# Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set

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Character encoding system

The **Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set** (**LMBCS**) is a proprietary [multi-byte](/source/Multi_Byte_Character_Set) [character encoding](/source/Character_encoding) originally conceived in 1988 at [Lotus Development Corporation](/source/Lotus_Development_Corporation) with input from Bob Balaban and others.[1] Created around the same time and addressing some of the same problems, LMBCS could be viewed as parallel development and possible alternative to [Unicode](/source/Unicode).[1] For maximum compatibility, later issues of LMBCS incorporate [UTF-16](/source/UTF-16) as a subset.[2][3]

Commercially, LMBCS was first introduced as the default character set of [Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3](/source/Lotus_1-2-3_Release_3) for [DOS](/source/DOS) in March 1989[1][4] and [Lotus 1-2-3/G Release 1](/source/Lotus_1-2-3%2FG_Release_1) for [OS/2](/source/OS%2F2)[1] in 1990 replacing the 8-bit [Lotus International Character Set](/source/Lotus_International_Character_Set) (LICS) and [ASCII](/source/ASCII) used in earlier DOS-only versions of Lotus 1-2-3 and [Symphony](/source/Lotus_Symphony_(DOS)).[5] LMBCS is also used in [IBM](/source/IBM)/[Lotus](/source/Lotus_Corporation) [SmartSuite](/source/Lotus_SmartSuite), [Notes](/source/Lotus_Notes) and [Domino](/source/Lotus_Domino),[1] as well as in a number of third-party products.

LMBCS encodes the characters required for languages using the [Latin](/source/Latin_script),[6] [Arabic](/source/Arabic_script), [Hebrew](/source/Hebrew_script), [Greek](/source/Greek_script) and [Cyrillic](/source/Cyrillic_script)[6] scripts, the [Thai](/source/Thai_script), [Chinese](/source/Chinese_writing_system), [Japanese](/source/Japanese_writing_system)[6] and [Korean](/source/Korean_writing_system) writing systems, and technical symbols.

## Encodings

Technically, LMBCS is a [lead-byte](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lead_byte&action=edit&redlink=1) encoding where code point 00hex as well as code points 20hex (32) to 7Fhex (127) are identical to [ASCII](/source/ASCII)[1] (as well as to LICS).[5]

Code point 00hex is always treated as [NUL character](/source/NUL_character) to ensure maximum code compatibility with existing software libraries dealing with [null-terminated strings](/source/Null-terminated_string)[1] in many programming languages such as [C](/source/C_(language)).[a] This applies even to the UTF-16be codes, where code words with the form xx00hex are mapped to [private-use codes](/source/Private_Use_Area) with the form F6xxhex during encoding in order to avoid the use of NUL bytes,[7] and to escaped control characters, where 20hex is added to the C0 (but not C1) control characters following the 0Fhex lead byte.[7]

Code points 01hex to 1Fhex, which serve as control codes in ASCII, are used as lead bytes to switch the definition of code points above 7Fhex between several *code groups* (similar to [code pages](/source/Code_page)) and at the same time determine either a single- or multi-byte nature for the corresponding code group.[1]

For example, code group 1 (with group byte 01hex)[1] is almost identical to the [SBCS](/source/SBCS) [code page 850](/source/Code_page_850), whereas code group 16 (with group byte 10hex)[1] is similar to the Japanese [MBCS](/source/MBCS_(encoding)) [code page 932](/source/Code_page_932_(IBM)). Multi-byte characters can thus occupy two or three bytes.[7][6]

In **canonical LMBCS**, each character starts with its group byte.[1] To reduce the length, in **optimized** or **compressed LMBCS** a *default code group* or *optimization group code* can be defined on a per application or process basis (ideally chosen according to the highest likelihood of occurrence)[1] and must be communicated to the interpreting code in some way (f.e. by specifying the corresponding "LMBCS-*n*" name).[8] Thereby, the group byte can be omitted for these characters.[1] Lotus 1-2-3 retrieves the optimization group code from the file header of the corresponding source file,[7] whereas for Lotus Notes the optimization group code is fixed to be always 01hex.[2][7]

