Font application is developed and used in various countries and languages. In such a global scenario, the need to represent characters of different languages grew multi-fold. Moreover a standardized encoding format was required to avoid confusion and develop applications.

The Unicode encoding aims to provide a unique number to every character – regardless of the platform, program and the language. Top software and hardware companies like Microsoft, Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Oracle and more; have adopted Unicode Standards. Modern browsers like Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc and operating systems like Windows, Mac OS and Linux – support Unicode encoding.

Unicode.org offers various resources to learn and use Unicode of different languages as well as provides a way to submit your character. One recent addition to the Unicode is the symbol for Indian Rupee (INR) that is yet to be released with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) hardware. However, images and the Unicode have been released to put the character in immediate use.

The Unicode Consortium runs Unicode.org and it is a non-profit organization. The main objective of this consortium is to develop, extend and promote the use of Unicode, as a standard. You can visit the “Where is my Character?” section to find some interesting facts on how a character is mapped in the computer.