by loading the @code{iso-transl} library.  Once that
library is loaded, the @key{ALT} modifier key, if you have one, serves

@cindex charsets

  Emacs groups all supported characters into disjoint @dfn{charsets}.
Each character code belongs to one and only one charset.  For
historical reasons, Emacs typically divides an 8-bit character code
for an extended version of ASCII into two charsets: ASCII, which
covers the codes 0 through 127, plus another charset which covers the
``right-hand part'' (the codes 128 and up).  For instance, the
characters of Latin-1 include the Emacs charset @code{ascii} plus the
Emacs charset @code{latin-iso8859-1}.

charset name and displays information about that charset, including
its internal representation within Emacs.

  To find out which charset a character in the buffer belongs to,
put point before it and type @kbd{C-u C-x =}.

89909:68c22ea6027c

  Emacs allows editing text with international characters by supporting
all the related activities:

@itemize @bullet
@item
You can visit files with non-@acronym{ASCII} characters, save non-@acronym{ASCII} text, and
pass non-@acronym{ASCII} text between Emacs and programs it invokes (such as
compilers, spell-checkers, and mailers).  Setting your language
environment (@pxref{Language Environments}) takes care of setting up the
coding systems and other options for a specific language or culture.
Alternatively, you can specify how Emacs should encode or decode text
for each command; see @ref{Specify Coding}.

@item
You can display non-@acronym{ASCII} characters encoded by the various scripts.
This works by using appropriate fonts on X and similar graphics
displays (@pxref{Defining Fontsets}), and by sending special codes to
text-only displays (@pxref{Specify Coding}).  If some characters are
displayed incorrectly, refer to @ref{Undisplayable Characters}, which
describes possible problems and explains how to solve them.

@item
You can insert non-@acronym{ASCII} characters or search for them.  To do that,
you can specify an input method (@pxref{Select Input Method}) suitable
for your language, or use the default input method set up when you set
your language environment.  (Emacs input methods are part of the Leim
package, which must be installed for you to be able to use them.)  If
your keyboard can produce non-@acronym{ASCII} characters, you can select an
appropriate keyboard coding system (@pxref{Specify Coding}), and Emacs
will accept those characters.  Latin-1 characters can also be input by
using the @kbd{C-x 8} prefix, see @ref{Single-Byte Character Support,
C-x 8}.  On X Window systems, your locale should be set to an
appropriate value to make sure Emacs interprets keyboard input

  The users of international character sets and scripts have established
many more-or-less standard coding systems for storing files.  Emacs
internally uses a single multibyte character encoding, so that it can
intermix characters from all these scripts in a single buffer or string.
This encoding represents each non-@acronym{ASCII} character as a sequence of bytes
in the range 0200 through 0377.  Emacs translates between the multibyte
character encoding and various other coding systems when reading and
writing files, when exchanging data with subprocesses, and (in some
cases) in the @kbd{C-q} command (@pxref{Multibyte Conversion}).

in that buffer.

@cindex Lisp files, and multibyte operation
@cindex multibyte operation, and Lisp files
@cindex unibyte operation, and Lisp files
@cindex init file, and non-@acronym{ASCII} characters
@cindex environment variables, and non-@acronym{ASCII} characters
  With @samp{--unibyte}, multibyte strings are not created during
initialization from the values of environment variables,
@file{/etc/passwd} entries etc.@: that contain non-@acronym{ASCII} 8-bit
characters.

  Emacs normally loads Lisp files as multibyte, regardless of whether
you used @samp{--unibyte}.  This includes the Emacs initialization
file, @file{.emacs}, and the initialization files of Emacs packages

@code{locale-charset-language-names} and @code{locale-language-names},
and selects the corresponding language environment if a match is found.
(The former variable overrides the latter.)  It also adjusts the display
table and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, the
preferred coding system as needed for the locale, and---last but not
least---the way Emacs decodes non-@acronym{ASCII} characters sent by your keyboard.

  If you modify the @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}
environment variables while running Emacs, you may want to invoke the
@code{set-locale-environment} function afterwards to readjust the
language environment from the new locale.

specifically for interactive input.  In Emacs, typically each language
has its own input method; sometimes several languages which use the same
characters can share one input method.  A few languages support several
input methods.

  The simplest kind of input method works by mapping @acronym{ASCII} letters
into another alphabet; this allows you to use one other alphabet
instead of @acronym{ASCII}.  The Greek and Russian input methods
work this way.

  A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
characters into one letter.  Many European input methods use composition
to produce a single non-@acronym{ASCII} letter from a sequence that consists of a
letter followed by accent characters (or vice versa).  For example, some
methods convert the sequence @kbd{a'} into a single accented letter.
These input methods have no special commands of their own; all they do
is compose sequences of printing characters.

language environment that it is meant to be used with.  The variable
@code{current-input-method} records which input method is selected.