Default Group Bytes Description N/A 00hex 1[7] NUL LMBCS-1 01hex 2[7] Code page 850 (DOS Latin-1)[2][7] LMBCS-2 02hex 2[7] Code page 851 (DOS Greek)[2][7] LMBCS-3 03hex 2[7] Code page 1255 (Windows Hebrew)[2][7] LMBCS-4 04hex 2[7] Code page 1256 (Windows Arabic)[2][7] LMBCS-5 05hex 2[7] Code page 1251 (Windows Cyrillic)[2][7] LMBCS-6 06hex 2[7] Code page 852 (DOS Latin-2)[2][7] N/A 07hex 1[7] BEL[2] LMBCS-8 08hex 2[7] Code page 1254 (Windows Turkish)[2][9][7] N/A 09hex 1[7] TAB[2][9][7] N/A 0Ahex 1[7] LF[2][9][7] LMBCS-11 0Bhex 2[7] Code page 874 (Thai)[9][7] (LMBCS-12) 0Chex 2[7] Reserved[2] N/A 0Dhex 1[7] CR[2][9][7] (LMBCS-14) 0Ehex 2[7] Reserved[2] (LMBCS-15) 0Fhex 2[7] Remapped C0/C1 control codes[7] LMBCS-16 10hex 3[7] Code page 932/[2]943[7] (Japanese / Shift-JIS)[2][9] LMBCS-17 11hex 3[7] Code page 949/[2]1261[7] (Korean)[2][9] LMBCS-18 12hex 3[7] Code page 950[2][7] (Traditional Chinese / Taiwan / Big5)[2][9] LMBCS-19 13hex 3[7] Code page 936/[2]1386[7] (Simplified Chinese)[2][9] (LMBCS-20) 14hex 3[7] UTF-16 (Unicode)[2][3][7] N/A 15hex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 16hex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 17hex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 18hex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 19hex 1[7] Lotus 1-2-3 system range[9][7] N/A 1Ahex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 1Bhex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 1Chex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 1Dhex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 1Ehex 3 Reserved[2] N/A 1Fhex 3 Reserved[2]

## Character set

Without prefix byte the code points 32 (20hex) to 127 (7Fhex) are interpreted as follows (corresponding to LMBCS codes 32 to 127):

Single byte codes (ASCII/ISO-646-US[10]) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 2x SP ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 3x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? 4x @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O 5x P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ 6x ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 7x p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ DEL/⌂

### Group 1

LMBCS group 1 code points 128 (80hex) to 255 (FFhex) are identical to the corresponding code points in [code page 850](/source/Code_page_850) (DOS Latin-1), whereas code points 1 (01hex) to 127 (7Fhex) are defined according to the following exception list (corresponding to LMBCS codes 256 to 383):

LMBCS Group 1, lower half[11][10] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 0x NUL ☺ ☻ ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ • ◘ ○ ◙ ♂ ♀ ♪ ♫ ☼ 1x ► ◄ ↕ ‼ ¶ § ▬ ↨ ↑ ↓ → ← ∟ ↔ ▲ ▼ 2x ¨ ~ ˚ ^ ` ´ “ ' … -[b] — ‘[c] ’[c] ‹ › 3x ¨[d] ~[d] ˚[d] ^[d] `[d] ´[d] „ ‚ ” ‗ NBSP[c] �[c] 4x Œ œ Ÿ ˙[c] ˚[c][d] ╞ ╟ ▌ ▐ ◊[c] ⌘[c] [c] [c] Ω[c] 5x ╨ ╤ ╥ ╙ ╘ ╒ ╓ ╫ ╪ ╡ ╢ ╖ ╕ ╜ ╛ ╧ 6x ij IJ fi fl ʼn ŀ Ŀ ¯[c] ˘[c] ˝[c] ˛[c] ˇ[c] ~[c][d] ^[c][d] 7x † ‡ Ħ[c] ħ[c] Ŧ[c] ŧ[c] ™ ℓ Ŋ[c] ŋ[c] ĸ[c] Kr[e] ⌐ ₤ ₧

