big5(5) — Macro Packages and Conventions
NAME
big5 − A character encoding system (codeset) for Traditional Chinese
DESCRIPTION
The big5 codeset is one of several codesets that support the Traditional Chinese language. This codeset includes the following character sets:
•ASCII
•Big-5
The big5 codeset uses a combination of single-byte data and two-byte data to represent ASCII characters, symbols, and Chinese ideographic characters.
ASCII Characters
All ASCII characters are represented in the form of single-byte, 7-bit data in the big5 codeset; that is, the most significant bit (MSB) of a byte that represents an ASCII character is always set off. For more information, see ascii(5).
Big-5 Character Groups
The Big-5 character set defines the following character groups:
•Special symbols (408)
•Level 1 characters (5401)
•Level 2 characters (7652)
•Level 1 user-defined space (785)
•Level 2 user-defined space (2983)
•Level 3 user-defined space (2041)
Code Values for Big-5 Characters
Each Big-5 character is represented by a two-byte code that compiles according to the Big-5 standard. The MSB of the first byte is always set on while that of the second byte can be on or off. Code ranges for characters in the different character groups are as follows:
•Special symbols: A140 to A3BF
•Level 1 characters: A440 to C67E
•Level 2 characters: C940 to F9D5
•Level 1 user-defined space: FA40 to FEFE
•Level 2 user-defined space: 8E40 to A0FE
•Level 3 user-defined space: 8140 to 8DFE
In this space, the valid code range for the first byte is 81 to FE, while that for the second byte is 40 to 7E and A1 to FE.
Fonts for Big-5 Characters
The operating system supports Big-5 code by internally converting characters to DEC Hanyu. Therefore, DEC Hanyu fonts are used for Big-5 characters. Both display and printer fonts are provided for DEC Hanyu (see dechanyu(5)).
For general information about printer support for and codeset conversion of Asian text, refer to i18n_printing(5) and iconv_intro(5), respectively.
SEE ALSO
Commands: locale(1)
Others: ascii(5), Chinese(5), dechanyu(5), dechanzi(5), eucTW(5), i18n_intro(5), i18n_printing(5), iconv_intro(5), l10n_intro(5), sbig5(5), telecode(5)