Lotus International Character Set

The Lotus International Character Set (LICS) is a proprietary single-byte character encoding introduced in 1985 by Lotus Development Corporation. It is based on the 1983 DEC Multinational Character Set (MCS) for VT220 terminals. As such, LICS is also similar to two other descendants of MCS, the ECMA-94 character set of 1985^[1] and the ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) character set of 1987.

LICS was first introduced as the character set of Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2 for DOS in 1985.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] It is also utilized by 2.01,^[3]^[4]^[5] 2.2,^[6]^[7]^[5] 2.3 and 2.4^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11] as well as by Symphony. It was also utilized in a number of third-party spreadsheet products emulating the file format. LICS was superseded by the Lotus Multi-Byte Character Set (LMBCS) introduced by Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3 in 1989.^[11]

Character set

Codepoints 20_hex (32) to 7F_hex (127) are identical to ASCII (as well as to LMBCS).^[11] For some characters the table also lists dedicated Lotus 1-2-3 compose key sequences to ease character input beyond the Alt Numpad input method.

Lotus International Character Set^[12]^[13]
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
0x	NUL	SOH	STX	ETX	EOT	ENQ	ACK	BEL	BS	HT	LF	VT	FF	CR	SO	SI
1x	DLE	DC1	DC2	DC3	DC4	NAK	SYN	ETB	CAN	EM	SUB	ESC	FS	GS	RS	US
2x	SP	!	"	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	-	.	/
3x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;	<	=	>	?
4x	@	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
5x	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[	\	]	^	_
6x	`	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
7x	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z	{	\|	}	~	▒
8x	◌̀	◌́	◌̂	◌̈	◌̃
9x	◌̀	◌́	◌̂	◌̈	◌̃	ı	◌̱	▲	▼		NBSP	←
Ax	ƒ	¡	¢	£	“	¥	₧	§	¤	©	ª	«	Δ	π	≥	÷
Bx	°	±	²	³	„	µ/μ	¶	·	™	¹	º	»	¼	½	≤	¿
Cx	À	Á	Â	Ã	Ä	Å	Æ	Ç	È	É	Ê	Ë	Ì	Í	Î	Ï
Dx	Ð	Ñ	Ò	Ó	Ô	Õ	Ö	Œ	Ø	Ù	Ú	Û	Ü	Ÿ	Þ	ß
Ex	à	á	â	ã	ä	å	æ	ç	è	é	ê	ë	ì	í	î	ï
Fx	ð	ñ	ò	ó	ô	õ	ö	œ	ø	ù	ú	û	ü	ÿ	þ

