ISO 8859-15 / Latin-9 Character Table
| Char | Hex | Unicode name | vs Latin-1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A0 | No-Break Space | same as Latin-1 | |
| ¡ | A1 | Inverted Exclamation Mark | same as Latin-1 |
| ¢ | A2 | Cent Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| £ | A3 | Pound Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| € | A4 | Euro Sign | euro sign - the headline replacement for the Latin-1 currency sign (Latin-1 had currency sign ¤ here) |
| ¥ | A5 | Yen Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| Š | A6 | Latin Capital Letter S With Caron | capital S with caron (Czech/Slovene/etc.) (Latin-1 had broken bar ¦ here) |
| § | A7 | Section Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| š | A8 | Latin Small Letter S With Caron | small s with caron (Latin-1 had diaeresis ¨ here) |
| © | A9 | Copyright Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| ª | AA | Feminine Ordinal Indicator | same as Latin-1 |
| « | AB | Left-Pointing Double Angle Quotation Mark | same as Latin-1 |
| ¬ | AC | Not Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| | AD | Soft Hyphen | same as Latin-1 |
| ® | AE | Registered Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| ¯ | AF | Macron | same as Latin-1 |
| ° | B0 | Degree Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| ± | B1 | Plus-Minus Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| ² | B2 | Superscript Two | same as Latin-1 |
| ³ | B3 | Superscript Three | same as Latin-1 |
| Ž | B4 | Latin Capital Letter Z With Caron | capital Z with caron (Estonian/Finnish loanwords) (Latin-1 had acute accent ´ here) |
| µ | B5 | Micro Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| ¶ | B6 | Pilcrow Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| · | B7 | Middle Dot | same as Latin-1 |
| ž | B8 | Latin Small Letter Z With Caron | small z with caron (Latin-1 had cedilla ¸ here) |
| ¹ | B9 | Superscript One | same as Latin-1 |
| º | BA | Masculine Ordinal Indicator | same as Latin-1 |
| » | BB | Right-Pointing Double Angle Quotation Mark | same as Latin-1 |
| Œ | BC | Latin Capital Ligature Oe | capital OE ligature - back from the 1985 draft drama, now at a different address (Latin-1 had vulgar fraction one quarter ¼ here) |
| œ | BD | Latin Small Ligature Oe | small oe ligature - likewise relocated (Latin-1 had vulgar fraction one half ½ here) |
| Ÿ | BE | Latin Capital Letter Y With Diaeresis | capital Y with diaeresis - so French uppercase conversion is lossless (Latin-1 had vulgar fraction three quarters ¾ here) |
| ¿ | BF | Inverted Question Mark | same as Latin-1 |
| À | C0 | Latin Capital Letter A With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| Á | C1 | Latin Capital Letter A With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| Â | C2 | Latin Capital Letter A With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| Ã | C3 | Latin Capital Letter A With Tilde | same as Latin-1 |
| Ä | C4 | Latin Capital Letter A With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| Å | C5 | Latin Capital Letter A With Ring Above | same as Latin-1 |
| Æ | C6 | Latin Capital Letter Ae | same as Latin-1 |
| Ç | C7 | Latin Capital Letter C With Cedilla | same as Latin-1 |
| È | C8 | Latin Capital Letter E With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| É | C9 | Latin Capital Letter E With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| Ê | CA | Latin Capital Letter E With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| Ë | CB | Latin Capital Letter E With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| Ì | CC | Latin Capital Letter I With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| Í | CD | Latin Capital Letter I With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| Î | CE | Latin Capital Letter I With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| Ï | CF | Latin Capital Letter I With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| Ð | D0 | Latin Capital Letter Eth | same as Latin-1 |
| Ñ | D1 | Latin Capital Letter N With Tilde | same as Latin-1 |
| Ò | D2 | Latin Capital Letter O With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| Ó | D3 | Latin Capital Letter O With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| Ô | D4 | Latin Capital Letter O With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| Õ | D5 | Latin Capital Letter O With Tilde | same as Latin-1 |
| Ö | D6 | Latin Capital Letter O With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| × | D7 | Multiplication Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| Ø | D8 | Latin Capital Letter O With Stroke | same as Latin-1 |
| Ù | D9 | Latin Capital Letter U With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| Ú | DA | Latin Capital Letter U With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| Û | DB | Latin Capital Letter U With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| Ü | DC | Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| Ý | DD | Latin Capital Letter Y With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| Þ | DE | Latin Capital Letter Thorn | same as Latin-1 |
| ß | DF | Latin Small Letter Sharp S | same as Latin-1 |
| à | E0 | Latin Small Letter A With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| á | E1 | Latin Small Letter A With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| â | E2 | Latin Small Letter A With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| ã | E3 | Latin Small Letter A With Tilde | same as Latin-1 |
| ä | E4 | Latin Small Letter A With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| å | E5 | Latin Small Letter A With Ring Above | same as Latin-1 |
| æ | E6 | Latin Small Letter Ae | same as Latin-1 |
| ç | E7 | Latin Small Letter C With Cedilla | same as Latin-1 |
| è | E8 | Latin Small Letter E With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| é | E9 | Latin Small Letter E With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| ê | EA | Latin Small Letter E With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| ë | EB | Latin Small Letter E With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| ì | EC | Latin Small Letter I With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| í | ED | Latin Small Letter I With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| î | EE | Latin Small Letter I With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| ï | EF | Latin Small Letter I With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| ð | F0 | Latin Small Letter Eth | same as Latin-1 |
| ñ | F1 | Latin Small Letter N With Tilde | same as Latin-1 |
| ò | F2 | Latin Small Letter O With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| ó | F3 | Latin Small Letter O With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| ô | F4 | Latin Small Letter O With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| õ | F5 | Latin Small Letter O With Tilde | same as Latin-1 |
| ö | F6 | Latin Small Letter O With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| ÷ | F7 | Division Sign | same as Latin-1 |
| ø | F8 | Latin Small Letter O With Stroke | same as Latin-1 |
| ù | F9 | Latin Small Letter U With Grave | same as Latin-1 |
| ú | FA | Latin Small Letter U With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| û | FB | Latin Small Letter U With Circumflex | same as Latin-1 |
| ü | FC | Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
| ý | FD | Latin Small Letter Y With Acute | same as Latin-1 |
| þ | FE | Latin Small Letter Thorn | same as Latin-1 |
| ÿ | FF | Latin Small Letter Y With Diaeresis | same as Latin-1 |
ISO/IEC 8859-15:1999 - informally Latin-9, and for a while Latin-0 - is the revision of Latin-1 that the 1990s actually needed: similar to ISO 8859-1, intended for the same Western European languages, but with some less common symbols replaced by the euro sign and by letters that had been judged necessary. It is Latin-1 with exactly eight characters swapped.