@findex toggle-input-method
@kindex C-\
  Input methods use various sequences of @acronym{ASCII} characters to stand for
non-@acronym{ASCII} characters.  Sometimes it is useful to turn off the input
method temporarily.  To do this, type @kbd{C-\}
(@code{toggle-input-method}).  To reenable the input method, type
@kbd{C-\} again.

  If you type @kbd{C-\} and you have not yet selected an input method,

  To display a list of all the supported input methods, type @kbd{M-x
list-input-methods}.  The list gives information about each input
method, including the string that stands for it in the mode line.

@node Multibyte Conversion
@section Unibyte and Multibyte Non-@acronym{ASCII} characters

  When multibyte characters are enabled, character codes 0240 (octal)
through 0377 (octal) are not really legitimate in the buffer.  The valid
non-@acronym{ASCII} printing characters have codes that start from 0400.

  If you type a self-inserting character in the range 0240 through
0377, or if you use @kbd{C-q} to insert one, Emacs assumes you
intended to use one of the ISO Latin-@var{n} character sets, and
converts it to the Emacs code representing that Latin-@var{n}

creating the coding system for the codepage, you can use it as any
other coding system.  For example, to visit a file encoded in codepage
850, type @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c cp850 @key{RET} C-x C-f @var{filename}
@key{RET}}.

  In addition to converting various representations of non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters, a coding system can perform end-of-line conversion.  Emacs
handles three different conventions for how to separate lines in a file:
newline, carriage-return linefeed, and just carriage-return.

@table @kbd

predictable.  For example, the coding system @code{iso-latin-1} has
variants @code{iso-latin-1-unix}, @code{iso-latin-1-dos} and
@code{iso-latin-1-mac}.

  The coding system @code{raw-text} is good for a file which is mainly
@acronym{ASCII} text, but may contain byte values above 127 which are not meant to
encode non-@acronym{ASCII} characters.  With @code{raw-text}, Emacs copies those
byte values unchanged, and sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to
@code{nil} in the current buffer so that they will be interpreted
properly.  @code{raw-text} handles end-of-line conversion in the usual
way, based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants to
specify the kind of end-of-line conversion to use.

  In contrast, the coding system @code{no-conversion} specifies no
character code conversion at all---none for non-@acronym{ASCII} byte values and
none for end of line.  This is useful for reading or writing binary
files, tar files, and other files that must be examined verbatim.  It,
too, sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil}.

  The easiest way to edit a file with no conversion of any kind is with
the @kbd{M-x find-file-literally} command.  This uses
@code{no-conversion}, and also suppresses other Emacs features that
might convert the file contents before you see them.  @xref{Visiting}.

  The coding system @code{emacs-mule} means that the file contains
non-@acronym{ASCII} characters stored with the internal Emacs encoding.  It
handles end-of-line conversion based on the data encountered, and has
the usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion.

@node Recognize Coding
@section Recognizing Coding Systems

the buffer.

  The default value of @code{inhibit-iso-escape-detection} is
@code{nil}.  We recommend that you not change it permanently, only for
one specific operation.  That's because many Emacs Lisp source files
in the Emacs distribution contain non-@acronym{ASCII} characters encoded in the
coding system @code{iso-2022-7bit}, and they won't be
decoded correctly when you visit those files if you suppress the
escape sequence detection.

@vindex coding

of the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line}), or type @kbd{C-h C @key{RET}}.

@findex unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
  The command @code{unify-8859-on-decoding-mode} enables a mode that
``unifies'' the Latin alphabets when decoding text.  This works by
converting all non-@acronym{ASCII} Latin-@var{n} characters to either Latin-1 or
Unicode characters.  This way it is easier to use various
Latin-@var{n} alphabets together.  In a future Emacs version we hope
to move towards full Unicode support and complete unification of
character sets.

  You can insert any possible character into any Emacs buffer, but
most coding systems can only handle some of the possible characters.
This means that it is possible for you to insert characters that
cannot be encoded with the coding system that will be used to save the
buffer.  For example, you could start with an @acronym{ASCII} file and insert a
few Latin-1 characters into it, or you could edit a text file in
Polish encoded in @code{iso-8859-2} and add some Russian words to it.
When you save the buffer, Emacs cannot use the current value of
@code{buffer-file-coding-system}, because the characters you added
cannot be encoded by that coding system.

@item C-x @key{RET} x @var{coding} @key{RET}
Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring selections to and from
other programs through the window system.

