Windows-1256 Character Table
Windows-1256 covers the Arabic script used across Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Kurdish. Arabic has mandatory contextual shaping where each letter takes a different form depending on its position in a word (isolated, initial, medial, or final). CP1256 stores only the base letter forms. The rendering engine must apply the positional shaping rules at display time, which means raw byte output looks nothing like the final displayed text. For this reason, plain-text editors without Arabic shaping support show disconnected letters even when the encoding is correct.
256
Total Characters
33
Control
95
Printable
128
Extended
Unique to Windows-1256
127 charactersThese characters in the extended range (128-255) are what set Windows-1256 apart from other encodings. The same byte values produce different characters in other encoding standards.
€128پ129‚130ƒ131„132…133†134‡135ˆ136‰137ٹ138‹139Œ140چ141ژ142ڈ143گ144‘145’146“147”148•149–150—151ک152™153ڑ154›155œ156157158ں159-160،161¢162£163¤164¥165¦166§167¨168©169ھ170«171¬172173®174¯175°176±177²178³179´180µ181¶182·183¸184¹185؛186»187¼188½189¾190؟191ہ192ء193آ194أ195ؤ196إ197ئ198ا199ب200ة201ت202ث203ج204ح205خ206د207ذ208ر209ز210س211ش212ص213ض214×215ط216ظ217ع218غ219ـ220ف221ق222ك223à224ل225â226م227ن228ه229و230ç231è232é233ê234ë235ى236ي237î238ï239ً240ٌ241ٍ242َ243ô244ُ245ِ246÷247ّ248ù249ْ250û251ü252253254ے255
Defined character
Undefined position
Extended Characters Table
128-255Characters 128 through 255 are specific to Windows-1256. The same byte values map to different characters in other encodings. Compare encodings to see the differences.
| DEC | HEX | Symbol | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 128 | 80 | € | Euro sign | ||
| 129 | 81 | پ | Arabic Taa with three dots below | ||
| 130 | 82 | ‚ | Single low-9 quotation mark | ||
| 131 | 83 | ƒ | Latin small letter f with hook | ||
| 132 | 84 | „ | Double low-9 quotation mark | ||
| 133 | 85 | … | Horizontal ellipsis | ||
| 134 | 86 | † | Dagger | ||
| 135 | 87 | ‡ | Double dagger | ||
| 136 | 88 | ˆ | Modifier letter circumflex accent | ||
| 137 | 89 | ‰ | Per mille sign | ||
| 138 | 8A | ٹ | Arabic letter Tteh | ||
| 139 | 8B | ‹ | Single left-pointing angle quotation | ||
| 140 | 8C | Π| Latin capital ligature OE | ||
| 141 | 8D | چ | Arabic Haa with middle three dots downward | ||
| 142 | 8E | ژ | Arabic Ra with three dots above | ||
| 143 | 8F | ڈ | Arabic letter Ddal | ||
| 144 | 90 | گ | Arabic Gaf | ||
| 145 | 91 | ‘ | Left single quotation mark | ||
| 146 | 92 | ’ | Right single quotation mark | ||
| 147 | 93 | “ | Left double quotation mark | ||
| 148 | 94 | ” | Right double quotation mark | ||
| 149 | 95 | • | Bullet | ||
| 150 | 96 | – | En dash | ||
| 151 | 97 | — | Em dash | ||
| 152 | 98 | ک | Arabic letter Keheh | ||
| 153 | 99 | ™ | Trade mark sign | ||
| 154 | 9A | ڑ | Arabic letter Rreh | ||
| 155 | 9B | › | Single right-pointing angle quotation mark | ||
| 156 | 9C | œ | Latin small ligature oe | ||
| 157 | 9D | | Zero width non-joiner | ||
| 158 | 9E | | Zero width joiner | ||
| 159 | 9F | ں | Arabic letter Noon Ghunna | ||
| 160 | A0 | Non-breaking space | |||
| 161 | A1 | ، | Arabic comma | ||
| 162 | A2 | ¢ | Cent sign | ||
| 163 | A3 | £ | Pound sign | ||
| 164 | A4 | ¤ | Currency sign | ||
| 165 | A5 | ¥ | Yen sign | ||
| 166 | A6 | ¦ | Pipe, broken vertical bar | ||
| 167 | A7 | § | Section sign | ||
| 168 | A8 | ¨ | Spacing diaeresis - umlaut | ||
| 169 | A9 | © | Copyright sign | ||
| 170 | AA | ھ | Arabic letter Heh doachashmee | ||
| 171 | AB | « | Left double angle quotes | ||
| 172 | AC | ¬ | Negation | ||
| 173 | AD | | Soft hyphen | ||
| 174 | AE | ® | Registered trade mark sign | ||
| 175 | AF | ¯ | Spacing macron - overline | ||
