Icelandic, utf8 and utf8x in LaTeX

Question

First of all, what's the difference between utf8 and utf8x in

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

when used in LaTeX?

Secondly, what packages are required when writing an article in Icelandic using LaTeX? I found:

\usepackage[icelandic]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

after experimenting a bit but I have a feeling some part of the code may be redundant. And even with them the aforementioned packages, the code inside

\begin{lstlisting}
...
\end{lstlisting}

isn't rendered with Icelandic characters when outputted through pdflatex in Ubuntu, although it works on my friend's computer (who's running Debian). What's missing?

if your fonts aren't working properly, try xetex or xelatex. — Mica
All of the fonts work using the packages I mentioned- except for the text in the <code>lstlisting</code> — Iceland_jack
Regarding the suggestion to close this question and move it to superuser.com, there's a fairly established standard, now, of asking LaTeX questions here. Could split them into programming-related LaTeX questions here and user-level questions there, but not much point IMO. — Will Robertson

Will Robertson Will Robertson · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-26T00:34:47

[UTF8] is "supported" by the LaTeX team and covers a fairly specific/limited range of unicode input characters. It only defines those symbols that are known to be available with the current font encoding.

[UTF8x], AFAIK, is no longer supported, but covers a much broader range of input symbols. I would recommend only trying it if [UTF8] doesn't do what you need.

Secondly, the listings package (and most other related packages that do character scanning) does not support UTF8 input. (If it's working on a friend's machine they must be using an 8-bit input encoding instead.) The listingsutf8 package provides a UTF8-compatible replacement for \lstinputlisting but not for the main lstlisting environment. Using XeLaTeX might help you here, however.

Icelandic, utf8 and utf8x in LaTeX

1 Answers