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RISC OS character set

Character set was used in the Acorn Archimedes series

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
5 min read
Source updated May 30, 2026

The Acorn RISC OS character set was used in the Acorn Archimedes series and subsequent computers from 1987 onwards. It is an extension of ISO/IEC 8859-1, similar to the Windows CP1252 in that many of the added characters are typographical punctuation marks.

01Code page layout (standard)

At 0x83 is a box with another box inside it on the top left-hand corner, meaning "resize window". At 0x84 is a 'bubble-writing' X, meaning "close window". At 0x87 is an unusual character that is a subscript 8 followed by a superscript 7. It is not proposed for Unicode. At 0x88, 0x89, 0x8A, and 0x8B are left, right, up, and down bubble arrows for window scrollbars.

The following table shows the RISC OS character set. Each character is shown with a potential Unicode equivalent in the tooltip.

RISC OS character set
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0x NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
1x DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US
2x  SP  ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
5x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
6x ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
7x p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ DEL
8x € Ŵ ŵ ◰ 🯀 Ŷ ŷ 87 ⇦ ⇨ ⇩ ⇧ … ™ ‰ •
9x ‘ ’ ‹ › “ ” „ , , − Œ œ † ‡ fi fl
Ax  SP  ¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ § ¨ © ª « ¬ SHY ® ¯
Bx ° ± ² ³ ´ µ · ¸ ¹ º » ¼ ½ ¾ ¿
Cx À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï
Dx Ð Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö × Ø Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Þ ß
Ex à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï
Fx ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ÷ ø ù ú û ü ý þ ÿ
  Differences from ISO/IEC 8859-1

02Code page layout (Electronic Font Foundry 1.1)

The Homerton font, a clone of Helvetica, does not have these characters. EFF, a third-party supplier of RISC OS outline fonts, has a different, but similar character set. This RISC OS Latin-1 character set was used by Electronic Font Foundry.

RISC OS EFF character set
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0x NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
1x DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US
2x  SP  ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
5x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
6x ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
7x p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ DEL
8x Ŵ Ŷ Ẃ İ ŵ ŷ ẃ … € ⁴ ™ ı ⁄ ƒ ‰ •
9x ‘ ’ ‹ › “ ” „ , , − Œ œ † ‡ fi fl
Ax NBSP ¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ § ¨ © ª « ¬ SHY ® ¯
Bx ° ± ² ³ ´ µ · ¸ ¹ º » ¼ ½ ¾ ¿
Cx À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï
Dx Ð Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö × Ø Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Þ ß
Ex à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï
Fx ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ÷ ø ù ú û ü ý þ ÿ
  Differences from RISC OS

03Code page layout (TRC)

TRC character set
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0x NUL SOH STX ETX EOT ENQ ACK BEL BS HT LF VT FF CR SO SI
1x DLE DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 NAK SYN ETB CAN EM SUB ESC FS GS RS US
2x  SP  ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
5x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
6x ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
7x p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ DEL
8x α ←→ Ẃ İ ŵ ŷ ẃ … € ⁴ ™ ı ⁄ ƒ ‰ •
9x ‘ ’ ‹ › “ ” „ , , − Œ œ † ‡ fi fl
Ax NBSP ¡ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ ¦ § ¨ © ª « ¬ SHY ® ¯
Bx ° ± ² ³ ´ µ · ¸ ¹ º » ¼ ½ ¾ ¿
Cx À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï
Dx Ð Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö × Ø Ù Ú Û Ü Ý Þ ß
Ex à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï
Fx ð ñ ò ó ô õ ö ÷ ø ù ú û ü ý þ ÿ
  Differences from ISO/IEC 8859-1
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “RISC OS character set”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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