Specifying Character Encoding for HTML Documents (UTF-8)
To correctly set the character encoding of HTML documents to UTF-8, you need to follow three steps: 1. Add <meta charset="UTF-8"> at the top of the
part of HTML5; 2. Configure the response header Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8, if Apache uses AddDefaultCharset UTF-8, Nginx uses charset utf-8; 3. Select the UTF-8 encoding format when saving HTML files by the editor. These three links are indispensable, otherwise it may lead to garbled page code and failure of special character parsing, affecting user experience and SEO effect. It is important to ensure that HTML declaration, server configuration and file saving are consistent.
The character encoding settings of HTML documents seem simple, but if an error occurs, it may cause the page to display garbled codes, special characters cannot be parsed correctly, and even affect SEO and user experience. Using UTF-8 as character encoding is a standard practice in modern web development because it supports characters in most languages around the world. Here are some key points and suggestions on how to specify UTF-8 character encoding for HTML documents.
Correctly declare character set: <meta charset="UTF-8">
In HTML5, the simplest and most recommended way is to add the following meta tags to the section:
<meta charset="UTF-8">
This statement tells the browser that the character encoding used by the current document is UTF-8. It must appear in the <head> area and be placed at the top as much as possible to avoid garbled issues caused by the browser starting to render the page before recognizing the character set.
Common errors include:
- Forgot to write this meta tag
- Wrongly spelled, such as
charsettorcharst - Put it in
<body>or blocked by other scripts/contents
So, to be on the safe side, put this tag in the first or second line in <head> immediately before or after the <title> tag.
The server side must also set the correct MIME type and response header
In addition to the declarations inside the HTML document, the HTTP response header sent by the server should also contain character encoding information. For example:
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
This setting ensures that the browser knows which encoding should be used to parse the content before downloading the HTML file. If the server is not configured correctly, even if <meta charset="UTF-8"> is written in the HTML, garbled code may appear.
If you are using an Apache server, you can add it in the .htaccess file:
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
If it is Nginx, you can add it to the configuration file:
charset utf-8;
Of course, the specific configuration method will vary depending on the backend framework or hosting platform you are using. It is a good practice to check if your deployment environment has the correct character set by default.
The file saving format must also be UTF-8
Many people ignore this: when the HTML file itself is saved in the editor, the UTF-8 encoding format must be selected. Otherwise, although you wrote <meta charset="UTF-8"> in the code, the file is actually saved in other encodings (such as GBK, ISO-8859-1), and the browser will still have garbled code when reading.
Common text editors (such as VS Code, Sublime Text, Notepad) allow you to view and change the file's save encoding. When saving HTML files, remember to confirm whether the encoding option is UTF-8. Some editors may use "UTF-8 with BOM" by default, which is also acceptable, but some servers or older systems may have compatibility issues with BOM.
Basically that's it. Setting the character encoding of HTML documents is actually not complicated, but details are easy to ignore. As long as the HTML is correctly declared, the server configuration is appropriate, and the file storage format is consistent, it can effectively avoid the abnormal display of Chinese, emojis or other multilingual characters.
The above is the detailed content of Specifying Character Encoding for HTML Documents (UTF-8). For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!
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