Differences from ISO-8859-1

References

^ Standard ECMA-94: 8-bit Single-Byte Coded Graphic Character Set (PDF) (1 ed.). European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). March 1985 [1984-12-14]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2016-12-01. Since 1982 the urgency of the need for an 8-bit single-byte coded character set was recognized in ECMA as well as in ANSI/X3L2 and numerous working papers were exchanged between the two groups. In February 1984 ECMA TC1 submitted to ISO/TC97/SC2 a proposal for such a coded character set. At its meeting of April 1984 SC decided to submit to TC97 a proposal for a new item of work for this topic. Technical discussions during and after this meeting led TC1 to adopt the coding scheme proposed by X3L2. Part 1 of Draft International Standard DTS 8859 is based on this joint ANSI/ECMA proposal....Adopted as an ECMA Standard by the General Assembly of Dec. 13–14, 1984.
^ Schemenaur, P. J. (1986-10-27). "Firm to Debut Clone Version of Lotus 1-2-3 - Program Offers 2.0 Compatibility". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Twin Release 2 keeps the IBM extended character set of Version 1A, rather than Release 2.0's Lotus International Character Set, which... causes problems with commercial templates designed for Lotus 1-2-3, Release 1A.
^ ^a ^b Attia, Zayn 'Utbah (2015-03-11). "ASCII graphic characters, range names". Computer Tips. Archived from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Release 1A's capability to use extended graphics characters to dress up a screen was an undocumented feature. These characters allowed you to draw boxes and add special symbols on the screen. With Release 2, Lotus has assigned different meanings to these characters, the Lotus International Character Set, LICS. Any these extended characters must be erased or replaced with regular keyboard characters before the character can appear acceptable on an Release 2 screen. Release 2.01 offers an install option to use extended characters rather than LICS characters.
^ ^a ^b Cobb, Douglas; Cobb, Steven (1988-10-31). "Spreadsheet clinic: How to adjust SuperCalc's financial functions to analyze annuities due, create flashing screen messages in 1-2-3, and access upper-level ASCII characters in Quattro and 1-2-3". PC Magazine: 411. Archived from the original on 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2016-12-01. Unlike 1-2-3, Quattro uses the ASCII character set. By default, 1-2-3, Release 2.01, uses the Lotus International Character Set (LICS) — the same character set that Release 2.0 always uses...you can command Release 2.01 to use the ASCII character set, just as Quattro does....load the install program, and select Advanced Options...select TextDisplay...choose Universal Text Display — ASCII-No LICS...Now, when you load 1-2-3 using the modified driver set, the @CHAR function will produce upper-level ASCII characters...(NB. By "Upper-level ASCII", the authors actually meant the 8-bit OEM character set.)
^ ^a ^b ^c "Kapitel 4. Kompatibilität mit anderen 1-2-3 Versionen - Zeichensätze" [Chapter 4. Compatility with other 1-2-3 Versions - Character Sets]. Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Upgrader's Handbuch [Upgrader's handbook] (in German) (1 ed.). Cambridge, MA, USA: Lotus Development Corporation. 1989. pp. 4-10–4-11. 302173.
^ "HP 95LX". InfoWorld: 72. 1991-12-16. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
^ Matzkin, Jonathan (July 1991). "Hewlett-Packard Co. HP 95LX Palmtop PC". PC Magazine: 216, 220, 222. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
^ Lee, Yvonne (1993-05-03). "HP 100LX rolled out as successor to palmtop". InfoWorld: 27. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
^ Marshall, Patrick (1993-08-23). "Hewlett-Packard makes a good thing better by packing 100LX with features". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
^ "Questions and Answers about HP Palmtops: Q. What software is built into the 200LX ROM?". The HP Palmtop Paper Online. Archived from the original on 2016-11-27. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kamenz, Alfred; Vonhoegen, Helmut (1992). Das große Buch zu Lotus 1-2-3 für DOS (in German) (1 ed.). Data Becker. pp. 131–132, 357–358. ISBN 3-89011-375-3.
^ "Appendix F: Lotus International Character Set (LICS)" (PDF). HP 95LX User's Guide (2 ed.). Corvallis, OR, USA: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis Division. June 1991 [March 1991]. pp. 792–799. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-27.
^ "Anhang 2. Der Lotus Multibyte Zeichensatz (LMBCS)" [Appendix 2. The Lotus Multibyte Character Set (LMBCS)]. Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Referenzhandbuch [Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Reference Manual] (in German) (1 ed.). Cambridge, MA, USA: Lotus Development Corporation. 1989. pp. A2-1–A2-13. 302168. (While for Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1+ for DOS, the manual also contains a few notes on LICS.)

