ISO 15924 Totally Explained

Everything about Iso 15924 totally explained

ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems (scripts). Each script is given both a four-letter code and a numeric one. Script is defined as "set of graphic characters used for the written form of one or more languages". So scripts that are not (yet) "used for the written form of one language" are explicitly excluded.
Where possible the codes are derived from ISO 639-2 where the name of a script and the name of a language using the script are identical (example: Gujarātī ISO 639 guj, ISO 15924 Gujr). Preference is given to the 639-2 Bibliographical codes, which is different from the otherwise often favored use of the Terminological codes.
4-letter ISO 15924 codes are incorporated into the Language Subtag Registry for IETF language tags and so can be used in file formats that make use of such language tags. For example, they can be used in HTML and XML to help Web browsers determine which typeface to use for foreign text. This way one could differentiate, for example, between Serbian written in the Cyrillic (sr-Cyrl) or Latin (sr-Latn) script, or mark romanized text as such.

Maintenance

ISO has appointed the Unicode Consortium as the Registration Authority for the standard. In 2004, the Registration Authority appointed Michael Everson to act as Registrar.

Script codes

Numeric ranges

000-099 Hieroglyphic and cuneiform scripts 100-199 Right-to-left alphabetic scripts 200-299 Left-to-right alphabetic scripts 300-399 Alphasyllabic scripts 400-499 Syllabic scripts 500-599 Ideographic scripts 600-699 Undeciphered scripts 700-799 (unassigned) 800-899 (unassigned) 900-999 Private use, aliases, special codes

Special codes

Qaaa || 900 || Reserved for private use (start) || 2004-05-29 Qabx || 949 || Reserved for private use (end) || 2004-05-29 Zmth || 995 || Mathematical notation || 2007-11-26 Zsym || 996 || Symbols || 2007-11-26 Zxxx || 997 || Code for unwritten languages Zyyy || 998 || Code for undetermined script Zzzz || 999 || Code for uncoded script
Qaaa-Qabx are 50 codes for private use. The Qaaa-Qabx range isn't mentioned in the standard itself, but in the codelist.

Relations to other standards

The following standards are referred to as indispensable by ISO 15924.

ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code
ISO/IEC 9541-1:1991 Information technology — Font information interchange — Part 1: Architecture
ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 Information technology — Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set (UCS) - Part 1: Architecture and Basic Multilingual Plane

For definition of font and glyph the standard refers to

ISO/IEC 9541-1:1991Further Information

Get more info on 'Iso 15924'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://iso_15924.totallyexplained.com">ISO 15924 Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.