Mazovia encoding

Mazovia encoding is a character set used under DOS to represent Polish text. The character set derives from code page 437, with specific positions modified to accommodate Polish letters. Notably, the Mazovia encoding maintains the block graphic characters from code page 437, distinguishing it from IBM's later official Central European code page 852, which failed to preserve all block graphics, leading to incorrect display in programs such as Norton Commander.

Mazovia encoding
KermitMAZOVIA
Alias(es)cp667, cp790, cp991, MAZ
Language(s)Polish
ClassificationExtended ASCII, OEM code page
Based onOEM-US
Other related encoding(s)Fidonet Mazovia (MFD),
Mazovia 157,
FreeDOS-991

The Mazovia encoding was designed in 1984 by Jan Klimowicz of IMM. It was designed as part of a project to develop and produce a Polish IBM PC clone codenamed "Mazovia 1016". The code page was specifically optimized for the peripheral devices commonly used with the Mazovia 1016 computer, including a graphics card with dual switchable graphics, a keyboard with US English and Russian layouts, and printers with Polish fonts. The Mazovia encoding gained widespread acceptance and distribution in Poland when the Polish National Bank (NBP) adopted it as a standard in 1986. The NBP played a significant role in facilitating the production of compatible computers by Ipaco, which utilized Taiwanese components under the guidance of Zbigniew Jakubas and Krzysztof Sochacki.

Some ambiguity exists in the official code page assignment for the Mazovia encoding:

PTS-DOS and S/DOS support this encoding under code page 667 (CP667).[1] The same encoding was also called code page 991 (CP991) in some Polish software,[nb 1] however, the FreeDOS implementation of code page 991 seems not to be identical to this original encoding. The DOS code page switching file NECPINW.CPI for NEC Pinwriters supports the Mazovia encoding under both code pages 667 and 991.[1] FreeDOS has meanwhile introduced support for the original Mazovia encoding under code page 790 (CP790) as well. The Fujitsu DL6400 (Pro) / DL6600 (Pro) printers support the Mazovia encoding as well.[2] This encoding is known as code page 3843 in Star printers.

Character set

Each character is shown with its equivalent Unicode code point.[3] Only the second half of the table (128255) is shown, all of the first half (0127) being the same as ASCII and code page 437.

Several variants of this encoding exists:

  • Mazovia 157 (ś is at 9D instead of 9E)
  • Fido Mazovia (ć is at 0x87 instead of 8D and Ć is at 0x80 instead of 0x95)
  • FreeDOS Mazovia (złoty sign at 9B). FreeDOS supports this variant under code page 991, although the original definition of code page 991, which pre-dates FreeDOS, appears to have been identical to code page 667 / 790.

These variants are not fully compliant with the definition of code page 667 / 790 and should therefore not be associated with these numbers.

Code page 667 / 790
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
8x Ç
00C7
ü
00FC
é
00E9
â
00E2
ä
00E4
à
00E0
ą
0105
ç
00E7
ê
00EA
ë
00EB
è
00E8
ï
00EF
î
00EE
ć
0107
Ä
00C4
Ą
0104
9x Ę
0118
ę
0119
ł
0142
ô
00F4
ö
00F6
Ć
0106
û
00FB
ù
00F9
Ś
015A
Ö
00D6
Ü
00DC
¢
00A2
Ł
0141
¥
00A5
ś
015B
ƒ
0192
Ax Ź
0179
Ż
017B
ó
00F3
Ó
00D3
ń
0144
Ń
0143
ź
017A
ż
017C
¿
00BF

2310
¬
00AC
½
00BD
¼
00BC
¡
00A1
«
00AB
»
00BB
Bx
2591

2592

2593

2502

2524

2561

2562

2556

2555

2563

2551

2557

255D

255C

255B

2510
Cx
2514

2534

252C

251C

2500

253C

255E

255F

255A

2554

2569

2566

2560

2550

256C

2567
Dx
2568

2564

2565

2559

2558

2552

2553

256B

256A

2518

250C

2588

2584

258C

2590

2580
Ex α
03B1
ß
00DF
Γ
0393
π
03C0
Σ
03A3
σ
03C3
µ
00B5
τ
03C4
Φ
03A6
Θ
0398
Ω
03A9
δ
03B4

221E
φ
03C6
ε
03B5

2229
Fx
2261
±
00B1

2265

2264

2320

2321
÷
00F7

2248
°
00B0

2219
·
00B7

221A

207F
²
00B2

25A0
NBSP
  Differences from code page 437

See also

Notes

  1. The Polish text converter PLC, developed by Marcin Gryszkalis between 1997-1999, supports the standard Mazovia encoding under code page 991 as well as under the symbolic handle MAZ. The Fidonet Mazovia encoding is supported under symbolic handle MFD instead.

References

  1. Paul, Matthias R. (2001) [1996]. "Specification and reference documentation for NECPINW". NECPINW.CPI - DOS code page switching driver for NEC Pinwriters (2.08 ed.). FILESPEC.TXT from NECPI208.ZIP. Archived from the original on 2017-09-10. Retrieved 2013-04-22.
  2. Fujitsu DL6400/DL6600 Dot Matrix Printer User's Manual (PDF). Fujitsu Limited. April 1994. C147-E015-01EN. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-06-14. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  3. Pinwriter Familie - Pinwriter - Epromsockel - Zusätzliche Zeichensätze / Schriftarten (Printed reference manual for optional font and codepage EPROMs for NEC Pinwriters, including custom variants) (in German) (00 3/93 ed.). NEC Deutschland GmbH. 1993. (NB. Some dot matrix printers of the NEC Pinwriter series, namely the P3200/P3300 (P20/P30), P6200/P6300 (P60/P70), P9300 (P90), P7200/P7300 (P62/P72), P22Q/P32Q, P3800/P3900 (P42Q/P52Q), P1200/P1300 (P2Q/P3Q), P2000 (P2X) and P8000 (P72X), supported the installation of optional font EPROMs, where this encoding was included in ROM #8 "Polish". It could be invoked via escape sequence ESC R (n) with (n) = 21.)
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