P8SCII

P8SCII is PICO-8's character set. It has 256 codes, consisting of 16 control codes and 240 printable characters (letters, numbers, symbols).

For detailed information about control codes, see P8SCII Control Codes.

P8SCII reference

Control codes

Control codes describe effects that occur during printing of strings via the print() function. Typically, you specify a control code in a string literal with an escape sequence. Code strings can also be calculated by number with chr(). Except for cursor position, foreground color, and audio in progress, effects are reset at the end of the print() function call.

Some codes accept parameters as characters after the control code. See P8SCII Control Codes for more details.

Number	Character	Name	Parameters
0	\0	Terminate printing
1	\*	Repeat next character	P0: number of times to repeat
2	\#	Draw solid background	P0: color
3	\-	Move cursor horizontally	P0: num of pixels minus 16
4	\|	Move cursor vertically	P0: num of pixels minus 16
5	\+	Move cursor	P0: horiz offset minus 16; P1: vert offset minus 16
6	\^	Special command	See P8SCII Control Codes
7	\a	Audio command	See P8SCII Control Codes
8	\b	Backspace
9	\t	Tab
10	\n	Newline
11	\v	Decorate previous character	See P8SCII Control Codes
12	\f	Set foreground color	P0: color
13	\r	Carriage return
14	\14	Switch font defined at 0x5600
15	\15	Switch font to default

Symbols and Japanese punctuation

PICO-8 rendering of the symbols and Japanese punctuation character range

Characters 16-31 are symbols useful as icons or Japanese punctuation.

Number	Character	Name	Unicode		Number	Character	Name	Unicode
16	▮	Vertical rectangle	U+25AE		24	「	Japanese starting quote	U+300C
17	■	Filled square	U+25A0		25	」	Japanese ending quote	U+300D
18	□	Hollow square	U+25A1		26	¥	Yen sign	U+A5
19	⁙	Five dot	U+2059		27	•	Interpunct	U+2022
20	⁘	Four dot	U+2058		28	、	Japanese comma	U+3001
21	‖	Pause	U+2016		29	。	Japanese full stop	U+3002
22	◀	Back	U+25C0		30	゛	Japanese dakuten	U+309B
23	▶	Forward	U+25B6		31	゜	Japanese handakuten	U+309C

ASCII characters

PICO-8 rendering of the ASCII character range

Printable characters 32-127 match the ASCII standard.

Within PICO-8, English letters in the range 65-90 print in lowercase (small caps), while letters in the range 97-122 print in uppercase.

Number	Character	Name		Number	Character	Name
32	space	space		80	P	P
33	!	!		81	Q	Q
34	"	Double quote		82	R	R
35	#	#		83	S	S
36	$	$		84	T	T
37	%	%		85	U	U
38	&	&		86	V	V
39	'	Single quote		87	W	W
40	(	(		88	X	X
41	)	)		89	Y	Y
42	*	*		90	Z	Z
43	+	+		91	[	[
44	,	,		92	\	\
45	-	-		93	]	]
46	.	.		94	^	^
47	/	/		95	_	Underscore
48	0	0		96	`	Backtick
49	1	1		97	a	a
50	2	2		98	b	b
51	3	3		99	c	c
52	4	4		100	d	d
53	5	5		101	e	e
54	6	6		102	f	f
55	7	7		103	g	g
56	8	8		104	h	h
57	9	9		105	i	i
58	:	:		106	j	j
59	;	;		107	k	k
60	<	<		108	l	l
61	=	=		109	m	m
62	>	>		110	n	n
63	?	?		111	o	o
64	@	@		112	p	p
65	A	A		113	q	q
66	B	B		114	r	r
67	C	C		115	s	s
68	D	D		116	t	t
69	E	E		117	u	u
70	F	F		118	v	v
71	G	G		119	w	w
72	H	H		120	x	x
73	I	I		121	y	y
74	J	J		122	z	z
75	K	K		123	{	{
76	L	L		124	|	Vertical bar
77	M	M		125	}	}
78	N	N		126	~	Tilde
79	O	O

Typeable symbols

PICO-8 rendering of the typeable symbols character range

Characters 127-153 and 254-255 are graphical symbols proprietary to PICO-8.

