Code pages and extended code pages

A code page maps each character of text to the characters in a character set or to the characters associated to a Unicode point. Two types of code pages exist:
  • A traditional code page includes EBCDIC or ASCII encodings only; it can be used with FOCA character sets and TrueType and OpenType fonts.
  • An extended code page includes multiple encodings within a single code page and can contain EBCDIC or ASCII encodings along with the Unicode equivalent value; it can be used with TrueType and OpenType fonts.

AFP outline fonts and AFP raster fonts use traditional code pages to map each character of text to the characters in a character set. TrueType and OpenType fonts use traditional and extended code pages to map each character of text to the characters associated with a Unicode point.

Each code point in an extended code page can be mapped to one or more Unicode values. Extended code pages allow code pages that contain user-defined characters (that is, those characters that are not registered with IBM® and assigned a GCGID value) to be used with TrueType and OpenType fonts.

Table 1 shows the extended code page files.
Table 1. Extended code page files
Font library Extended code page file
General ecp_gl.zip
Japanese ecp_japan.zip
Korean ecp_korea.zip
Simplified Chinese ecp_chs.zip
Traditional Chinese ecp_cht.zip

Summary tables for code pages lists code pages and extended code pages in the z/OS® Font Collection.