About the Unicode® Standard
Characters for the World
The Unicode Standard is the universal character encoding
designed to support the worldwide interchange, processing, and
display of the written texts of the diverse languages and technical
disciplines of the modern world. In addition, it supports classical
and historical texts of many written languages.
The Standard
Formally, a version of the Unicode Standard is defined by an edition of
the core specification, The Unicode Standard, together with the
Code
Charts, Unicode Standard
Annexes and the Unicode
Character Database.
The detailed breakdown of the contents of each version are given in the
Archive of Unicode Versions.
About Versions explains
how versions are defined and how version numbering works. Publication information
is provided in the History
of Release and Publication Dates.
Machine readable data supporting all versions of the Unicode Standard, as well
as other specifications published by the Unicode Consortium, are available for
free download at Official Unicode Online Data.
Interactive access to specialized information about CJK characters is available at the
Unified Han (Unihan)
Character Database.
Latest Version
The documentation for the latest version of the Unicode Standard can always be found at:
https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/
Alpha and Beta Review
Periodically, drafts of new versions of the Unicode Standard, including the Unicode Character Database and annexes, are available
for early review and public feedback. Consult
Beta Review Status
to see if an alpha or beta review of the Unicode Standard is underway.
Maintenance
The Unicode Standard and a number of other specifications are
continuously maintained by the
Unicode Technical Committee. See the following resources relevant to ongoing
maintenance:
Location |
Description |
Updates and Errata |
Cumulative list of pending corrections |
Proposed New Characters |
The latest information available on pending future extensions to the
character repertoire of the Unicode Standard |
Supported
Scripts |
All of the scripts that have already been added to the Unicode Standard,
organized by year and version of addition |
As Yet Unsupported Scripts |
Information about some of the scripts that have not yet been added |
Character Encoding
Stability Policies |
An important collection of policies that contstrain future changes to the
Unicode Standard, designed to give guarantees of stability for implementers |
More Information
Location |
Description |
Where is my Character? |
Suggestions on how to find out whether a character has been encoded in the Unicode Standard |
Unicode Glossary |
Definitions of technical terms defined by or used in Unicode specifications |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |
Frequently asked questions about the Unicode Standard and its development process, as well as other activities of the Unicode Consortium |
Specifications FAQ |
Comprehensive list of particular specifications within the Unicode Standard
and its Annexes, as well as other specifications published separately by the Unicode
Consortium |
Unicode Tutorials and Overviews |
Summary of useful tutorials and other overviews about the Unicode
Standard—a good place to start for general information
about how the standard works |
Technical Introduction |
Brief introduction to the Unicode Standard |
Main Page |
Links to all the different technical committees and parts of the website related to the technical work of the Unicode Consortium |
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