Unicode Encodings

This chapter describes UTF-8 and other encodings for Unicode in detail, including the algorithmic descriptions and the practical considerations on choosing an encoding. It concentrates on the UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32 encodings, which are the current official Unicode encodings. However, some older encodings are described as well, even though not all of them are formally character encodings in a strict sense.

If you are not interested in the technicalities of encodings, you might read just the last section of this chapter ("Choosing an Encoding"). It summarizes the practical criteria, but they can really be understood well only if you know the technical foundations.