Born, Günter [in German] (December 2000) [1990]. "Kapitel 1. LOTUS 1-2-3-Format (WKS/WK1)" [Chapter 1. Lotus 1-2-3 WKS/WK1 format]. Dateiformate - Eine Referenz - Tabellenkalkulation, Text, Grafik, Multimedia, Sound und Internet [File formats - a reference - spreadsheets, text, graphics, multimedia, sound and internet] (PDF) (in German). Bonn, Germany: Galileo Computing. ISBN 3-934358-83-7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-11-29. Retrieved 2016-11-28. (May help retrieving info on LICS.)
HP 200LX User's Guide (PDF) (1 ed.). Singapore: Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Private) Limited, Asia-Pacific Personal Computer Division. October 1996. pp. 21-6–21-7, 25-9–25-13, 26-14–26-18, C-1–C-4, D-1–D-10. 1216-90001. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Your palmtop supports code pages 850 and 437....1-2-3 uses LICS, the Lotus International Character Set. Most LICS characters are included in code page 850; the few that are not included will not display on the palmtop.
"LMBCS tables". User's Guide - 123 Release 4 for Windows (Fax). Lotus Development. 1995 [1994-01-01]. CHAPTER: Appendix A Using the Lotus Multibyte Character Set. Fax 10955. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
Lotus Development Corporation (December 1984). "Worksheet File Format from Lotus - Introduction and Quick Reference". File Format Documentation Collection. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Archived from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
Lotus Development Corporation (December 1984). "Worksheet File Format from Lotus - Summary of Record Types". File Format Documentation Collection. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
Lotus Development Corporation (December 1984). "Worksheet File Format from Lotus - Appendix A - Cell Format Encoding". File Format Documentation Collection. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
Lotus Development Corporation (December 1984). "Worksheet File Format from Lotus - Appendix B - The Formula Compiler". File Format Documentation Collection. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
Lotus Development Corporation (1985-02-19). "Addendum to Worksheet File Format Document". File Format Documentation Collection. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Archived from the original on 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.x User Guide Appendix A. (NB. Reportedly contains info on LICS.)
The file LICS.EAT ("Extended ASCII Table") in Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.x for DOS reportedly contains detailed info on LICS.
The Lotus Symphony 1.2 and Notes 2.1 Character Translation File (CTF) LICS850.CTF and the Notes 3.0 Country Language Services (CLS) file L_LICS.CLS contain LICS character translation information.
"Bug 87222 - Summary: Works spreadsheet: wrong encoding". LibreOffice. 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2016-12-12. (NB. Temporarily left here for quick reference, but contains somewhat confused info.)
https://sourceforge.net/p/libwps/code/ci/master/tree/src/lib/libwps_tools_win.cpp (Contains a LICS to Unicode conversion routine, which, however, is buggy)

[ECMA_1985_ECMA94_R1-1] Standard ECMA-94: 8-bit Single-Byte Coded Graphic Character Set (PDF) (1 ed.). European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). March 1985 [1984-12-14]. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2016-12-01. Since 1982 the urgency of the need for an 8-bit single-byte coded character set was recognized in ECMA as well as in ANSI/X3L2 and numerous working papers were exchanged between the two groups. In February 1984 ECMA TC1 submitted to ISO/TC97/SC2 a proposal for such a coded character set. At its meeting of April 1984 SC decided to submit to TC97 a proposal for a new item of work for this topic. Technical discussions during and after this meeting led TC1 to adopt the coding scheme proposed by X3L2. Part 1 of Draft International Standard DTS 8859 is based on this joint ANSI/ECMA proposal....Adopted as an ECMA Standard by the General Assembly of Dec. 13–14, 1984.

[Schemenaur-2] Schemenaur, P. J. (1986-10-27). "Firm to Debut Clone Version of Lotus 1-2-3 - Program Offers 2.0 Compatibility". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Twin Release 2 keeps the IBM extended character set of Version 1A, rather than Release 2.0's Lotus International Character Set, which... causes problems with commercial templates designed for Lotus 1-2-3, Release 1A.

[Attia_2015_L2-3] Attia, Zayn 'Utbah (2015-03-11). "ASCII graphic characters, range names". Computer Tips. Archived from the original on 2016-11-30. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Release 1A's capability to use extended graphics characters to dress up a screen was an undocumented feature. These characters allowed you to draw boxes and add special symbols on the screen. With Release 2, Lotus has assigned different meanings to these characters, the Lotus International Character Set, LICS. Any these extended characters must be erased or replaced with regular keyboard characters before the character can appear acceptable on an Release 2 screen. Release 2.01 offers an install option to use extended characters rather than LICS characters.