  Mapped to a Unicode [private use character](/source/Private_Use_Areas#Vendor_use)

### Group 2

LMBCS group 2 code points 128 (80hex) to 255 (FFhex) are identical to the corresponding code points in code page 851 (DOS Greek), whereas code points 1 (01hex) to 127 (7Fhex) are defined according to the following exception list:[f]

LMBCS Group 2, lower half[11] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 0x NUL ͺ ΅ Ϊ Ϋ ― ΄ ʼ ʽ ‾   1x   ⇕ ⅞ ⅝ ⅜ ⅛  ⇑ ⇓ ⇒ ⇐  ⇔   2x                 3x                 4x ∠ ∇               5x ∂ ℵ ℑ ℜ        ∋ ∈ ∉ ⊆ ⊇ 6x ⊗ ⊕ ✓ ⋀ ∁ ∫ ∀ ∃  ′ ″ ∞ ∝ φ ∪ ∩ 7x ≡ ≅ ≥ ≤ ⌠ ⌡ ≠ ≈ ⁄ ∙ ‰ √ ⁿ ∅ ⊂ ⊃

  Mapped to a Unicode [private use character](/source/Private_Use_Areas#Vendor_use)

### Group 6

LMBCS group 6 code points 128 (80hex) to 255 (FFhex) are identical to the corresponding code points in code page 852 (DOS Latin-2), whereas code points 1 (01hex) to 127 (7Fhex) are defined according to the following exception list:[f]

LMBCS Group 6, lower half[11] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 0x NUL ā Ĉ ĉ Ċ ċ Ē ē Ė ė Ĝ ĝ Ġ ġ Ģ ģ 1x Ĥ ĥ Ĩ ĩ Ī ī Į į Ĵ ĵ Ķ ķ Ļ ļ Ņ ņ 2x Ō ō Ŗ ŗ Ŝ ŝ Ũ ũ Ū ū Ŭ ŭ Ų ų Ā 3x 4x 5x 6x 7x

## See also

- [Compose key](/source/Compose_key)

- [GB 18030](/source/GB_18030)

- [Standard Compression Scheme for Unicode](/source/Standard_Compression_Scheme_for_Unicode) (SCSU)

- [Symbol (typeface)](/source/Symbol_(typeface))

- [Xerox Character Code Standard](/source/Xerox_Character_Code_Standard) (XCCS)

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NB_C_7-0)** [Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.0](/source/Lotus_1-2-3_Release_3.0) for [DOS](/source/DOS) and newer versions are written in [C](/source/C_(language)).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-hyphendash_13-0)** [‐](/source/Hyphen) (U+2010), [‑](/source/%E2%80%91#Non-breaking_hyphens) (U+2011), [‒](/source/%E2%80%92) (U+2012), [–](/source/%E2%80%93) (U+2013)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-9) [***k***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-10) [***l***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-11) [***m***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-12) [***n***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-13) [***o***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-14) [***p***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-15) [***q***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-16) [***r***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-17) [***s***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-18) [***t***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-19) [***u***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-20) [***v***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-21) [***w***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-22) [***x***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-23) [***y***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_14-24) According to the documentation this code point is not supported by [Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1+](/source/Lotus_1-2-3_Release_3.1%2B) for DOS and OS/2 and earlier.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-NB_R5_15-8) For compatibility with [Lotus 1-2-3 Release 5.0](/source/Lotus_1-2-3_Release_5.0).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NB_Kr_16-0)** [Unicode](/source/Unicode) does not define a glyph for the [crown currency](/source/Crown_(currency)) symbol (Krone aka "Kr"), therefore this points to F8FBhex in the Unicode [Private Use Area](/source/Private_Use_Area) (PUA).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_Many_17-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-NB_DOS31_Many_17-1) According to the documentation code points 1 to 127 in this group are not supported by [Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1+](/source/Lotus_1-2-3_Release_3.1%2B) for DOS and OS/2 and earlier. These versions only supported LMBCS code points 0 to 511, covering group 0 and 1 only.

