CNS 11643

CNS 11643, (Chinese国家 标准 中文 交换 码/国家 标准 中文 交换 码, Pinyin guojia biāozhǔn Zhōngwén jiāohuànmǎ, English Chinese National Standard 11643, also called " Chinese Standard Interchange Code"), de jure is the official character set of the Republic of China.

The development of this font started in September 1980, on 4 August 1986, the first version was under the name "Universal Standard for the Chinese data exchange" with 13,051 characters ready. In 1992, the character set has been expanded to a total of 48 027 characters and renamed to its present name.

The aim of this font was to displace Big5 character set. But this was not successful, since CNS 11643 three bytes per Chinese character needs, as opposed to Big5, which requires only two bytes, and therefore attracts a 50% greater storage volume with it.