RTF Pocket Guide

Chapter 4. Reference Tables

ASCII-RTF Character Chart

Table 4-1 shows the main printable characters you can access in RTF, as defined by the ANSI character set (also known as Code Page 1252, which is basically Latin-1 with some characters added between 128 and 159). Accessing Unicode characters is explained in the Character Formatting section of Chapter 1.

Note that while RTF escapes (\'xx) are valid for all characters, the only characters that have to be escaped are these three characters: {, }, and \, plus all the characters over code 127.

Table 4-1. ASCII-RTF character chart

ASCII code	RTF escape	Character	Character name
0–31			Control characters; do not use
32	\'20		Space
33	\'21	!	Exclamation mark
34	\'22	"	Double quote
35	\'23	#	Number
36	\'24	$	Dollar
37	\'25	%	Percent
38	\'26	&	Ampersand
39	\'27	'	Apostrophe
40	\'28	(	Left parenthesis
41	\'29	)	Right parenthesis
42	\'2a	*	Asterisk
43	\'2b	+	Plus sign
44	\'2c	,	Comma
45	\'2d	-	Hyphen (use \_ for nonbreaking hyphen)
46	\'2e	.	Period
47	\'2f	/	Slash
48–57	\'30–\'39	0–9	Digits 0–9
58	\'3a	:	Colon
59	\'3b	;	Semicolon
60	\'3c	<	Less-than sign
61	\'3d	=	Equals sign
62	\'3e	>	Greater-than sign
63	\'3f	?	Question mark
64	\'40	@	Commercial at sign
65	\'41	A
66	\'42	B
67	\'43	C
68	\'44	D
69	\'45	E
70	\'46	F
71	\'47	G
72	\'48	H
73	\'49	I
74	\'4a	J
75	\'4b	K
76	\'4c	L
77	\'4d	M
78	\'4e	N
79	\'4f	O
80	\'50	P
81	\'51	Q
82	\'52	R
83	\'53	S
84	\'54	T
85	\'55	U
86	\'56	V
87	\'57	W
88	\'58	X
89	\'59	Y
90	\'5a	Z
91	\'5b	[	Left square bracket
92	\'5c	\	Backslash
93	\'5d	]	Right square bracket
94	\'5e	^	Caret
95	\'5f	_	Underscore
96	\'60	`	Grave accent
97	\'61	a
98	\'62	b
99	\'63	c
100	\'64	d
101	\'65	e
102	\'66	f
103	\'67	g
104	\'68	h
105	\'69	i
106	\'6a	j
107	\'6b	k
108	\'6c	l
109	\'6d	m
110	\'6e	n
111	\'6f	o
112	\'70	p
113	\'71	q
114	\'72	r
115	\'73	s
116	\'74	t
117	\'75	u
118	\'76	v
119	\'77	w
120	\'78	x
121	\'79	y
122	\'7a	z
123	\'7b	{	Left curly brace
124	\'7c	|	Vertical bar
125	\'7d	}	Right curly brace
126	\'7e	~	Tilde
127	\'7f		Delete character; do not use
128	\'80		Euro character
129	\'81		Unassigned
130	\'82	͵	Low left single quote
131	\'83	ƒ	Florin
132	\'84	,,	Low left double quote
133	\'85	...	Ellipsis
134	\'86	†	Dagger
135	\'87	‡	Double dagger
136	\'88	∘	Circumflex
137	\'89	‰	Permil
138	\'8a	Š	S-caron
139	\'8b	‹	Single left guillemet
140	\'8c	Œ	OE-ligature
141	\'8d		Unassigned
142	\'8e	Ž	Z-caron
143	\'8f		Unassigned
144	\'90		Unassigned
145	\'91	‘	Left single quote
146	\'92	’	Right single quote