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-9) [***k***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-10) [***l***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-11) [***m***](#cite_ref-Balaban_2001_LMBCS_1-12) Balaban, Bob (2001). ["Multi-Language Character Sets – What They Are, How To Use Them"](http://www.bobzblog.com/tuxedoguy.nsf/dx/multilanguage.pdf/$file/multilanguage.pdf) (PDF). Looseleaf Software, Inc. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161125174612/http://www.bobzblog.com/tuxedoguy.nsf/dx/multilanguage.pdf/%24file/multilanguage.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2016-11-25. Retrieved 2016-11-25.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-9) [***k***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-10) [***l***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-11) [***m***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-12) [***n***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-13) [***o***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-14) [***p***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-15) [***q***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-16) [***r***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-17) [***s***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-18) [***t***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-19) [***u***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-20) [***v***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-21) [***w***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-22) [***x***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-23) [***y***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-24) [***z***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-25) [***aa***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-26) [***ab***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-27) [***ac***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-28) [***ad***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-29) [***ae***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-30) [***af***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-31) [***ag***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-32) [***ah***](#cite_ref-IBM_CDRA_LMBCS_2-33) ["Appendix A. Encoding Schemes"](https://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cdra/appendix_a.html#Lotus%20Multi-byte%20Character%20Set%20(LMBCS)). *IBM [Character Data Representation Architecture](/source/Character_Data_Representation_Architecture)*. [IBM](/source/IBM) (CDRA). Lotus Multi-byte Character Set (LMBCS). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161126165447/https://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cdra/appendix_a.html) from the original on 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2016-11-26. For optimization purposes, the group byte is omitted in [Notes](/source/IBM_Notes) for single-byte values between X'20' and X'FF'. For example, LMBCS is always optimized to group 0x01, which means that any character where the first byte is greater than 0x1F, has an implicit group byte of 0x01.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Scherer_2000_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Scherer_2000_3-1) Scherer, Markus; Murray, Brendan (2000-06-02). ["Re: MS Excel, Lotus 123 & Unicode"](http://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML022/1278.html). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161206163914/http://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML022/1278.html) from the original on 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2016-12-06.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Lotus_1989_Compatibility_4-0)** "Kapitel 4. Kompatibilität mit anderen 1-2-3 Versionen – Zeichensätze" [Chapter 4. Compatibility with other 1-2-3 Versions – Character Sets]. *Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Upgrader's Handbuch* [*Upgrader's handbook*] (in German) (1 ed.). Cambridge, MA, USA: [Lotus Development Corporation](/source/Lotus_Development_Corporation). 1989. pp. 4-10 – 4-11. 302173.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Kamenz_1992_DB_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Kamenz_1992_DB_5-1) Kamenz, Alfred; Vonhoegen, Helmut (1992). *Das große Buch zu Lotus 1-2-3 für DOS* (in German) (1 ed.). [Data Becker](/source/Data_Becker). pp. 131–132, 357–358. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [3-89011-375-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/3-89011-375-3).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2000_Inside_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2000_Inside_6-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2000_Inside_6-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2000_Inside_6-3) [*Lotus – Inside Notes – The Architecture of Notes and the Domino Server*](http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/uafiles.nsf/70817c90542892178525695b0051105c/2e559b131d346a028525697c00652c2b/$FILE/InsideNotes.pdf) (PDF). [Lotus Development Corporation](/source/Lotus_Development_Corporation). 2000. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161212162221/http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/uafiles.nsf/70817c90542892178525695b0051105c/2e559b131d346a028525697c00652c2b/%24FILE/InsideNotes.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2016-12-12. Retrieved 2016-12-12. […] Notes uses a single character set, the Lotus Multibyte Character Set (LMBCS), to encode all text data used internally by its programs. Whenever Notes first inputs text encoded in a character set other than LMBCS, it translates the text into a LMBCS string, and whenever it must output text in a character set other than LMBCS, it translates the internal LMBCS string into the appropriate character set. Because all text is internally formatted by LMBCS, all text-processing operations […] are done in only one way. LMBCS uses up to three bytes in memory to represent a single text character […]

