tekensets

Tekensets is a formal concept in typography and information processing that denotes a defined collection of characters and symbols used to represent text in a particular language, domain, or system. A tekenset specifies which characters are available, their ordering, and rules for combining them. The term is used in academic discussions of writing systems as well as in software design to plan character repertoires for fonts, input methods, or data encodings.

A tekenset typically includes base letters, digits, punctuation, diacritics, ligatures, numerals, and special symbols; it may also include control or formatting codes in some contexts. Tekensets can be fixed, as in a specific encoding, or extensible, as standards allow for additional symbols through staged updates. In practice, tekensets are often implemented by mapping them to a universal encoding such as Unicode, which assigns unique code points to the symbols.

Relation to existing standards: Tekensets are conceptually distinct from encodings but are closely tied to them. Historically, several character repertoires emerged before Unicode, such as ASCII, ISO/IEC 646, and various national sets. Modern typography and software design commonly treat a tekenset as a subset of Unicode or as a bridge between legacy encodings and Unicode.

Applications and challenges: Tekensets guide font design, input method editors, localization, and data interchange. Challenges include normalization, compatibility, and rendering of composite characters, diacritics, and ligatures across platforms and languages.

See also: character set, Unicode, ASCII, ligature, typography.