Polish Language Encoding and Fonts


It is difficult to write (and speak) the Polish language because of weird fonts and difficult characters. Since the early 80s, when computers became common tools for more and more people, there have been constant problems accommodating Polish fonts on display screens and printers.

Polish Letter Encoding

Even today, proper Polish letters are not automatically displayed and printed on every computer (unless the computer is located in Poland).

In order to view the correct Polish fonts while surfing the net, you need to make sure your web browser is set up properly.

Polish Letter Encoding - Follow These Steps:


From the browser menu select [VIEW], then [ENCODING], and [CENTRAL EUROPEAN - ISO 8859-2]

Alternatively, you may follow these steps:

From the browser menu select [VIEW], then [CHARACTER SET], and [CENTRAL EUROPEAN - ISO]

Below is an example of what a proper Polish sentence should look like:

Properly displayed Polish letters

The same sentence without decoding of some of the Polish letters:

Improper encoding of Polish letters

The same sentence written without the use of the Polish letters:

No Polish letters

Nowadays, especially when writing emails, Polish people living abroad tend not to use Polish letters at all because it is inconvenient (very few computers are equipped with special software that allows to write and to encode the Polish characters) and because 99% of the Polish recipients will fully understand the message written without Polish letters.

On the other hand, it is not easy to understand improperly decoded text, so one must either make sure the Polish text will be properly decoded or write without using the Polish letters.

If you want to be sure your English to Polish translation displays the Polish letters correctly, you may request a copy of the translated text in PDF format or MS Word (DOC) format (some unexpected restrictions may apply).