Kamenický encoding

Czech text using the Kamenický encoding displayed in CP437
Alias(es)	NEC-867,[A] DOS-895,[B] KEYBCS2
Languages	Czech,Slovak
Classification	Extended ASCII,OEM code page
Based on	OEM-US
^NotIBM-867, which is aHebrew encoding. ^NotIBM-895, which is used onAIX for the Roman set ofJIS X 0201.

TheKamenický encoding (Czech:kódování Kamenických), named for the brothers Jiří and Marian Kamenický,^[1] was acode page forpersonal computers runningDOS, very popular inCzechoslovakia (since 1993, theCzech Republic andSlovakia) around 1985–1995. Another name for this encoding isKEYBCS2,^[1] the name of theterminate-and-stay-resident utility which implemented the matchingkeyboarddriver. It was also namedKAMENICKY.^[1]

It was based on thecode page 437 encoding (with accented characters for Western-European languages) where most of the characters from code points 128 to 173 were replaced byCzech andSlovak characters chosen so that theglyphs of the replacement characters resembled those of the original as closely as possible, e. g.č in the place ofç. This ensured that text in the Kamenický encoding was (barely) readable even on older or cheap computers with the original fonts (which were often in videocardROM, making modification difficult if not impossible).

A supplemental feature was that the block graphic andbox-drawing characters of code page 437 remained unchanged (IBM's official Central-European code page 852 did not have this property, making programs likeNorton Commander look funny with corners and joints of border lines broken by accented letters). The widespread use of the Kamenický encoding was undermined neither by IBM's code page 852, nor by theWindows 3.1 introducingMicrosoft Central Europecode page 1250. Only withWindows 95 and the spreading deployment ofMicrosoft Office did users begin to use code page 1250, which in turn is now obsoleted byUnicode.

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

Some dot matrix printers of theNEC Pinwriter series, namely theP3200/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) andP8000 (P72X), supported the installation of optional fontEPROMs.^[2] The optional ROM #2 "East Europe" included this encoding, invokable viaescape sequenceESC R (n) with (n) = 23. While named "Kamenický" in the documentation,^[2] it was originally advertised by NEC as code page 867 (CP867) or "Czech".^[3] (However, it was never registered withIBM under that ID, as IBM registered another unrelated code pageIsrael: Hebrew, based on CP862, under that ID in 1998.^[4]) TheFujitsuDL6400 (Pro) /DL6600 (Pro) printers support the Kamenický encoding as well.^[5]

The encoding was also sometimes called code page 895 (CP895),^[6] for example withFoxPro,^[1] in theWordPerfect^[7][8] text processor and under theArachne^[8] web browser for DOS, but IBM uses this code page number for a different encoding,^[1]CM/Group 2: 7-bit Latin SBCS: Japanese (EUC-JP JIS-Roman)^[8][9] orJapan 7-Bit Latin (00895),^[10] and theIANA does not recognize the number at all. The DOS code page switching fileNECPINW.CPI for NEC Pinwriters supported the Kamenický encoding under both, code page 867 and 895 as well.^[8] This encoding is known ascode page 3844 in Star printers.

Each character is shown with its equivalentUnicode code point. Only the second half of the table (code points 128–255) is shown, the first half (code points 0–127) being the same ascode page 437.^[2][1]

• Mazovia encoding – similar code page for Polish
• CWI-2 encoding
• Hardware code page

• DOS code pages

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1 Czech-language sources (cs)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Czech-language text