Apple II character set

In this article we are going to delve into the topic of Apple II character set, exploring its origins, its impact on society and its relevance today. Apple II character set has been the subject of study and debate for many years, and its influence extends to different areas of everyday life, from culture to politics and technology. Throughout these pages, we will take a closer look at the different aspects of Apple II character set, and how it has evolved over time. Additionally, we will examine its role in shaping our world today and how it could impact the future. Get ready to immerse yourself in a fascinating journey through Apple II character set and discover everything there is to know about this topic.

Apple II text mode uses the 7-bit ASCII (us-ascii) character set. The high-bit is set to display in normal mode on the 40x24 text screen.

Character sets

Apple II / Apple II plus

The original Signetics 2513 character generator chip has 64 glyphs for upper case, numbers, symbols, and punctuation characters. Each 5x7 pixel bitmap matrix is displayed in a 7x8 character cell on the text screen. The 64 characters can be displayed in INVERSE in the range $00 to $3F, FLASHing in the range $40 to $7F, and NORMAL mode in the range $80 to $FF. Normal mode characters are repeated in the $80 to $FF range.

To display lowercase letters, applications can run in the graphics modes and use custom fonts, rather than running in text mode using the font in ROM.

Apple //e and //c (MouseText mode)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
1x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
2x ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4x
5x
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 { | } ~
8x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
9x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
Ax  SP  ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
Bx 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
Cx @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
Dx P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
Ex ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
Fx p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~
  1. ^ Apple uses U+F8FF in the Corporate Private Use Area to display the solid Apple logo. It is does not have a Unicode code point and it is usually not supported on non-Apple platforms.
  2. ^ The left and right "running man" halves were replaced with different characters in the Apple IIGS version of the MouseText character set (shown below.)

Apple IIGS

Two characters in the Apple II MouseText character set was updated for the GS. The characters unique to MouseText are encoded in Unicode's Symbols for Legacy Computing block.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
1x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
2x ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
4x
5x
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 { | } ~
8x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
9x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
Ax  SP  ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
Bx 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
Cx @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
Dx P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _
Ex ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
Fx p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~

References

  1. ^ a b "Symbols for Legacy Computing (The Unicode Standard, Version 15.1)" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  2. ^ "Apple II MouseText to Unicode Mapping".

External links

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia