By Alligator and Matt Abrams
UTF-8 is the most most common character encoding on the web. You can set UTF-8 encoding and other formats using the <meta charset>
tag in HTML5.
<meta charset>
HTML tag to set UTF-8The first element after the opening <head>
tag of your documents should be a <meta charset>
tag to define the character set in use. The UTF-8 charset is the right choice for the modern web. Here’s the markup for it:
<meta charset="UTF-8">
This is how the charset
definition works in HTML5
<meta charset>
is only one of many common tags in HTML5.
For a more comprehensive review of the HTML5 markup language, explore our series, How To Build a Website in HTML.
Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.
Alligator.io is a developer-focused resource that offers tutorials and insights on a wide range of modern front-end technologies, including Angular 2+, Vue.js, React, TypeScript, Ionic, and JavaScript.
Supporting the open-source community one tutorial at a time. Former Technical Editor at DigitalOcean. Expertise in topics including Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, CentOS, and more.
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
Stay up to date by signing up for DigitalOcean’s Infrastructure as a Newsletter.
New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.