| 176 | B0 | ° | Degree sign | ||
| 177 | B1 | ± | Plus-or-minus sign | ||
| 178 | B2 | ² | Superscript two - squared | ||
| 179 | B3 | ³ | Superscript three - cubed | ||
| 180 | B4 | ´ | Acute accent - spacing acute | ||
| 181 | B5 | µ | Micro sign | ||
| 182 | B6 | ¶ | Pilcrow sign - paragraph sign | ||
| 183 | B7 | · | Middle dot - Georgian comma | ||
| 184 | B8 | ¸ | Spacing cedilla | ||
| 185 | B9 | ¹ | Superscript one | ||
| 186 | BA | ؛ | Arabic semicolon | ||
| 187 | BB | » | Right double angle quotes | ||
| 188 | BC | ¼ | Fraction one quarter | ||
| 189 | BD | ½ | Fraction one half | ||
| 190 | BE | ¾ | Fraction three quarters | ||
| 191 | BF | ؟ | Arabic question mark | ||
| 192 | C0 | ہ | Arabic letter Heh Goal | ||
| 193 | C1 | ء | Arabic letter Hamzah | ||
| 194 | C2 | آ | Arabic letter Maddah on alef | ||
| 195 | C3 | أ | Arabic letter Hamzah on alef | ||
| 196 | C4 | ؤ | Arabic letter Hamzah on waw | ||
| 197 | C5 | إ | Arabic letter Hamzah under alef | ||
| 198 | C6 | ئ | Arabic letter Hamzah on ya | ||
| 199 | C7 | ا | Arabic letter Alef | ||
| 200 | C8 | ب | Arabic letter Baa | ||
| 201 | C9 | ة | Arabic letter Teh marbuta | ||
| 202 | CA | ت | Arabic letter Teh | ||
| 203 | CB | ث | Arabic letter Theh | ||
| 204 | CC | ج | Arabic letter Jeem | ||
| 205 | CD | ح | Arabic letter Hah | ||
| 206 | CE | خ | Arabic letter Khah | ||
| 207 | CF | د | Arabic letter Dal | ||
| 208 | D0 | ذ | Arabic letter Thal | ||
| 209 | D1 | ر | Arabic Letter Reh | ||
| 210 | D2 | ز | Arabic letter Zain | ||
| 211 | D3 | س | Arabic letter Seen | ||
| 212 | D4 | ش | Arabic letter Sheen | ||
| 213 | D5 | ص | Arabic letter Sad | ||
| 214 | D6 | ض | Arabic letter Dad | ||
| 215 | D7 | × | Multiplication sign | ||
| 216 | D8 | ط | Arabic letter Tah | ||
| 217 | D9 | ظ | Arabic letter Zah | ||
| 218 | DA | ع | Arabic letter Ain | ||
| 219 | DB | غ | Arabic letter Ghain | ||
| 220 | DC | ـ | Arabic tatweel | ||
| 221 | DD | ف | Arabic letter Feh | ||
| 222 | DE | ق | Arabic letter Qaf | ||
| 223 | DF | ك | Arabic letter Kaf | ||
| 224 | E0 | à | Latin small letter a with grave | ||
| 225 | E1 | ل | Arabic letter Lam | ||
| 226 | E2 | â | Latin small letter a with circumflex | ||
| 227 | E3 | م | Arabic letter Meem | ||
| 228 | E4 | ن | Arabic letter Noon | ||
| 229 | E5 | ه | Arabic letter Heh | ||
| 230 | E6 | و | Arabic letter Waw | ||
| 231 | E7 | ç | Latin small letter c with cedilla | ||
| 232 | E8 | è | Latin small letter e with grave | ||
| 233 | E9 | é | Latin small letter e with acute | ||
| 234 | EA | ê | Latin small letter e with circumflex | ||
| 235 | EB | ë | Latin small letter e with diaeresis | ||
| 236 | EC | ى | Arabic letter Alef Maksura | ||
| 237 | ED | ي | Arabic letter Ya | ||
| 238 | EE | î | Latin small letter i with circumflex | ||
| 239 | EF | ï | Latin small letter i with diaeresis | ||
| 240 | F0 | ً | Arabic fathatan | ||
| 241 | F1 | ٌ | Arabic dammatan | ||
| 242 | F2 | ٍ | Arabic kasratan | ||
| 243 | F3 | َ | Arabic fathah | ||
| 244 | F4 | ô | Latin small letter o with circumflex | ||
| 245 | F5 | ُ | Arabic dammah | ||
| 246 | F6 | ِ | Arabic kasrah | ||
| 247 | F7 | ÷ | Division sign | ||
| 248 | F8 | ّ | Arabic shaddah | ||
| 249 | F9 | ù | Latin small letter u with grave | ||
| 250 | FA | ْ | Arabic sukun | ||
| 251 | FB | û | Latin small letter u with circumflex | ||
| 252 | FC | ü | Latin small letter u with diaeresis | ||
| 253 | FD | | Left-To-Right Mark | ||
| 254 | FE | | Right-To-Left Mark | ||
| 255 | FF | ے | Arabic letter Yeh Barree |
Printable Characters
95Same as standard ASCII
Codes 32 through 126 are shared across all ASCII-based encodings, covering uppercase and lowercase Latin letters, digits, punctuation, and the Space character at position 32.