[Cobb_1988_123-4] Cobb, Douglas; Cobb, Steven (1988-10-31). "Spreadsheet clinic: How to adjust SuperCalc's financial functions to analyze annuities due, create flashing screen messages in 1-2-3, and access upper-level ASCII characters in Quattro and 1-2-3". PC Magazine: 411. Archived from the original on 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2016-12-01. Unlike 1-2-3, Quattro uses the ASCII character set. By default, 1-2-3, Release 2.01, uses the Lotus International Character Set (LICS) — the same character set that Release 2.0 always uses...you can command Release 2.01 to use the ASCII character set, just as Quattro does....load the install program, and select Advanced Options...select TextDisplay...choose Universal Text Display — ASCII-No LICS...Now, when you load 1-2-3 using the modified driver set, the @CHAR function will produce upper-level ASCII characters...(NB. By "Upper-level ASCII", the authors actually meant the 8-bit OEM character set.)

[Lotus_1989_Compatibility-5] "Kapitel 4. Kompatibilität mit anderen 1-2-3 Versionen - Zeichensätze" [Chapter 4. Compatility with other 1-2-3 Versions - Character Sets]. Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Upgrader's Handbuch [Upgrader's handbook] (in German) (1 ed.). Cambridge, MA, USA: Lotus Development Corporation. 1989. pp. 4-10–4-11. 302173.

[IW_1991_95LX-6] "HP 95LX". InfoWorld: 72. 1991-12-16. Retrieved 2016-11-26.

[Matzkin_1991_95LX-7] Matzkin, Jonathan (July 1991). "Hewlett-Packard Co. HP 95LX Palmtop PC". PC Magazine: 216, 220, 222. Retrieved 2016-11-26.

[Lee_1993_100LX-8] Lee, Yvonne (1993-05-03). "HP 100LX rolled out as successor to palmtop". InfoWorld: 27. Retrieved 2016-11-26.

[Marshall_1993_100LX-9] Marshall, Patrick (1993-08-23). "Hewlett-Packard makes a good thing better by packing 100LX with features". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2016-11-26.

[PTP_200LX-10] "Questions and Answers about HP Palmtops: Q. What software is built into the 200LX ROM?". The HP Palmtop Paper Online. Archived from the original on 2016-11-27. Retrieved 2016-11-26.

[Kamenz_1992_DB-11] Kamenz, Alfred; Vonhoegen, Helmut (1992). Das große Buch zu Lotus 1-2-3 für DOS (in German) (1 ed.). Data Becker. pp. 131–132, 357–358. ISBN 3-89011-375-3.

[HP_1991_95LXUG-12] "Appendix F: Lotus International Character Set (LICS)" (PDF). HP 95LX User's Guide (2 ed.). Corvallis, OR, USA: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis Division. June 1991 [March 1991]. pp. 792–799. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-27.

[Lotus_1989_RM31-13] "Anhang 2. Der Lotus Multibyte Zeichensatz (LMBCS)" [Appendix 2. The Lotus Multibyte Character Set (LMBCS)]. Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Referenzhandbuch [Lotus 1-2-3 Version 3.1 Reference Manual] (in German) (1 ed.). Cambridge, MA, USA: Lotus Development Corporation. 1989. pp. A2-1–A2-13. 302168. (While for Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.1+ for DOS, the manual also contains a few notes on LICS.)

