ZX Spectrum character set

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The ZX Spectrum character set is the variant of ASCII used in the British Sinclair Spectrum computers. It is based on ASCII-1967 (the standard ASCII on which all modern character sets are based), but with one character from ASCII-1963 (the first version of ASCII), two graphics characters nonstandardly assigned, an idiosyncratic use of the control code area and use of the 128 high-bit characters beyond the ASCII range.

In the control codes area (the C0 range), the Spectrum uses its own proprietary controls, such as INK and PAPER to control foreground and background colour. The only similarity to ASCII is having cursor-left for 0x08 (ASCII Back Space) and ENTER for 0x0D (ASCII Carriage Return), which also generates an automatic linefeed. Cursor-down 0x0A (ASCII Line Feed) can be simulated with 32 spaces printed with OVER 1 (transparent overprint) and cursor-up 0x0B (ASCII Vertical Tabulation) can be simulated with 32 backspaces. The system ROM has a fault which prevents cursor-right 0x09 (ASCII Horizontal Tabulation) from working.

Ranges 0x00-0x05, 0x07, 0x0A-0x0C, 0x0E, 0x0F and 0x17-0x1F are undefined. The graphics part of the Spectrum Character Set, 0x20-0x7F, is almost standard, except that 0x60 has the pound sign (£) instead of the grave accent (`) and 0x7F has the copyright sign (©) instead of the control code DEL. Note that the pound sign was mapped to 0x60, and not 0x23 as in the British variant of ASCII (ISO-646-GB), making both pound sign and number sign (#) available universally. Code 0x5E contains an up-arrow (↑) as in ASCII-1963 instead of the ASCII-1967 caret (^); however, 0x5F has an underscore and not a left-arrow.

Beyond 0x7F, the Spectrum character set uses the high-bit range, 0x80-0xFF, for its special purposes. 0x80-0x8F contain block graphics. 0x90-0xA4 contain the User Defined Graphics (UDGs), which the user can customise with a few lines of BASIC. 0xA5-0xFF contain tokens (BASIC keywords represented as single characters): for example, pressing P at the beginning of a line would generate the code 0xF6, which would cause the BASIC keyword PRINT to display on the screen. Codes 0xC7-0xC9 are the shortcuts for the mathematical operators <= (less-than-or-equal), >= (greater-than-or-equal) and <> (not-equal) respectively; unlike the relational operators of most other systems, these are characters in their own right and cannot be achieved by typing the two constituent symbols one after the other.

Mapping the printable Spectrum Character Set to Unicode is possible, but fonts containing some of the block graphics characters are still not commonplace.

The default printable characters (32 (space) to 127 (copyright)) are stored at the end of the Spectrum's ROM at memory address 15616 (0x3D00) to 16383 (0x3FFF) and are referenced by the system variable CHARS which can be found at memory address 23606/7. Interestingly, the value in CHARS is actually 256 bytes lower than the first byte of the space character so that referencing a printable ASCII character does not need to consider the first 32 characters. As such, the CHARS value (by default) holds the address 15360 (0x3C00).

The UDG characters (Gr-A to Gr-U) are stored at the end of the Spectrum's RAM at memory address 65376 (0xFF60) to 65535 (0xFFFF). As such, POKEing this address range has immediate effect on the UDG characters. The USR keyword (when followed by a single quoted character) provides a quick method to reference these addresses from BASIC. As with the printable characters, the location of the UDG characters is stored in the system variable UDG.

Dec	Char		Dec	Char		Dec	Char		Dec	Char		Dec	Char
0	NOT USED		32	SPACE		64	@		96	&		128
1	NOT USED		33	!		65	A		97	a		129
2	NOT USED		34	"		66	B		98	b		130
3	NOT USED		35	#		67	C		99	c		131
4	NOT USED		36	$		68	D		100	d		132
5	NOT USED		37	%		69	E		101	e		133
6	,		38	&		70	F		102	f		134
7	EDIT		39	'		71	G		103	g		135
8	Cursor Left		40	(		72	H		104	h		136
9	Cursor Right		41	)		73	I		105	i		137
10	Cursor Down		42	*		74	J		106	j		138
11	Cursor Up		43	+		75	K		107	k		139
12	DELETE		44	,		76	L		108	l		140
13	ENTER		45	-		77	M		109	m		141
14	#		46	.		78	N		110	n		142
15	NOT USED		47	/		79	O		111	o		143
16	Controls		48	0		80	P		112	p		144	UDG
17	Controls		49	1		81	Q		113	q		145	UDG
18	Controls		50	2		82	R		114	r		146	UDG
19	Controls		51	3		83	S		115	s		147	UDG
20	Controls		52	4		84	T		116	t		148	UDG
21	Controls		53	5		85	U		117	u		149	UDG
22	Controls		54	6		86	V		118	v		150	UDG
23	Controls		55	7		87	W		119	w		151	UDG
24	NOT USED		56	8		88	X		120	x		152	UDG
25	NOT USED		57	9		89	Y		121	y		153	UDG
26	NOT USED		58	:		90	Z		122	z		154	UDG
27	NOT USED		59	;		91	[		123	{		155	UDG
28	NOT USED		60	<		92	\		124	|		156	UDG
29	NOT USED		61	=		93	]		125	}		157	UDG
30	NOT USED		62	>		94	↑		126	~		158	UDG
31	NOT USED		63	?		95	_		127	©		159	UDG

Dec	Char
160-164	UDGs
165-255	BASIC keywords

[edit] See also

• PETSCII
• ATASCII
• Extended ASCII

[edit] External links

• Sinclair Spectrum+ 48K Character Set – From Michael Zaretski's website; includes link to a Unicode mapping table

Sinclair computers, derivatives, and clones (ZX80/81, ZX Spectrum, and QL clones)

By Sinclair Research:  ZX80 | ZX81 | ZX Spectrum, Spectrum+, Spectrum 128K | Sinclair QL By Amstrad:  Spectrum +2, +3 By Timex Sinclair:  TS 1000 | TS 1500 | TS 2048 | TC 2048 | TS 2068, TC 2068 By others:  Jupiter ACE | SAM Coupé | Didaktik | Dubna 48K | Hobbit | Pentagon | Scorpion | Sprinter