Kamenický encoding

The Kamenický encoding, named for the Kamenický brothers, was a very popular codepage for personal computers running MS-DOS, used in the former Czechoslovakia (today Czech Republic and Slovakia). Another name for this encoding is KEYBCS2, the name of the TSR which implemented the matching keyboard driver.

It was actually a Codepage 437 encoding where the characters from codepoints 128 to 171 were replaced by Czech and Slovak characters, the ordering chosen so that the glyphs of the replacement characters resembled those of the original as closely as possible. All of the block graphic characters of codepage 437 remained unchanged.

Both of these features contributed to the popularity of the encoding, since text in this encoding, including text that included block graphic drawings, was (barely) readable even on computers with the original fonts (which were often in videocard ROM, making modification difficult, if not impossible), although the result was often funny-looking, e.g. ç instead of č.

The widespread use of the Kamenický encoding was undermined neither by IBM's official code page 852, nor by the introduction, with Windows 3.1, of Microsoft Central Europe code page 1250. Only with Windows 95 and the spreading deployment of Microsoft Office did users begin to use codepage 1250.

This encoding is cometimes called codepage 895 (CP895), but this name in not registered with IANA and is therefore unofficial.

As of 2005, many applications that use Kamenický encoding internally or even externally are still in use.

MS-DOS Codepage 895 (Kamenicky CS) layout

Only the upper half of the table is shown. The lower half is simple ASCII.

	.0	.1	.2	.3	.4	.5	.6	.7	.8	.9	.A	.B	.C	.D	.E	.F
8_	Č 10C	ü FC	é E9	ď 10F	ä E4	Ď 10E	Ť 164	č 10D	ě 11B	Ě 11A	Ĺ 139	Í CD	ľ 13E	ĺ 13A	Ä C4	Á C1
9_	É C9	ž 17E	Ž 17D	ô F4	ö F6	Ó D3	ů 16F	Ú DA	ý FD	Ö D6	Ü DC	Š 160	Ľ 13D	Ý DD	Ř 158	ť 165
A_	á E1	í ED	ó F3	ú FA	ň 148	Ň 147	Ů 16E	Ô D4	š 161	ř 159	ŕ 155	Ŕ 154	¼ BC	¡ A1	« AB	» BB
B_	░ 2591	▒ 2592	▓ 2593	│ 2502	┤ 2524	╡ 2561	╢ 2562	╖ 2556	╕ 2555	╣ 2563	║ 2551	╗ 2557	╝ 255D	╜ 255C	╛ 255B	┐ 2510
C_	└ 2514	┴ 2534	┬ 252C	├ 251C	─ 2500	┼ 253C	╞ 255E	╟ 255F	╚ 255A	╔ 2554	╩ 2569	╦ 2566	╠ 2560	═ 2550	╬ 256C	╧ 2567
D_	╨ 2568	╤ 2564	╥ 2565	╙ 2559	╘ 2558	╒ 2552	╓ 2553	╫ 256B	╪ 256A	┘ 2518	┌ 250C	█ 2588	▄ 2584	▌ 258C	▐ 2590	▀ 2580
E_	α 3B1	ß DF	Γ 393	π 3C0	Σ 3A3	σ 3C3	µ B5	τ 3C4	Φ 3A6	Θ 398	Ω 3A9	δ 3B4	∞ 221E	φ 3C6	ε 3B5	∩ 2229
F_	≡ 2261	± B1	≥ 2265	≤ 2264	⌠ 2320	⌡ 2321	÷ F7	≈ 2248	° B0	∙ 2219	· B7	√ 221A	ⁿ 207F	² B2	■ 25A0	A0