The swap list is precise: currency sign, broken bar, diaeresis, acute accent, cedilla and the three vulgar fractions step aside for the euro sign (€), S and Z with caron (Š š Ž ž - for Czech, Slovak, Slovene and Finno-Ugric loanwords), and the French trio ŒOEŒ, œoeœ and Ÿ - the characters lost in the 1985 draft drama, restored fourteen years later at new addresses.
The table below lists all 96 printable characters (0xA0–0xFF), byte-verified against the official Unicode mapping table, with the eight changed rows marked.
How to use
- Read the vs Latin-1 column first: the eight marked rows are the whole difference between the encodings (unmarked text is byte-identical in both encodings). The euro (€) at 0xA4 is the headline change and the one that motivated the revision.
- Expect the French trio at unexpected addresses: ŒOEŒ, œoeœ and Ÿ sit at 0xBC, 0xBD and 0xBE - the slots Latin-1 gave to the vulgar fractions - because their original 1985 positions (0xD7, 0xF7 and a hypothetical Ÿ slot) were already occupied by the multiplication sign, the division sign and nothing at all.
- For conversions, treat the caron quartet (Š š Ž ž) as the practical test: Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Estonian and Finnish text in Latin-9 uses them heavily, so a byte 0xA6/0xA8/0xB4/0xB8 decoded as Latin-1 yields a broken bar, diaeresis, acute accent or cedilla where a letter should be - the classic symptom of the wrong codec.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly changed between ISO 8859-1 and 8859-15?
Eight characters. Out went the currency sign ¤ (0xA4), broken bar ¦ (0xA6), diaeresis ¨ (0xA8), acute accent ´ (0xB4), cedilla ¸ (0xB8) and the fractions one quarter ¼, one half ½ and three quarters ¾ (0xBC–0xBE). In came the euro sign €, the caron letters Š š Ž ž, and the French ŒOEŒ, œoeœ and Ÿ. The chart above marks all eight rows; the other 88 printable characters are byte-identical to Latin-1.
Why was the currency sign sacrificed for the euro?
Because the alternative was worse: replacing the plus-minus sign ± was proposed and opposed in the standards correspondence - one objector argued that “+-” already had a fixed mathematical meaning, quite different from ±, and that the substitution would “hurt a physicist’s aesthetic feelings.” The currency sign ¤ took the fall instead, though some applications used it as a field separator or subtotal marker. The euro was not negotiable - it arrived in 1999 physically, and encodings had to follow.
Why are the French letters at "wrong" addresses in 8859-15?
History moved twice. The French trio was present in DEC’s Multinational Character Set of 1983, the ancestor of Latin-1, but the 1985 draft drama (the French delegate’s “mere ligatures” ruling) gave 0xD7 and 0xF7 to the multiplication and division signs and left Ÿ unencoded. When 8859-15 restored them in 1999, their original slots were long occupied, so Wikipedia notes less logical codepoints had to be chosen - the fractions’ old spots at 0xBC–0xBE.
Is Latin-9 the same as Latin-0?
Same encoding, two informal names: ISO/IEC 8859-15 was informally referred to as Latin-9, and for a while as Latin-0 - the zero framing it as the new, clean baseline for Western Europe. Latin-9 won the naming contest.
Do I need Latin-9 today?
Rarely, deliberately: Unicode and UTF-8 superseded the whole 8859 family, and Windows-1252 (with the euro at 0x80) had already solved the practical problem for Windows text. Latin-9 matters in three places - legacy systems standardized on it (some European government and banking integrations), correctness checks when migrating old byte streams, and understanding that a French ŒOEŒ at byte 0xBC means Latin-9, not Latin-1, where that byte is one quarter.