Symbols in the range 128-153 can be entered in the PICO-8 editor by holding the Shift key and pressing a letter key, assigned in alphabetical order. Many symbols have intuitive assignments. For example, the Up, Down, Right, Left, X, and O keypad symbols are assigned to Shift-U, Shift-D, Shift-R, Shift-L, Shift-X, and Shift-O, respectively.

Tip: The btn() and btnp() functions accept the keypad symbols as an argument, as an alternative to the key code. Use the corresponding symbol as if it were a variable name, without string quotes:

if btn(❎) then
  jump()
end

When printed, characters 128-255 are eight pixels wide. Characters 32-127 print as four pixels wide.

Note: PICO-8 uses variation selector 16 (U+FE0F) with the Unicode emoji symbols for Down key (⬇️), Left key (⬅️), O key (🅾️), Right key (➡️), and Up key (⬆️). Not all emoji-capable displays show an emoji variant glyph for Black Rightwards Arrow (U+27A1), but PICO-8 uses the variation selector anyway. The variation selector is not used with X key (U+274E).

Number	Character	Name	Unicode	Entry
127	○	Hollow circle	U+25CB
128	█	Rectangle	U+2588	Shift-A
129	▒	Checkerboard	U+2592	Shift-B
130	🐱	Jelpi	U+1F431	Shift-C
131	⬇️	Down key	U+2B07 U+FE0F	Shift-D
132	░	Dot pattern	U+2591	Shift-E
133	✽	Throwing star	U+273D	Shift-F
134	●	Ball	U+25CF	Shift-G
135	♥	Heart	U+2665	Shift-H
136	☉	Eye	U+2609	Shift-I
137	웃	Man	U+C6C3	Shift-J
138	⌂	House	U+2302	Shift-K
139	⬅️	Left key	U+2B05 U+FE0F	Shift-L
140	😐	Face	U+1F610	Shift-M
141	♪	Musical note	U+266A	Shift-N
142	🅾️	O key	U+1F17E U+FE0F	Shift-O
143	◆	Diamond	U+25C6	Shift-P
144	…	Ellipsis	U+2026	Shift-Q
145	➡️	Right key	U+27A1 U+FE0F	Shift-R
146	★	Five-pointed star	U+2605	Shift-S
147	⧗	Hourglass	U+29D7	Shift-T
148	⬆️	Up key	U+2B06 U+FE0F	Shift-U
149	ˇ	Birds	U+2C7	Shift-V
150	∧	Sawtooth	U+2227	Shift-W
151	❎	X key	U+274E	Shift-X
152	▤	Horiz lines	U+25A4	Shift-Y
153	▥	Vert lines	U+25A5	Shift-Z

Hiragana

PICO-8 rendering of the Japanese Hiragana character range

Characters 154-203 are the Japanese Hiragana alphabet, and characters 204-253 are the Japanese Katakana alphabet. Japanese characters appear in order, followed by the four digraph indicators.

Japanese diacritics and punctuation can be found in characters 24-31.

Number	Character	Name	Unicode		Number	Character	Name	Unicode
154	あ	a	U+3042		179	は	ha	U+306F
155	い	i	U+3044		180	ひ	hi	U+3072
156	う	u	U+3046		181	ふ	fu	U+3075
157	え	e	U+3048		182	へ	he	U+3078
158	お	o	U+304A		183	ほ	ho	U+307B
159	か	ka	U+304B		184	ま	ma	U+307E
160	き	ki	U+304D		185	み	mi	U+307F
161	く	ku	U+304F		186	む	mu	U+3080
162	け	ke	U+3051		187	め	me	U+3081
163	こ	ko	U+3053		188	も	mo	U+3082
164	さ	sa	U+3055		189	や	ya	U+3084
165	し	shi	U+3057		190	ゆ	yu	U+3086
166	す	su	U+3059		191	よ	yo	U+3088
167	せ	se	U+305B		192	ら	ra	U+3089
168	そ	so	U+305D		193	り	ri	U+308A
169	た	ta	U+305F		194	る	ru	U+308B
170	ち	chi	U+3061		195	れ	re	U+308C
171	つ	tsu	U+3064		196	ろ	ro	U+308D
172	て	te	U+3066		197	わ	wa	U+308F
173	と	to	U+3068		198	を	wo	U+3092
174	な	na	U+306A		199	ん	n	U+3093
175	に	ni	U+306B		200	っ	Sokuon	U+3063
176	ぬ	nu	U+306C		201	ゃ	Digraph: ya	U+3083
177	ね	ne	U+306D		202	ゅ	Digraph: yu	U+3085
178	の	no	U+306E		203	ょ	Digraph: yo	U+3087