| DEC | HEX | Symbol | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | 20 | ␠ | Space | ||
| 33 | 21 | ! | Exclamation mark | ||
| 34 | 22 | " | Double quotes (or speech marks) | ||
| 35 | 23 | # | Number sign | ||
| 36 | 24 | $ | Dollar | ||
| 37 | 25 | % | Per cent sign | ||
| 38 | 26 | & | Ampersand | ||
| 39 | 27 | ' | Single quote | ||
| 40 | 28 | ( | Open parenthesis (or open bracket) | ||
| 41 | 29 | ) | Close parenthesis (or close bracket) | ||
| 42 | 2A | * | Asterisk | ||
| 43 | 2B | + | Plus | ||
| 44 | 2C | , | Comma | ||
| 45 | 2D | - | Hyphen-minus | ||
| 46 | 2E | . | Period, dot or full stop | ||
| 47 | 2F | / | Slash or divide | ||
| 48 | 30 | 0 | Zero | ||
| 49 | 31 | 1 | One | ||
| 50 | 32 | 2 | Two | ||
| 51 | 33 | 3 | Three | ||
| 52 | 34 | 4 | Four | ||
| 53 | 35 | 5 | Five | ||
| 54 | 36 | 6 | Six | ||
| 55 | 37 | 7 | Seven | ||
| 56 | 38 | 8 | Eight | ||
| 57 | 39 | 9 | Nine | ||
| 58 | 3A | : | Colon | ||
| 59 | 3B | ; | Semicolon | ||
| 60 | 3C | < | Less than (or open angled bracket) | ||
| 61 | 3D | = | Equals | ||
| 62 | 3E | > | Greater than (or close angled bracket) | ||
| 63 | 3F | ? | Question mark | ||
| 64 | 40 | @ | At sign | ||
| 65 | 41 | A | Uppercase A | ||
| 66 | 42 | B | Uppercase B | ||
| 67 | 43 | C | Uppercase C | ||
| 68 | 44 | D | Uppercase D | ||
| 69 | 45 | E | Uppercase E | ||
| 70 | 46 | F | Uppercase F | ||
| 71 | 47 | G | Uppercase G | ||
| 72 | 48 | H | Uppercase H | ||
| 73 | 49 | I | Uppercase I | ||
| 74 | 4A | J | Uppercase J | ||
| 75 | 4B | K | Uppercase K | ||
| 76 | 4C | L | Uppercase L | ||
| 77 | 4D | M | Uppercase M | ||
| 78 | 4E | N | Uppercase N | ||
| 79 | 4F | O | Uppercase O | ||
| 80 | 50 | P | Uppercase P | ||
| 81 | 51 | Q | Uppercase Q | ||
| 82 | 52 | R | Uppercase R | ||
| 83 | 53 | S | Uppercase S | ||
| 84 | 54 | T | Uppercase T | ||
| 85 | 55 | U | Uppercase U | ||
| 86 | 56 | V | Uppercase V | ||
| 87 | 57 | W | Uppercase W | ||
| 88 | 58 | X | Uppercase X | ||
| 89 | 59 | Y | Uppercase Y | ||
| 90 | 5A | Z | Uppercase Z | ||
| 91 | 5B | [ | Opening bracket | ||
| 92 | 5C | \ | Backslash | ||
| 93 | 5D | ] | Closing bracket | ||
| 94 | 5E | ^ | Caret - circumflex | ||
| 95 | 5F | _ | Underscore | ||
| 96 | 60 | ` | Grave accent | ||
| 97 | 61 | a | Lowercase a | ||
| 98 | 62 | b | Lowercase b | ||
| 99 | 63 | c | Lowercase c | ||
| 100 | 64 | d | Lowercase d | ||
| 101 | 65 | e | Lowercase e | ||
| 102 | 66 | f | Lowercase f | ||
| 103 | 67 | g | Lowercase g | ||
| 104 | 68 | h | Lowercase h | ||
| 105 | 69 | i | Lowercase i | ||
| 106 | 6A | j | Lowercase j | ||
| 107 | 6B | k | Lowercase k | ||
| 108 | 6C | l | Lowercase l | ||
