How to specify character encoding for an HTML document?
Jul 09, 2025 am 02:23 AMThe method to specify the character encoding of an HTML document is to use the <meta charset="UTF-8"> tag. To ensure that the web page displays Chinese and special symbols correctly, it is recommended to use UTF-8 encoding uniformly. 1. Declaring the character set in HTML should use the simple method recommended by HTML5: <meta charset="UTF-8"> and place it at the beginning of the
section; 2. When saving the file, you must select UTF-8 format to avoid the editor saving it as other encoding by default; 3. The server needs to configure the response header to specify the character set, such as Apache adds AddDefaultCharset UTF-8, and Nginx configures charset utf-8. These three aspects can avoid the problem of garbled code.Specifying the character encoding of HTML documents is actually simple, but it is very important, especially when dealing with Chinese, special symbols, or cross-platform compatibility. If not set up properly, the web page may appear garbled.

Recommended UTF-8
The most recommended approach at present is to use UTF-8 as character encoding for HTML documents. It supports text in almost all languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc., and is widely supported by modern browsers.
In the past, some people would use GBK or GB2312 to process Chinese, but now they have basically turned to UTF-8 because it is more versatile and more suitable for international websites.

How to declare character encoding in HTML
To correctly specify the character set in HTML, the main way is to add the <meta>
tag in section:
<meta charset="UTF-8">
This writing method is concise and effective, and is also a recommended way for HTML5 standard. If you see an older writing style, it might be like this:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=gbk">
This writing method can also work, but it is no longer recommended in HTML5. It is recommended to use charset="UTF-8"
in a unified manner.
What should be noted is:
- This
<meta>
tag should be placed as early as possible in<head>
section, preferably before or immediately after<title>
. - If you set the character set in other ways (such as HTTP headers), the meta tags in HTML may not take effect.
At the same time, pay attention to the file saving format
In addition to declaring character sets in HTML, there is another point that is easily overlooked: the save encoding format of the file itself .
In other words, you must also ensure that the HTML file you write is in UTF-8 format when saving. Different editors may have different default encodings. For example, Notepad under Windows is sometimes saved as ANSI by default. At this time, even if you write UTF-8 in HTML, it is useless.
The solution is very simple:
- Use common code editors (such as VS Code, Sublime Text, Notepad, etc.)
- When saving, select "UTF-8" or "UTF-8 without BOM" as the encoding format.
Some editors will display the encoding method of the current file in the status bar, remember to check it.
Server configuration is also critical
Sometimes you will find that the page is still garbled, which may not be a problem with HTML, but the server does not properly set the character set in the response header.
For example, in the HTTP response header, you can add:
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
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:
charset utf-8;
This ensures that when the browser receives the page, the first reaction is to use UTF-8 to parse it.
Basically that's it. As long as these three aspects (HTML meta tags, file saving format, and server settings) are consistent, there will basically be no problems.
The above is the detailed content of How to specify character encoding for an HTML document?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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