# Why doesn't my browser show certain characters?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 27, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705 "2007-03-27T16:59:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705/1 "2007-03-27T16:59:10Z")

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IE 7, the font is Verdana, and the sequence of characters is **8” x 10” x 8”**. I know from context that the lowercase a with a circumflex plus a Euro symbol plus a box should be a double quote, but why doesn’t IE show it correctly?

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**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705/2 "2007-03-27T18:22:44Z")

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[QUOTE=dropzone]  
IE 7, the font is Verdana, and the sequence of characters is **8” x 10” x 8”**. I know from context that the lowercase a with a circumflex plus a Euro symbol plus a box should be a double quote, but why doesn’t IE show it correctly?  
[/QUOTE]  
Usually, this is caused by a difference in default encoding. Generally browsers choose the default encoding for rendering HTML pages based on the locale of the operating system. If in fact the HTML was authored on an OS with a different encoding, this can cause problems. The key, of course, is that the author should be specifying the encoding, in which case most of these types of problems go away.

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**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705/3 "2007-03-27T18:36:03Z")

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For this case you need to view with Unicode. I see an “a” with a carrot mark over it plus the Euro symbol when viewed with “Western”.

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705/4 "2007-03-27T19:02:36Z")

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Because _they_ are watching you. Don’t pretend you don’t know who they are.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-browser-show-certain-characters/397705/5 "2007-03-27T20:39:01Z")

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[QUOTE=gazpacho]  
For this case you need to view with Unicode. I see an “a” with a carrot mark over it plus the Euro symbol when viewed with “Western”.  
[/QUOTE]  
It was the other way around. I had to go from Unicode to Western. But thanks! You pointed me in the right direction.