(emacs)Text Characters
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Character Set for Text
======================
Emacs buffers use an 8-bit character set, because bytes have 8 bits.
ASCII graphic characters in Emacs buffers are displayed with their
graphics. The newline character (which has the same character code as
LFD) is displayed by starting a new line. The tab character is
displayed by moving to the next tab stop column (usually every 8
columns). Other control characters are displayed as a caret (`^')
followed by the non-control version of the character; thus, `C-a' is
displayed as `^A'.
Non-ASCII characters 128 and up are displayed with octal escape
sequences; thus, character code 243 (octal) is displayed as `\243'.
You can customize the display of these character codes (or ANSI
characters) by creating a "display table"; this is useful for editing
files that use 8-bit European character sets. *Note Display Tables:
(elisp)Display Tables.
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