@item C-x @key{RET} F @var{coding} @key{RET}
Use coding system @var{coding} for encoding and decoding file
@emph{names}.  This affects the use of non-ASCII characters in file
names.  It has no effect on reading and writing the @emph{contents} of
files.

@item C-x @key{RET} X @var{coding} @key{RET}
Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring @emph{one}
selection---the next one---to or from the window system.
@end table

@vindex keyboard-coding-system
  The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k} (@code{set-keyboard-coding-system})
or the Custom option @code{keyboard-coding-system}
specifies the coding system for keyboard input.  Character-code
translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals with keys that
send non-@acronym{ASCII} graphic characters---for example, some terminals designed
for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.

  By default, keyboard input is translated based on your system locale
setting.  If your terminal does not really support the encoding
implied by your locale (for example, if you find it inserts a
non-@acronym{ASCII} character if you type @kbd{M-i}), you will need to set
@code{keyboard-coding-system} to @code{nil} to turn off encoding.
You can do this by putting

@lisp
(set-keyboard-coding-system nil)

  There is a similarity between using a coding system translation for
keyboard input, and using an input method: both define sequences of
keyboard input that translate into single characters.  However, input
methods are designed to be convenient for interactive use by humans, and
the sequences that are translated are typically sequences of @acronym{ASCII}
printing characters.  Coding systems typically translate sequences of
non-graphic characters.

@kindex C-x RET x
@kindex C-x RET X

  The default for translation of process input and output depends on the
current language environment.

@vindex file-name-coding-system
@cindex file names with non-@acronym{ASCII} characters
@findex set-file-name-coding-system
@kindex C-x @key{RET} F
  The variable @code{file-name-coding-system} specifies a coding
system to use for encoding file names.  If you set the variable to a
coding system name (as a Lisp symbol or a string), Emacs encodes file
names using that coding system for all file operations.  This makes it
possible to use non-@acronym{ASCII} characters in file names---or, at
least, those non-@acronym{ASCII} characters which the specified coding
system can encode.  Use @kbd{C-x @key{RET} F}
(@code{set-file-name-coding-system}) to specify this interactively.

  If @code{file-name-coding-system} is @code{nil}, Emacs uses a default
coding system determined by the selected language environment.  In the
default language environment, any non-@acronym{ASCII} characters in file names are
not encoded specially; they appear in the file system using the internal
Emacs representation.

  @strong{Warning:} if you change @code{file-name-coding-system} (or the
language environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems can

these buffers under the visited file name, saving may use the wrong file
name, or it may get an error.  If such a problem happens, use @kbd{C-x
C-w} to specify a new file name for that buffer.

@vindex locale-coding-system
@cindex decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} keyboard input on X
  The variable @code{locale-coding-system} specifies a coding system
to use when encoding and decoding system strings such as system error
messages and @code{format-time-string} formats and time stamps.  That
coding system is also used for decoding non-@acronym{ASCII} keyboard input on X
Window systems.  You should choose a coding system that is compatible
with the underlying system's text representation, which is normally
specified by one of the environment variables @env{LC_ALL},
@env{LC_CTYPE}, and @env{LANG}.  (The first one, in the order
specified above, whose value is nonempty is the one that determines

characters.@footnote{The Emacs installation instructions have information on
additional font support.}

  Emacs creates two fontsets automatically: the @dfn{standard fontset}
and the @dfn{startup fontset}.  The standard fontset is most likely to
have fonts for a wide variety of non-@acronym{ASCII} characters; however, this is
not the default for Emacs to use.  (By default, Emacs tries to find a
font that has bold and italic variants.)  You can specify use of the
standard fontset with the @samp{-fn} option, or with the @samp{Font} X
resource (@pxref{Font X}).  For example,

  Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the standard fontset are
created automatically.  Their names have @samp{bold} instead of
@samp{medium}, or @samp{i} instead of @samp{r}, or both.

@cindex startup fontset
  If you specify a default @acronym{ASCII} font with the @samp{Font} resource or
the @samp{-fn} argument, Emacs generates a fontset from it
automatically.  This is the @dfn{startup fontset} and its name is
@code{fontset-startup}.  It does this by replacing the @var{foundry},
@var{family}, @var{add_style}, and @var{average_width} fields of the
font name with @samp{*}, replacing @var{charset_registry} field with

font to use for that character set.  You can use this construct any
number of times in defining one fontset.

  For the other character sets, Emacs chooses a font based on
@var{fontpattern}.  It replaces @samp{fontset-@var{alias}} with values
that describe the character set.  For the @acronym{ASCII} character font,
@samp{fontset-@var{alias}} is replaced with @samp{ISO8859-1}.

