{"schema":"cpc-unicode-answer-v1","question":"Why can copied text turn into unexpected characters such as A with tilde?","answer":"U+00C3 U+00A9 is what the UTF-8 bytes of U+00E9 (C3 A9) become when each byte is taken as a Latin-1 code point: A with tilde, then the copyright sign. Code points: U+00C3, U+00A9. Those two scalars are also a legal string on their own. Seeing them does not prove a file was mis-decoded. No destination encoding was tested. A non-equivalent fallback is \"é\" (The scalar whose UTF-8 encoding is the bytes C3 A9). Use it only when that byte pair was meant to be U+00E9. It is not a repair for every unexpected letter. Exact string match: no. NFC match: no. Appearance and meaning were not tested. Font coverage, shaping, and application acceptance were not tested, so those results are unknown.","unicodeVersion":"18.0.0","purpose":"general","citation":"Do not invent a platform-support claim from this data.","page":"/answers/why-copied-text-can-turn-into-unexpected-latin-letters/","markdown":"/answers/why-copied-text-can-turn-into-unexpected-latin-letters.md","sample":"é","codepoints":[{"codepoint":"U+00C3","name":"LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH TILDE","displayLabel":"Ã","warnings":["mojibake"],"explanations":[{"id":"mojibake","title":"Bytes read as the wrong encoding","behavior":"U+00C3 U+00A9 is what the UTF-8 bytes of U+00E9 (C3 A9) become when each byte is taken as a Latin-1 code point: A with tilde, then the copyright sign.","limitation":"Those two scalars are also a legal string on their own. Seeing them does not prove a file was mis-decoded. No destination encoding was tested.","fix":"Compare the code points with U+00E9 before replacing them. Repair the bytes only when C3 A9 was meant to be U+00E9.","source":"https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/","alternatives":[{"value":"é","reason":"The scalar whose UTF-8 encoding is the bytes C3 A9","tradeoff":"Use it only when that byte pair was meant to be U+00E9. It is not a repair for every unexpected letter."}],"evidenceTier":"standards-informed-editorial","evidence":{"behavior":"standards-informed","compatibility":"not-tested","repair":"editorial-guidance"}}]},{"codepoint":"U+00A9","name":"COPYRIGHT SIGN","displayLabel":"©","warnings":[],"explanations":[]}],"comparison":{"schema":"cpc-unicode-compare-v1","exactlyEqual":false,"sameNFC":false,"sameNFKC":false,"sameVisualAppearance":"unknown","sameMeaning":"unknown","left":{"codepoints":["U+00C3","U+00A9"],"graphemes":2},"right":{"codepoints":["U+00E9"],"graphemes":1},"explanation":"Normalization equivalence does not guarantee the same rendering, semantics or acceptance in an application."},"graphemes":{"status":"available","method":"runtime-intl-segmenter","unicodeDataVersion":"runtime-unknown","count":2,"segments":[{"text":"Ã","utf16Offset":0,"codepoints":["U+00C3"]},{"text":"©","utf16Offset":1,"codepoints":["U+00A9"]}]},"normalizationChanged":{"NFC":false,"NFD":true,"NFKC":false,"NFKD":true},"normalizationUnicodeDataVersion":"runtime-unknown","targetCompatibility":{"status":"unknown","evidenceTier":"not-tested","purpose":"general","explanation":"No OS, font, browser, application, field policy or rendering engine was tested. Unicode validity and segmentation do not establish actual display or acceptance."}}