| 109 | 6D | m | Lowercase m | ||
| 110 | 6E | n | Lowercase n | ||
| 111 | 6F | o | Lowercase o | ||
| 112 | 70 | p | Lowercase p | ||
| 113 | 71 | q | Lowercase q | ||
| 114 | 72 | r | Lowercase r | ||
| 115 | 73 | s | Lowercase s | ||
| 116 | 74 | t | Lowercase t | ||
| 117 | 75 | u | Lowercase u | ||
| 118 | 76 | v | Lowercase v | ||
| 119 | 77 | w | Lowercase w | ||
| 120 | 78 | x | Lowercase x | ||
| 121 | 79 | y | Lowercase y | ||
| 122 | 7A | z | Lowercase z | ||
| 123 | 7B | { | Opening brace | ||
| 124 | 7C | | | Vertical bar | ||
| 125 | 7D | } | Closing brace | ||
| 126 | 7E | ~ | Equivalency sign - tilde |
Control Characters
33Same as standard ASCII
The first 32 codes (plus code 127) are non-printable control characters originally used for signaling hardware devices. Only a handful - Tab (9), Line Feed (10), Carriage Return (13), and Escape (27) - remain in common use.
| DEC | HEX | Symbol | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 00 | NUL | Null character | ||
| 1 | 01 | SOH | Start of Heading | ||
| 2 | 02 | STX | Start of Text | ||
| 3 | 03 | ETX | End of Text | ||
| 4 | 04 | EOT | End of Transmission | ||
| 5 | 05 | ENQ | Enquiry | ||
| 6 | 06 | ACK | Acknowledge | ||
| 7 | 07 | BEL | Bell, Alert | ||
| 8 | 08 | BS | Backspace | ||
| 9 | 09 | HT | Horizontal Tab | ||
| 10 | 0A | LF | Line Feed | ||
| 11 | 0B | VT | Vertical Tabulation | ||
| 12 | 0C | FF | Form Feed | ||
| 13 | 0D | CR | Carriage Return | ||
| 14 | 0E | SO | Shift Out | ||
| 15 | 0F | SI | Shift In | ||
| 16 | 10 | DLE | Data Link Escape | ||
| 17 | 11 | DC1 | Device Control One (XON) | ||
| 18 | 12 | DC2 | Device Control Two | ||
| 19 | 13 | DC3 | Device Control Three (XOFF) | ||
| 20 | 14 | DC4 | Device Control Four | ||
| 21 | 15 | NAK | Negative Acknowledge | ||
| 22 | 16 | SYN | Synchronous Idle | ||
| 23 | 17 | ETB | End of Transmission Block | ||
| 24 | 18 | CAN | Cancel | ||
| 25 | 19 | EM | End of medium | ||
| 26 | 1A | SUB | Substitute | ||
| 27 | 1B | ESC | Escape | ||
| 28 | 1C | FS | File Separator | ||
| 29 | 1D | GS | Group Separator | ||
| 30 | 1E | RS | Record Separator | ||
| 31 | 1F | US | Unit Separator | ||
| 127 | 7F | DEL | Delete |
References
Explore Windows-1256
Compare Windows-1256
See exactly which characters differ between Windows-1256 and other encodings in the extended range (128-255).
Related Resources
Character Sets Guide
Overview of all character encoding standards
Windows Code Pages
History and usage of Windows encodings
Language Charsets
Which encoding supports which language
ASCII Table
Standard 7-bit ASCII character table
Browse Characters
Explore characters by group
Glossary
Encoding and character terminology