UNICODE and CHARACTER ENCODING Display Problems

General Web Dev
1

Sorry I got DOCTYPE confused with ENCODING. !

I spent an entire day trying to understand why Unicode Symbols I’ve placed in my HTML either show in one Browser but not another -or- don’t show at all. I’ve coded the document as HTML Strict and it validates, but I guess I thought by using UTF-8 as the ENCODING I would be coding the most generous range possible for either browser (Firefox or Chrome) to render the symbols accurately. The same font is being used for display (Arial) in both FF and Chrome, so since I’m obviously not understanding this on a technical level may I ask the forum:

Should I (Can I?) use multiple ENCODING so the browser is forced to render the Unicode Symbols?

And if there is no way to globally force Unicode Symbols to display, how may I at least structure HTML Strict documents with their broadest range possible before cutting out and ignoring the code altogether?

Thanks. And please move to correct forum if I once again picked the wrong one!

2

No - a document can only have one doctype - that doctype can indicate multiple document types within it without needing multiples.

The doctype has nothing to do with the character encoding.

How are you specifying the character encoding? Do you have it defined in an HTTP header or are you relying on it getting picked up from within the HTML itself? If in the HTML is it the very first statement in the tag?

3

Felgall many apologies! I’ve corrected my subject and my lead post. I am of course not referring to DOCTYPE, I’m referring to CHARACTER ENCODING. Will upload a file shortly.

4

Okay, here is a nice chunk. This displays in Firefox and will not display in Chrome. This is an HTML STRICT file testing for the Unicode Geometric Shape/Drawing rendering as an extra-large bullet (or dot, or circle)
##●
showing up as ●

And attached is the HTML FILE . . . 9679.html.
9679.html (6.1 KB)

There should be a middle column with a ● bullet next to each entry in column 3, as highlited in this graphic:

5

● shows for me in
Firefox
Firefox Dev
Chrome
IE
Opera
Vivaldi

with this beginning mark-up

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>UTF Test</title>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1" />
6

Specifying the character set in the document itself isn’t the most important thing, as it’s your server setting that weights in more on that count—as felgall noted by asking about the HTTP header.

You can check in your browser what character encoding is being served up.

7

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