147	\'93	“	Left double quote
148	\'94	”	Right double quote
149	\'95	•	Bullet
150	\'96	–	En dash
151	\'97	—	Em dash
152	\'98	~	Tilde
153	\'99	™	Trademark
154	\'9a	š	s-caron
155	\'9b	›	Single right guillemet
156	\'9c	œ	oe ligature
157	\'9d		Unassigned
158	\'9e	ž	z-caron
159	\'9f	Ÿ	Y-diaeresis
(160)	\~		Nonbreaking space
161	\'a1	¡	Inverted exclamation point
162	\'a2	¢	Cent sign
163	\'a3	£	Pound sign
164	\'a4	¤	General currency sign
165	\'a5	¥	Yen sign
166	\'a6	¦	Broken vertical bar
167	\'a7	§	Section sign
168	\'a8	¨	Spacing diaeresis
169	\'a9	©	Copyright
170	\'aa	ª	Feminine ordinal
171	\'ab	«	Left angle quotes
172	\'ac	¬	Not sign
173	\-	(-)	Soft hyphen
174	\'ae	®	Registered trademark
175	\'af	¯	Macron accent
176	\'b0	°	Degree sign
177	\'b1	±	Plus or minus sign
178	\'b2	²	Superscript 2
179	\'b3	³	Superscript 3
180	\'b4	´	Acute accent
181	\'b5	µ	Micro sign (Greek mu)
182	\'b6	¶	Paragraph sign
183	\'b7	·	Middle dot
184	\'b8	¸	Cedilla
185	\'b9	¹	Superscript 1
186	\'ba	º	Masculine ordinal
187	\'bb	»	Right angle quotes
188	\'bc	¼	One-fourth fraction
189	\'bd	½	One-half fraction
190	\'be	¾	Three-fourths fraction
191	\'bf	¿	Inverted question mark
192	\'c0	À	A-grave
193	\'c1	Á	A-acute
194	\'c2	Â	A-circumflex
195	\'c3	Ã	A-tilde
196	\'c4	Ä	A-diaeresis
197	\'c5	Å	A-ring
198	\'c6	Æ	AE-ligature
199	\'c7	Ç	C-cedilla
200	\'c8	È	E-grave
201	\'c9	É	E-acute
202	\'ca	Ê	E-circumflex
203	\'cb	Ë	E-diaeresis
204	\'cc	Ì	I-grave
205	\'cd	Í	I-acute
206	\'ce	Î	I-circumflex
207	\'cf	Ï	I-diaeresis
208	\'d0	Ð	Uppercase edh
209	\'d1	Ñ	N-tilde
210	\'d2	Ò	O-grave
211	\'d3	Ó	O-acute
212	\'d4	Ô	O-circumflex
213	\'d5	Õ	O-tilde
214	\'d6	Ö	O-diaeresis
215	\'d7	×	Multiply sign
216	\'d8	Ø	O-slash
217	\'d9	Ù	U-grave
218	\'da	Ú	U-acute
219	\'db	Û	U-circumflex
220	\'dc	Ü	U-diaeresis
221	\'dd	Ý	Y-acute
222	\'de	Þ	Uppercase thorn
223	\'df	ß	German ess-zed
224	\'e0	à	a-grave
225	\'e1	á	a-acute
226	\'e2	â	a-circumflex
227	\'e3	ã	a-tilde
228	\'e4	ä	a-diaeresis
229	\'e5	å	a-ring
230	\'e6	æ	ae-ligature
231	\'e7	ç	c-cedilla
232	\'e8	è	e-grave
233	\'e9	é	e-acute
234	\'ea	ê	e-circumflex
235	\'eb	ë	e-diaeresis
236	\'ec	ì	i-grave
237	\'ed	í	i-acute
238	\'ee	î	i-circumflex
239	\'ef	ï	i-diaeresis
240	\'f0	ð	Lowercase edh
241	\'f1	ñ	n-tilde
242	\'f2	ò	o-grave
243	\'f3	ó	o-acute
244	\'f4	ô	o-circumflex
245	\'f5	õ	o-tilde
246	\'f6	ö	o-diaeresis
247	\'f7	÷	Division sign
248	\'f8	ø	o-slash
249	\'f9	ù	u-grave
250	\'fa	ú	u-acute
251	\'fb	û	u-circumflex
252	\'fc	ü	u-diaeresis
253	\'fd	ý	y-acute
254	\'fe	þ	Lowercase thorn
255	\'ff	ÿ	y-diaeresis

