L2/03-_____
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2648
Title: Missing Alternate Format Characters in ISO/IEC 10646
Author:V.S. Umamaheswaran (umavs@ca.ibm.com)
Date: 2003-10-13
Comments received during national body review of the working draft of the joint edition of 10646 revealed
that the list of Alternate Format Characters was missing some characters. This document is the result of
an investigation into missing entries from the list.
While trying to come up with the list, I realized that there is no definition of what constitutes an AlternateFormat Character. Neither 10646, nor Unicode have a formal definition of the term. Unicode describes
characters with ‘unusual properties’ in section 4.11.
The opening paragraph of Annex F – Alternate Format Characters, in 10646 (joint edition) is as follows:“There is a special class of characters called Alternate Format Characters which are included forcompatibility with some industry practices. These characters do not have printable graphic
symbols, and are thus represented in the character code tables by dotted boxes.”
To be able to find out which characters qualify to be declared as Alternate Format Characters (AFC), Istarted with the clue that their glyphs will have a dotted box in the charts. Not all glyphs with dotted boxes
are Alternate Format Characters either. All the characters with the general category of Cf did have adotted box for their glyphs. There were several others with the dotted box with general category value
other than Cf.
I am not sure if there are characters that may qualify for being Alternate Format Characters having a
glyph other than with a dotted / dashed square box in them. If there are any, it looks like there is no easy
way of extracting these from the standard.
Some observations:a.
All Control Characters – having the general category Cc – are not AFCs.
b.
Space characters are listed separately. Some characters with Zs property are in the AFC list.
c.
Code position ranges reserved fro AFCs have been defined in 10646, including somecollection numbers. Variation Selection Characters -1 to -256 have been called out as
Alternate Format Characters. Script-specific VS-s are not called AFCs.
d.
Several Cf category characters are not called or listed as AFCs.
Relevant texts from Joint Edition:•From Clause 8 –Code positions 0000 2060 to 0000 206F, 0000 FFF0 to 0000 FFFC, and 000E 0000 to 000E
0FFF are reserved for Alternate Format Characters (see annex F).
NOTE 2 – Unassigned code positions in those ranges may be ignored in normal processing and display.

••••

Clause 20.1 is a list of Space Characters
Clause 20.3 is a list of Alternate Format Characters and are (supposed to be) describedfurther in Annex F.
From Clause 32 on SSP:
Code positions from E0000 to E0FFF are reserved for Alternate Format Characters (seeclause 20).
From Annex A:

The following collections specify characters used for alternate formats and script-specific formats.
See annex F for more information.
200

ZERO-WIDTH BOUNDARY INDICATORS

200B-200D + FEFF

201

FORMAT SEPARATORS

2028-2029

202

BI-DIRECTIONAL FORMAT MARKS

200E-200F

203

BI-DIRECTIONAL FORMATEMBEDDINGS

202A-202E

204

HANGUL FILL CHARACTERS

3164, FFA0

205

CHARACTER SHAPING SELECTORS

206A-206D

206

NUMERIC SHAPE SELECTORS

206E-206F

207

IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTERS

2FF0-2FFF

3002

ALTERNATE FORMAT CHARACTERS

E0000-E0FFF

Candidates for AFC additions
The following table contains all characters having glyphs in the charts with a dashed / dotted box in them.
The table contains in col 1 - the code position; in col 2 - the Page # from the hardcopy of Version 4 ofUnicode book along with its block name; in col 3 - individual character names or group name to indicate
what the list of code positions represent; in col 4 – the general category property from the Unicode
database; in col 5 – clause number etc. where some mention of that code position / group of code
positions appear in the joint edition text of 10646. The last column, col 6, indicates by ‘???’ entry that thecharacter is a candidate for adding as an AFC in 10646.
CodePositions

p# from V4 book;
Block nameCharacter nameGen.
Cat.
****From Joint Edition
Text

0000 –001F
0020
007F

p420; C0 Controls
and Basic Latin(C0 Controls)