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v t e Character encodings
Early telecommunications	Telegraph code Needle Morse Non-Latin Wabun/Kana Chinese Cyrillic Baudot and Murray Fieldata ASCII ISO/IEC 646 BCDIC Teletex and Videotex/Teletext T.51/ISO/IEC 6937 ITU T.61 ITU T.101 World System Teletext background sets Transcode
ISO/IEC 8859	Approved parts -1 (Western Europe) -2 (Central Europe) -3 (Maltese/Esperanto) -4 (North Europe) -5 (Cyrillic) -6 (Arabic) -7 (Greek) -8 (Hebrew) -9 (Turkish) -10 (Nordic) -11 (Thai) -13 (Baltic) -14 (Celtic) -15 (New Western Europe) -16 (Romanian) Abandoned parts -12 (Devanagari) Proposed but not approved KOI-8 Cyrillic Sámi Adaptations Welsh Barents Cyrillic Estonian Ukrainian Cyrillic
Bibliographic use	MARC-8 ANSEL CCCII/EACC ISO 5426 5426-2 5427 5428 6438 6862
National standards	ArmSCII Big5 BraSCII CNS 11643 DIN 66003 ELOT 927 GOST 10859 GB 2312 GB 12345 GB 12052 GB 18030 HKSCS ISCII JIS X 0201 JIS X 0208 JIS X 0212 JIS X 0213 KOI-7 KPS 9566 KS X 1001 KS X 1002 LST 1564 LST 1590-4 PASCII Shift JIS SI 960 TIS-620 TSCII VISCII VSCII YUSCII
ISO/IEC 2022	ISO/IEC 8859 ISO/IEC 10367 Extended Unix Code / EUC
Mac OS Code pages ("scripts")	Armenian Arabic Barents Cyrillic Celtic Central European Croatian Cyrillic Devanagari Farsi (Persian) Font X (Kermit) Gaelic Georgian Greek Gujarati Gurmukhi Hebrew Iceland Inuit Keyboard Latin (Kermit) Maltese/Esperanto Ogham Roman Romanian Sámi Turkish Turkic Cyrillic Ukrainian VT100
DOS code pages	437 668 708 720 737 770 773 775 776 777 778 850 851 852 853 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 897 899 903 904 932 936 942 949 950 951 1034 1040 1042 1043 1044 1098 1115 1116 1117 1118 1127 3846 ABICOMP CS Indic CSX Indic CSX+ Indic CWI-2 Iran System Kamenický Mazovia MIK
IBM AIX code pages	895 896 912 915 921 922 1006 1008 1009 1010 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1046 1124 1133
Windows code pages	CER-GS 932 936 (GBK) 950 1169 Extended Latin-8 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1270 Cyrillic + Finnish Cyrillic + French Cyrillic + German Polytonic Greek
EBCDIC code pages	Japanese language in EBCDIC DKOI
DEC terminals (VTx)	Multinational (MCS) National Replacement (NRCS) French Canadian Swiss Spanish United Kingdom Dutch Finnish French Norwegian and Danish Swedish Norwegian and Danish (alternative) 8-bit Greek 8-bit Turkish SI 960 Hebrew Special Graphics Technical (TCS)
Platform specific	1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 Acorn RISC OS Amstrad CPC Apple II ATASCII Atari ST BICS Casio calculators CDC Compucolor 8001 Compucolor II CP/M+ DEC RADIX 50 DEC MCS/NRCS DG International Galaksija GEM GSM 03.38 HP Roman HP FOCAL HP RPL SQUOZE LICS LMBCS MSX NEC APC NeXT PETSCII PostScript Standard PostScript Latin 1 SAM Coupé Sega SC-3000 Sharp calculators Sharp MZ Sinclair QL Teletext TI calculators TRS-80 Ventura International WISCII XCCS ZX80 ZX81 ZX Spectrum
Unicode / ISO/IEC 10646	UTF-1 UTF-7 UTF-8 UTF-16 UTF-32 UTF-EBCDIC GB 18030 DIN 91379 BOCU-1 CESU-8 SCSU TACE16 Comparison of Unicode encodings
TeX typesetting system	Cork LY1 OML OMS OT1
Miscellaneous code pages	ABICOMP ASMO 449 Digital encoding of APL symbols ISO-IR-68 ARIB STD-B24 Fieldata HZ IEC-P27-1 INIS 7-bit 8-bit ISO-IR-169 ISO 2033 KOI KOI8-R KOI8-RU KOI8-U Mojikyō SEASCII Stanford/ITS Symbol TRON Unified Hangul Code
Control character	Morse prosigns C0 and C1 control codes ISO/IEC 6429 JIS X 0211 Unicode control, format and separator characters Whitespace characters
Related topics	CCSID Character encodings in HTML Charset detection Han unification Hardware code page MICR code Mojibake Variable-length encoding
Character sets

Lotus International Character Set

Character set

See also

References

Further reading