MESO – Hochschule Mainz: Digital database for encyclopedia of TYPOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERS

decodeunicode – Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) Map

We have been operating the digital platform decodeunicode.org for the award-winning Decode Unicode research project since 2005. It offers experts as well as everyone interested access to 137,374 characters and their background information.

Coding for Decoding

All Characters, one platform

The aim of the international Unicode standard is to convert all of the world’s writing systems and characters into digital code. In addition to the print publication published in 2011, the online platform decodeunicode.org provides an overview of this enormous typographic collection of currently 146 writing systems and 137,374 characters. Here, users can look up characters, share them or download them as SVG graphics – regardless of which fonts are installed on the respective device.

As a partner for the technical implementation, we have been supporting the project and its initiator Prof. Johannes Bergerhausen from Mainz University of Applied Sciences since 2005. With our expertise, we transferred the collected data set into a digital compendium that is not only easy to understand, but also meets the design requirements of its users.

Thanks to a range of filters, the characters can be searched alphabetically, by geographical origin, writing system or language. Alternatively, you can browse through the Unicode sections visually.

With more than 30,000+ new characters from over 50 new type systems, we are up to date.

Prof. Johannes Bergerhausen, Institut Designlabor Gutenberg, Hochschule Mainz