Cc

Clause 15

SPACE
DELETE

Zs
Cc

Listed in 20.1
Clause 15(C1 Controls)

Cc

Clause 1500A0NO-BREAK SPACE

Zs

00AD

SOFT HYPHEN

Cf

Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F1.1
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F1.1
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.5
Listed in 20.3;
Annex F.5
Listed in 20.3;
Annex F.5
Listed in 20.3
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.5
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.50080009F

p425; C1 Controls
and Lainn-1
Supplement034F

p452; Combining
Diacritical marks

COMBINING GRAPHEME
JOINER

Mn

0600

p473; Arabic

ARABIC NUMBER SIGN

Cf

0601

ARABIC SIGN SANAH

Cf

0602

ARABIC FOOTNOTE MARKER

Cf

0603

ARABIC SIGN SAFHA

Cf

06DD

ARABIC END OF AYAH

Cf

070F

p479; Syriac

0F0C

p519; Tibetan

115F

p528; Hangul
Jamo

SYRIAC ABBREVIATIONMARKTIBETAN MARK DELIMITERTSHEG BSTAR
HANGUL CHOSEONG FILLER

CfCandidate fro
AFC list /annex F

Not in Annex FPo???

Lo???

CodePositions

p# from V4 book;
Block nameCharacter namep560; Khmer

HANGUL JUNGSEONGFILLERKHMER VOWEL INHERENTAQKHMER VOWEL INHERENTAA

1160
17B4
17B5Gen.
Cat.
****From Joint Edition
TextLo???

Cf

Notes in Annex P???

CfNotes in Annex P???

Mentioned in clause
20.4; defined list ofvariants using VS-1 istabulated in clause
20.4
Mentioned in clause
20.4; defined list ofvariants using VS-1 istabulated in clause
20.4
Mentioned in clause
20.4; defined list ofvariants using VS-1 istabulated in clause
20.4
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.2.5

MONGOLIAN FREE
VARIATION SELECTOR ONE

Mn

180C

MONGOLIAN FREE
VARIATION SELECTOR TWO

Mn

180D

MONGOLIAN FREE
VARIATION SELECTOR
THREE

Mn

180E

MONGOLIAN VOWELSEPARATORZs

EN QUAD

Zs

Listed in 20.1

2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
200A

EM QUADEN SPACE
EM SPACE
THREE-PER-EM SPACE
FOUR-PER-EM SPACESIX-PER-EM SPACEFIGURE SPACEPUNCTUATION SPACE
THIN SPACEHAIR SPACE

Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs
Zs

200B

ZERO WIDTH SPACE

Zs

200C

ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER

Cf

200D

ZERO WIDTH JOINER

Cf

200E

LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK

Cf

200F

RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK

Cf

Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.1
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F1.1; collection 200
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F1.1; collection 200
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F1.1; collection 200
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 202
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 202

2011

NON-BREAKING HYPHEN

Pd

180B

2000

p564; Mongolian

p591; General
Punctuation

Candidate fro
AFC list /annex F

2028

LINE SEPARATOR

Zl

2029

PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR

Zp

202A

LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING

Cf

202B

RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING

Cf

202C

POP DIRECTIONALFORMATTING

Cf

202D

LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE

Cf

Not called anAFC

Not called anAFC

Not called an
AFC???
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.2
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.2
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 203
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 203
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 203
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 203

Character name

Gen.
Cat.
****

202E

RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE

Cf

202F

NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE

Zs

205F

MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL
SPACE

Zs

2060

WORD JOINER

Cf

2061
2062
2063

FUNCTION APPLICATIONINVISIBLE TIMESINVISIBLE SEPARATOR

Cf
Cf
Cf

206A

INHIBIT SYMMETRIC
SWAPPING

Cf

206B

ACTIVATE SYMMETRIC
SWAPPING

Cf

206C

INHIBIT ARABIC FORM
SHAPING

Cf

206D

ACTIVATE ARABIC FORM
SHAPINGCf

206E

NATIONAL DIGIT SHAPES

Cf

206F

NOMINAL DIGIT SHAPESCf

IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER LEFT TO RIGHTSo

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

CodePositions

2FF02FF12FF22FF32FF42FF52FF62FF72FF8p# from V4 book;
Block namep680; Ideographic
Description
Characters(visibledisplayablecharacters)

IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER ABOVE TO
BELOWIDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER LEFT TO
MIDDLE AND RIGHTIDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER ABOVE TO
MIDDLE AND BELOW
IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER FULL
SURROUND
IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER SURROUNDFROM ABOVEIDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER SURROUNDFROM BELOWIDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER SURROUNDFROM LEFT
IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER SURROUNDFROM UPPER LEFT

From Joint Edition
Text

Candidate fro
AFC list /annex F

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.3; collection 203
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.1.4???
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F1.1
clause 8
clause 8
clause 8
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F2.2;
collection 205
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F2.2;
collection 205
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F2.3;
collection 205
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F2.3;
collection 205
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F2.4;
collection 206
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F2.4;
collection 206???
???
???

CodePositions

p# from V4 book;
Block name

2FFA
2FFB
p681; CJK
Symbols andPunctuation

303E
3164

From Joint Edition
Text

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

So

Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.3.2; collection 207

IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE

Zs

Listed in 20.1

IDEOGRAPHIC VARIATION
INDICATORSoHANGUL FILLERLo

IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER SURROUNDFROM UPPER RIGHTIDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER SURROUNDFROM LOWER LEFT
IDEOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONCHARACTER OVERLAID

2FF93000

Gen.
Cat.
****

Character namep691; Hangul
Compatibility
Jamo

FE00FE0F

p919; Variation
Selectors

VARIATION SELECTOR-1 –VARIATION SELECTOR-16

Mn

FEFF

p925; (BOM)

ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK
SPACE

Cf

FFA0p930; Halfwidthand Fullwidth
Forms

HALFWIDTH HANGUL FILLER

Lo

FFF9p936; Specials

FFFA
FFFB
FFFC
1D159p959;MusicalSymbols

1D173
1D174

INTERLINEAR ANNOTATIONANCHORINTERLINEAR ANNOTATIONSEPARATORINTERLINEAR ANNOTATIONTERMINATOROBJECT REPLACEMENTCHARACTERMUSICAL SYMBOL NULLNOTEHEAD
MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGINBEAM
MUSICAL SYMBOL ENDBEAMCfCfCf
SoSoCfCf

1D175

MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGIN TIE

Cf

1D176

MUSICAL SYMBOL END TIE

Cf

1D177

MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGIN
SLURCf

1D178

MUSICAL SYMBOL END SLUR

CfMUSICAL SYMBOL BEGINPHRASEMUSICAL SYMBOL END
PHRASE

1D179
1D17A
E0001

p1181; Tags

LANGUAGE TAG

Cf
Cf
Cf

Candidate fro
AFC list /annex F???
Not called anAFC
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.2.1; collection 204
Mentioned in clause
20.4; defined list ofvariants using VS-1 istabulated in clause
20.4
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F1.1; collection 200
Listed in 20.3; Annex
F.2.1; collection 204
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F.4
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F.4
Listed in 20.3; clause
8; Annex F.4
clause 8; mentioned inAppendix A.6
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
Listed in clause 20.5;
Annex U.2
clause 32 and clause
8; collection 3002 inAnnex A; Annex T;collection 3002

???
???
???
???
???
???
???
???
???
???
???

Code
Positionsp# from V4 book;
Block nameE0020E007F
E0100E01EF

p 1183; Variation
Selectors
Supplement

Character name

Gen.
Cat.
****

TAG SPACE – CANCEL TAG

Cf

VARIATION SELECTOR-17 —VARIATION SELECTOR-256

Mn

From Joint Edition
Text
clause 32 and clause
8; Annex T; collection
3002
clause 32 and clause
8; Mentioned in clause
20.4; collection 3002

Candidate fro
AFC list /annex F???
???