Text encoding

All text in a computer is encoded as a series of bytes. Many different forms of encoding (and therefore, different bytes) represent text. Different kinds of operating systems use different kinds of encoding for text. For example, Western Windows operating systems usually use CP1252 encoding; Western Macintosh operating systems usually use MacRoman encoding; Japanese Windows and Macintosh systems usually use Unicode encoding.

Unicode can encode most languages and characters used throughout the world. The other forms of text encoding that computers use are subsets of the Unicode format, tailored to specific regions of the world. Some of these forms are compatible in some areas and incompatible in other areas, so using the correct encoding is critical.

Unicode has several forms. Flash Player versions 6 and 7 and later support text or external files in the 8‑bit Unicode format UTF‑8, and in the 16‑bit Unicode formats UTF‑16 BE (Big Endian) and UTF‑16 LE (Little Endian).