  In addition, when several consecutive fields are wildcards, Emacs
collapses them into a single wildcard.  This is to prevent use of
auto-scaled fonts.  Fonts made by scaling larger fonts are not usable

@example
-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
@end example

@noindent
the font specification for @acronym{ASCII} characters would be this:

@example
-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
@end example

  @xref{Font X}, for more information about font naming in X.

@node Undisplayable Characters
@section Undisplayable Characters

  There may be a some non-@acronym{ASCII} characters that your terminal cannot
display.  Most non-windowing terminals support just a single character
set (use the variable @code{default-terminal-coding-system}
(@pxref{Specify Coding}) to tell Emacs which one); characters which
can't be encoded in that coding system are displayed as @samp{?} by
default.

  Windowing terminals can display a broader range of characters, but
you may not have fonts installed for all of them; characters that have
no font appear as a hollow box.

  If you use Latin-1 characters but your terminal can't display
Latin-1, you can arrange to display mnemonic @acronym{ASCII} sequences
instead, e.g.@: @samp{"o} for o-umlaut.  Load the library
@file{iso-ascii} to do this.

@vindex latin1-display
  If your terminal can display Latin-1, you can display characters
from other European character sets using a mixture of equivalent
Latin-1 characters and @acronym{ASCII} mnemonics.  Use the Custom option
@code{latin1-display} to enable this.  The mnemonic @acronym{ASCII}
sequences mostly correspond to those of the prefix input methods.

@node Single-Byte Character Support
@section Single-byte Character Set Support

set-language-environment} and specify a suitable language environment
such as @samp{Latin-@var{n}}.

  For more information about unibyte operation, see @ref{Enabling
Multibyte}.  Note particularly that you probably want to ensure that
your initialization files are read as unibyte if they contain non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters.

@vindex unibyte-display-via-language-environment
  Emacs can also display those characters, provided the terminal or font
in use supports them.  This works automatically.  Alternatively, if you

this, set the variable @code{unibyte-display-via-language-environment}
to a non-@code{nil} value.

@cindex @code{iso-ascii} library
  If your terminal does not support display of the Latin-1 character
set, Emacs can display these characters as @acronym{ASCII} sequences which at
least give you a clear idea of what the characters are.  To do this,
load the library @code{iso-ascii}.  Similar libraries for other
Latin-@var{n} character sets could be implemented, but we don't have
them yet.

  Normally non-ISO-8859 characters (decimal codes between 128 and 159
inclusive) are displayed as octal escapes.  You can change this for
non-standard ``extended'' versions of ISO-8859 character sets by using the
function @code{standard-display-8bit} in the @code{disp-table} library.

  There are several ways you can input single-byte non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters:

@itemize @bullet
@cindex 8-bit input
@item
If your keyboard can generate character codes 128 (decimal) and up,
representing non-@acronym{ASCII} characters, you can type those character codes
directly.

On a windowing terminal, you should not need to do anything special to
use these keys; they should simply work.  On a text-only terminal, you
should use the command @code{M-x set-keyboard-coding-system} or the

@kbd{Compose} or @kbd{AltGr} keys.  @xref{User Input}.

@item
You can use an input method for the selected language environment.
@xref{Input Methods}.  When you use an input method in a unibyte buffer,
the non-@acronym{ASCII} character you specify with it is converted to unibyte.

@kindex C-x 8
@cindex @code{iso-transl} library
@cindex compose character
@cindex dead character
@item
For Latin-1 only, you can use the
key @kbd{C-x 8} as a ``compose character'' prefix for entry of
non-@acronym{ASCII} Latin-1 printing characters.  @kbd{C-x 8} is good for
insertion (in the minibuffer as well as other buffers), for searching,
and in any other context where a key sequence is allowed.

@kbd{C-x 8} works by loading the @code{iso-transl} library.  Once that
library is loaded, the @key{ALT} modifier key, if you have one, serves

@cindex charsets

  Emacs groups all supported characters into disjoint @dfn{charsets}.
Each character code belongs to one and only one charset.  For
historical reasons, Emacs typically divides an 8-bit character code
for an extended version of @acronym{ASCII} into two charsets: @acronym{ASCII}, which
covers the codes 0 through 127, plus another charset which covers the
``right-hand part'' (the codes 128 and up).  For instance, the
characters of Latin-1 include the Emacs charset @code{ascii} plus the
Emacs charset @code{latin-iso8859-1}.

charset name and displays information about that charset, including
its internal representation within Emacs.

  To find out which charset a character in the buffer belongs to,
put point before it and type @kbd{C-u C-x =}.

@ignore
   arch-tag: 310ba60d-31ef-4ce7-91f1-f282dd57b6b3
@end ignore