Katakana

PICO-8 rendering of the Japanese Katakana character range

Characters 204-253 are the Japanese Katakana alphabet. Japanese characters appear in order, followed by the four digraph indicators.

Japanese diacritics and punctuation can be found in characters 24-31.

Number	Character	Name	Unicode		Number	Character	Name	Unicode
204	ア	a	U+30A2		229	ハ	ha	U+30CF
205	イ	i	U+30A4		230	ヒ	hi	U+30D2
206	ウ	u	U+30A6		231	フ	fu	U+30D5
207	エ	e	U+30A8		232	ヘ	he	U+30D8
208	オ	o	U+30AA		233	ホ	ho	U+30DB
209	カ	ka	U+30AB		234	マ	ma	U+30DE
210	キ	ki	U+30AD		235	ミ	mi	U+30DF
211	ク	ku	U+30AF		236	ム	mu	U+30E0
212	ケ	ke	U+30B1		237	メ	me	U+30E1
213	コ	ko	U+30B3		238	モ	mo	U+30E2
214	サ	sa	U+30B5		239	ヤ	ya	U+30E4
215	シ	shi	U+30B7		240	ユ	yu	U+30E6
216	ス	su	U+30B9		241	ヨ	yo	U+30E8
217	セ	se	U+30BB		242	ラ	ra	U+30E9
218	ソ	so	U+30BD		243	リ	ri	U+30EA
219	タ	ta	U+30BF		244	ル	ru	U+30EB
220	チ	chi	U+30C1		245	レ	re	U+30EC
221	ツ	tsu	U+30C4		246	ロ	ro	U+30ED
222	テ	te	U+30C6		247	ワ	wa	U+30EF
223	ト	to	U+30C8		248	ヲ	wo	U+30F2
224	ナ	na	U+30CA		249	ン	n	U+30F3
225	ニ	ni	U+30CB		250	ッ	Sokuon	U+30C3
226	ヌ	nu	U+30CC		251	ャ	Digraph: ya	U+30E3
227	ネ	ne	U+30CD		252	ュ	Digraph: yu	U+30E5
228	ノ	no	U+30CE		253	ョ	Digraph: yo	U+30E7

Remaining symbols

PICO-8 rendering of the final two symbols of the P8SCII character set

The final two characters in the P8SCII set offer two more symbols.

Number	Character	Name	Unicode
254	◜	Left arc	U+25DC
255	◝	Right arc	U+25DD

Using PS8SCII codes

All characters and codes can appear in string literals using either typed characters or escape sequences. Some codes have special escape sequences, such as \n for a newline code. All codes can be entered via their number using an escape sequence such as \0xxx, where xxx is the number in decimal.

print("press ❎ to jump\npress 🅾️ to use an item")

price = 729
print("cost: " .. chr(26) .. tostr(price))

The chr() function takes a number and returns a one-character string with the corresponding P8SCII character. The ord() function takes a one-character string and returns the P8SCII code for that character as a number.

All printable characters have an equivalent symbol in the Unicode character set. You can type a printable character in the PICO-8 editor by entering the corresponding symbol or by pasting it from the clipboard. PICO-8 uses the Unicode equivalent when saving to a .p8 file, printing to the console via printh(), or copying to the clipboard.

Note: The P8SCII value is not the same as the Unicode value! The character sets overlap in the ASCII range (32-126), with uppercase and lowercase swapped. Otherwise, a P8SCII printable character maps to a Unicode character with the same meaning (as for Japanese letters) or a pictographic equivalent (as for symbols).