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-9) [***k***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-10) [***l***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-11) [***m***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-12) [***n***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-13) [***o***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-14) [***p***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-15) [***q***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-16) [***r***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-17) [***s***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-18) [***t***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-19) [***u***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-20) [***v***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-21) [***w***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-22) [***x***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-23) [***y***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-24) [***z***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-25) [***aa***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-26) [***ab***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-27) [***ac***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-28) [***ad***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-29) [***ae***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-30) [***af***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-31) [***ag***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-32) [***ah***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-33) [***ai***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-34) [***aj***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-35) [***ak***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-36) [***al***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-37) [***am***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-38) [***an***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-39) [***ao***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-40) [***ap***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-41) [***aq***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-42) [***ar***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-43) [***as***](#cite_ref-IBM_2016_UCNV_8-44) Murray, Brendan; Snyder-Grant, Jim, eds. (2016) [2000-02-09]. ["ucnv_lmb.c"](https://opensource.apple.com/source/ICU/ICU-59180.0.1/icuSources/common/ucnv_lmb.cpp.auto.html). *[International Components for Unicode](/source/International_Components_for_Unicode)*. [International Business Machines](/source/International_Business_Machines) (IBM).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Batutis_2001_ICU_9-0)** Batutis, Edward J. (2001-11-03). ["Re: converter types"](https://sourceforge.net/p/icu/mailman/message/7389276/). *[International Components for Unicode](/source/International_Components_for_Unicode) (ICU)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161206164926/https://sourceforge.net/p/icu/mailman/message/7389276/) from the original on 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2016-12-06.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-Lotus_2009_81_10-9) ["LMBCS"](http://hnagasim.blog8.fc2.com/blog-entry-81.html) (in Japanese). 2009-02-03. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161126175211/http://hnagasim.blog8.fc2.com/blog-entry-81.html) from the original on 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2016-11-26.[\[1\]](http://qiita.com/disapalt/items/891f8947b0c586e8c477)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Lotus_1989_RM31_11-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Lotus_1989_RM31_11-1) "Anhang 2. Der Lotus Multibyte Zeichensatz (LMBCS)" [Appendix 2. The Lotus Multibyte Character Set (LMBCS)]. *Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Referenzhandbuch* [*Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Reference Manual*] (in German) (1 ed.). Cambridge, MA, USA: [Lotus Development Corporation](/source/Lotus_Development_Corporation). 1989. pp. A2-1 – A2-13. 302168.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-LMB-EXCP_12-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-LMB-EXCP_12-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-LMB-EXCP_12-2) ["lmb-excp.ucm"](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/source/data/mappings/lmb-excp.ucm). *[GitHub](/source/GitHub)*. 2000-02-10.

## Further reading

- [Born, Günter](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Born) [in German] (December 2000) [1990]. "Kapitel 2. LOTUS 1-2-3-Format (WK3)" [Chapter 2. Lotus 1-2-3 WK3 format]. [*Dateiformate – Eine Referenz – Tabellenkalkulation, Text, Grafik, Multimedia, Sound und Internet*](http://www.aboutvb.de/bas/formate/pdf/wk3.pdf) [*File formats – a reference – spreadsheets, text, graphics, multimedia, sound and internet*] (PDF) (in German). Bonn, Germany: [Galileo Computing](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Computing). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [3-934358-83-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/3-934358-83-7). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161129183043/http://www.aboutvb.de/bas/formate/pdf/wk3.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2016-11-28. (Includes some information about LMBCS and Lotus system ranges.)

