Overview
ISO/IEC 8859-8:1999 - "Information technology - 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets - Part 8: Latin/Hebrew alphabet" - is an international standard that defines an 8-bit single-byte character encoding tailored for Latin and Hebrew text. This first edition (1999) specifies a set of 155 coded graphic characters intended for data and text processing and for information interchange in environments that require Hebrew and Latin support (note: it is not intended for pointed Hebrew).
The standard uses names and identifiers taken from ISO/IEC 10646-1 (Unicode/ISO 10646) and provides a code table mapping bit combinations to characters (including control of spaces, punctuation, the soft hyphen, and left/right directionality marks).
Key topics and technical requirements
- Character repertoire: Defines 155 graphic characters allocated in an 8-bit table (16×16 positions). The set includes Latin letters, Hebrew letters, punctuation, spacing characters (e.g., NO-BREAK SPACE, SOFT HYPHEN) and directional formatting characters (LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK (LRM), RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK (RLM)).
- Conformance rules: Specifies conformance for CC-data-elements and for devices - originating devices must be able to supply and transmit characters in clause 6; receiving devices must accept, interpret and present those coded characters.
- Interaction with other standards: Intended as a level‑1 version of an 8-bit code (ISO/IEC 2022 / ISO/IEC 4873). It should not be mixed with other ISO/IEC 8859 parts without proper code-extension techniques; control functions from ISO/IEC 6429 may be used but should not create composite graphics.
- Directional (bi-directional) support: Provides guidance and special characters to support mixed left-to-right and right-to-left text rendering (see Annex C for bi-directional text support).
- Mapping to ISO/IEC 10646: Character identifiers correspond to ISO/IEC 10646 (Unicode) code points where specified.
Practical applications and users
ISO/IEC 8859-8 is useful for:
- Legacy systems and file formats that rely on 8-bit single-byte encodings for Hebrew/Latin text.
- Email, terminals, printers, and embedded devices where Unicode was not available or practical.
- Software internationalization/localization engineers, system integrators, archive managers and font designers working with historical data or constrained environments.
- Migration projects that convert legacy Hebrew text to Unicode - the standard’s mappings to ISO/IEC 10646 help ensure faithful conversion.
Keywords: ISO/IEC 8859-8, Latin/Hebrew, 8-bit single-byte, character encoding, Hebrew text encoding, legacy encoding, bi-directional text, LRM, RLM, soft hyphen, no‑break space.
Related standards
Open preview (PDF)Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 8: Latin/Hebrew alphabet
