Code page 437

Code page 437
Code page 437, as rendered by an IBM PC using standard VGA
MIME / IANAIBM437
Alias(es)cp437, 437, csPC8CodePage437,[1] OEM-US
Language(s)English, German, Swedish
ClassificationExtended ASCII, OEM code page
ExtendsUS-ASCII
Other related encoding(s)Code page 850, CWI-2

Code page 437 (CCSID 437) is the character set of the original IBM PC (personal computer).[2] It is also known as CP437, OEM-US, OEM 437,[3] PC-8,[4] or DOS Latin US.[5] The set includes all printable ASCII characters as well as some accented letters (diacritics), Greek letters, icons, and line-drawing symbols. It is sometimes referred to as the "OEM font" or "high ASCII", or as "extended ASCII"[4] (one of many mutually incompatible ASCII extensions).

This character set remains the primary set in the core of any EGA and VGA-compatible graphics card. As such, text shown when a PC reboots, before fonts can be loaded and rendered, is typically rendered using this character set.[note 1] Many file formats developed at the time of the IBM PC are based on code page 437 as well.

  1. ^ Character Sets, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), 12 December 2018
  2. ^ "CCSID 437 information document". Archived from the original on 27 March 2016.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference GGDC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference PCMAG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference DIS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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