- ["LMBCS tables"](ftp://ftp.lotus.com/desktop/LotusDoc/10955.txt). *User's Guide – 123 Release 4 for Windows* (Fax). 1995 [1994-01-01]. CHAPTER: Appendix A Using the Lotus Multibyte Character Set. Fax 10955. Retrieved 2016-12-06.[*dead ftp link*] (To view documents see [Help:FTP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:FTP))

- ["Entering LMBCS characters"](ftp://ftp.lotus.com/desktop/LotusDoc/10954.txt). *User's Guide – 123 Release 4 for Windows* (Fax). 1995 [1994-01-01]. CHAPTER: Appendix A Using the Lotus Multibyte Character Set. Fax 10954. Retrieved 2016-12-06.[*dead ftp link*] (To view documents see [Help:FTP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:FTP))

- Lotus Support. ["Notes from Support: SMTP MTA International Character Sets"](https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/ls-SMTP_MTA_International_Character_Sets/). *IBM developerWorks*. [IBM](/source/IBM). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161208000502/https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/ls-SMTP_MTA_International_Character_Sets/) from the original on 2016-12-08. Retrieved 2016-12-08.

- Character Translation Files (.CTF) by Notes 2.x and Country Language Service (.CLS) files by Notes 3.0 and higher contain information about LMBCS translation into other codepages [\[2\]](http://www.blanes.cat/help4.nsf/17be5b66a7aa5b648025641700320fc9/47f2e6ebc63cbcffc12565260004d84c!OpenDocument) [\[3\]](http://domino.cnce.it/help4.nsf/ba459ed7b91ff551c1256523005f7581/a58eb1ab81986c8941256523003556a2?OpenDocument)

## External links

- Berntrop-Bos, Lars (2014-07-10). ["Blast from the past: LMBCS tables for Windows, OS/2, Unix and Macintosh"](http://planetlotus.org/profiles/lars-berntrop-bos_126302). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161126141824/http://planetlotus.org/profiles/lars-berntrop-bos_126302) from the original on 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2016-11-26.

