HTML Charsets
Character encoding maps stored bytes to characters. If the file, server headers, and document declaration disagree, readers may see replacement symbols or corrupted text.
How it works
- Save the source file as UTF-8 and place <meta charset="utf-8"> near the beginning of head, within the first 1024 bytes of the document.
- A server’s HTTP Content-Type header also communicates encoding. Configure it consistently with the actual file rather than trying to repair incorrect bytes through CSS.
- UTF-8 supports international text, symbols, and emoji. Language declarations such as lang="en" identify language, not character encoding.
A practical example
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Café workshop notes</title>
</head>
<body><p>Café · résumé · 🌱</p></body>
</html>
When the file is stored and served correctly, the accented characters and emoji should remain intact. The declared language and encoding have separate responsibilities.