Question

I have an html file with the character ë in it.

The html contains this line, which specifies that I’m using the iso-8859-15 character set.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-15">

I can choose between using the character code ë or the character ë itself in the html file. Both work just fine.

I was wondering whether one is preferrable over the other and why?

Answer 1

Real characters are:

• More bandwidth efficient
• Easier to read when you are writing or editing your pages

Entities:

• Save you from having to care so much about character encoding

Just use real characters and make sure you have a single unicode encoding through your entire production chain.