v t e Character encodings Early telecommunication Telegraph code Needle Morse Non-Latin Wabun/Kana Chinese Cyrillic Baudot and Murray Fieldata ASCII ISO/IEC 646 BCDIC Teletex and Videotex/Teletext T.51/ISO/IEC 6937 ITU T.61 ITU T.101 World System Teletext background sets Transcode ISO/IEC 8859 Approved parts -1 (Western Europe) -2 (Central Europe) -3 (Maltese/Esperanto) -4 (North Europe) -5 (Cyrillic) -6 (Arabic) -7 (Greek) -8 (Hebrew) -9 (Turkish) -10 (Nordic) -11 (Thai) -13 (Baltic) -14 (Celtic) -15 (New Western Europe) -16 (Romanian) Abandoned parts -12 (Devanagari) Proposed but not approved KOI-8 Cyrillic Sámi Adaptations Welsh Estonian Ukrainian Cyrillic Bibliographic use MARC-8 ANSEL CCCII/EACC ISO 5426 5426-2 5427 5428 6438 6862 National standards ArmSCII Big5 BraSCII BSCII CNS 11643 DIN 66003 ELOT 927 GOST 10859 GB 2312 GB 12345 GB 12052 GB 18030 HKSCS ISCII JIS X 0201 JIS X 0208 JIS X 0212 JIS X 0213 KOI-7 KPS 9566 KS X 1001 KS X 1002 LST 1564 LST 1590-4 PASCII Shift JIS SI 960 TIS-620 TSCII VISCII VSCII YUSCII ISO/IEC 2022 ISO/IEC 8859 ISO/IEC 10367 Extended Unix Code (EUC) Code pages Mac OS ("scripts") Armenian Arabic Barents Cyrillic Celtic Central European Croatian Cyrillic Devanagari Font X (Kermit) Gaelic Georgian Greek Gujarati Gurmukhi Hebrew Iceland Inuit Keyboard Latin (Kermit) Maltese/Esperanto Ogham Roman Romanian Sámi Turkish Turkic Cyrillic Ukrainian VT100 DOS 437 737 850 858 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 899 904 932 936 942 949 950 951 1040 1043 1046 1098 1115 1116 1117 1118 1127 ABICOMP CS Indic CSX Indic CSX+ Indic CWI-2 Iran System Kamenický Mazovia MIK IBM AIX 895 896 912 915 921 922 1006 1008 1009 1010 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1046 1133 Windows CER-GS 932 936 (GBK) 950 Extended Latin-8 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1270 Cyrillic + French Cyrillic + German Polytonic Greek EBCDIC Japanese language in EBCDIC DKOI DEC terminals (VTx) Multinational (MCS) National Replacement (NRCS) French Canadian Swiss Spanish United Kingdom Dutch Finnish French Norwegian and Danish Swedish Norwegian and Danish (alternative) 8-bit Greek 8-bit Turkish SI 960 Hebrew Special Graphics Technical (TCS) Platform specific 1052 1053 1054 1055 1058 Acorn RISC OS Amstrad CPC Apple II ATASCII Atari ST BICS Casio calculators CDC Compucolor 8001 Compucolor II CP/M+ DEC RADIX 50 DEC MCS/NRCS DG International Galaksija GEM GSM 03.38 HP Roman HP FOCAL HP RPL SQUOZE LICS LMBCS MSX NEC APC NeXT PETSCII PostScript Standard PostScript Latin 1 SAM Coupé Sega SC-3000 Sharp calculators Sharp MZ Sinclair QL Teletext TI calculators TRS-80 Ventura International WISCII XCCS ZX80 ZX81 ZX Spectrum Other ABICOMP ASMO 449 Digital encoding of APL symbols ISO-IR-68 ARIB STD-B24 Fieldata HZ IEC-P27-1 INIS 7-bit 8-bit ISO-IR-169 ISO 2033 KOI KOI8-R KOI8-RU KOI8-U Mojikyō SEASCII Stanford/ITS Symbol TRON Unified Hangul Code Unicode, ISO/IEC 10646 UTF-1 UTF-7 UTF-8 UTF-16 UTF-32 UTF-EBCDIC GB 18030 DIN 91379 BOCU-1 CESU-8 SCSU TACE16 Comparison of Unicode encodings TeX typesetting Cork LY1 OML OMS OT1 Control character Morse prosigns C0 and C1 control codes ISO/IEC 6429 JIS X 0211 Unicode control, format and separator characters Whitespace characters Related topics CCSID Character encodings in HTML Charset detection Han unification Hardware code page MICR code Mojibake Variable-length encoding Character sets

v t e Lotus Development Acquired by IBM in 1995; assets sold to HCL Technologies in 2018 Software Pre-acquisition Agenda cc:Mail Domino* Improv Jazz Magellan Manuscript Marketplace (cancelled) Notes* SmartSuite 1-2-3 Approach Freelance Graphics Organizer Word Pro Symphony (original) Post-acquisition Connections* Expeditor Forms Foundations iNotes LotusLive Mashups Sametime* Sametime Unyte Symphony (IBM) Web Content Management Workplace Features and protocols DataLens Formula language International Character Set LotusScript Multi-Byte Character Set People Mitch Kapor Freada Kapor Klein Ray Ozzie Jonathan Sachs Jim Manzi Acquisitions Software Arts (1985) Samna (1990) cc:Mail, Inc. (1991) Approach Software (1993) Iris Associates (1994) Outblaze (2009) Related Lotusphere NotesPeek S2 Spreadsheet Asterisk (*) indicates software still supported by HCL Technologies as of 2026[update]

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Multi-Byte_Character_Set) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Multi-Byte_Character_Set?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.