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Unicode: compatibility with the library catalog

Unicode is a computing standard that supports the display of international character sets. To view catalog records with international characters, a Unicode-capable operating system, the appropriate Unicode fonts, and a Unicode-capable web browser are recommended.

Operating systems
Most modern operating systems support Unicode. Mac OS X and Windows 2000 and XP are Unicode-compliant. Windows NT has limited Unicode support; Mac OS 9 may require the installation of language kits.

Web browsers
Most recent Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer 5.x and up and Netscape 6.2 and up, are Unicode-compliant. Firefox and Safari will work as well. Netscape and Firefox have better Unicode support than Internet Explorer; this is especially true if you don't have the Arial Unicode MS font (mentioned below). If characters are not displaying properly, check the settings for character encoding (usually in the browser's view menu) or fonts (usually in the preferences menu). The encoding for the Library catalog pages is Unicode/UTF-8; the Web browser should detect this automatically.

Unicode fonts
For Windows, Microsoft's Arial Unicode MS font will display most characters in most languages. This font doesn't come with Windows, but it is part of Microsoft Office 2000 and later. Arial Unicode MS includes as many characters as possible; as a result it may not look as nice as a font developed specifically for a particular language. Lucida Sans Unicode, which comes with Windows XP, is an excellent choice if you don't have Arial Unicode MS. Mac OS X 10.1 and later includes Lucida Grande.

Additional Unicode Resources:


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