(emacs)Text Characters

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.