RTF Language Codes

In RTF, use the \langthatnumber command with the appropriate language code to label a piece of text as a particular language; for example, this paragraph in U.S. English (1033) contains a phrase in French (1036):

{\pard\lang1033 It had a certain
{\i\lang1036 je ne sais quoi}.\par}

Table 4-2 is a partial list of the most common language numbers. A complete list is located at http://www.unicode.org/unicode/onlinedat/languages.html

Note that the language values are in decimal (as used in RTF’s \langthatnumber command). In most Microsoft documentation, the values are (inconveniently) listed in hexadecimal.

Table 4-2. RTF language codes

Language name	Language code (decimal)
Not in any language	1024
Afrikaans	1078
Arabic	1025
Catalan	1027
Chinese (Traditional)	1028
Chinese (Simplified)	2052
Czech	1029
Danish	1030
Dutch	1043
Dutch (Belgian)	2067
English (U.K.)	2057
English (U.S.)	1033
Finnish	1035
French	1036
French (Belgian)	2060
French (Canadian)	3084
French (Swiss)	4108
German	1031
German (Swiss)	2055
Greek	1032
Hebrew	1037
Hungarian	1038
Icelandic	1039
Indonesian	1057
Italian	1040
Japanese	1041
Korean	1042
Norwegian (Bokmål)	1044
Norwegian (Nynorsk)	2068
Polish	1045
Portuguese	2070
Portuguese (Brazilian)	1046
Romanian	1048
Russian	1049
Serbo-Croatian (Cyrillic)	2074
Serbo-Croatian (Latin)	1050
Slovak	1051
Spanish (Castilian)	1034
Spanish (Mexican)	2058
Swahili	1089
Swedish	1053
Thai	1054
Turkish	1055
Vietnamese	1066

Converting to Twips

Measurements in RTF are generally in twips. A twip is a twentieth of a point, i.e., a 1,440^th of an inch. It can lead to large numbers sometimes (like \li2160 to set the left indent to an inch and a half), but Table 4-3 should be useful for conversions. Also, see the ruler printed inside the cover of this book.

Conversions between centimeters and anything else are approximate, so figures with a preceding “~” have been rounded.

Table 4-3. Converting to twips

Inches	Twips	Points	Centimeters
	20 tw	1 pts
	40 tw	2 pts
	~57 tw		.1 cm
	60 tw	3 pts
	80 tw	4 pts
1/16″	90 tw	4.5 pts
	100 tw	5 pts
	~113 tw		.2 cm
1/9″	160 tw	8 pts
	~170 tw		.3 cm
1/8″	180 tw	9 pts
1/7″	~206 tw	~10.3 pts
	~227 tw		.4 cm
1/6″	240 tw	12 pts
3/16″	270 tw	13.5 pts
	~283 tw		.5 cm
1/5″	288 tw	14.4 pts
	~340 tw		.6 cm
1/4″	360 tw	18 pts
	~397 tw		.7 cm
	~454 tw		.8 cm
1/3″	480 tw	24 pts
	~510 tw		.9 cm
	~567 tw		1 cm
1/2″	720 tw	36 pts
	~850 tw		1.5 cm
3/4	1080 tw	54 pts
	~1134 tw		2 cm
1″	1440 tw	72 pts
	~1701 tw		3 cm
1.5″	2160 tw	108 pts
	~2268 tw		4 cm
	~2835 tw		5 cm
2″	2880 tw	144 pts
	~3402 tw		6 cm
2.5″	3600 tw	180 pts
3″	4320 tw	216 pts
	~5669 tw		10 cm
4″	5760 tw	288 pts
5″	7200 tw	360 pts