# I18n.t and UTF-8 black diamond? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 8, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i18n-t-and-utf-8-black-diamond/194632 "2010-09-08T08:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrkohrea)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i18n-t-and-utf-8-black-diamond/194632/1 "2010-09-08T08:06:16Z")
I am using Rails 3.0.0.rc, Nginx 0.7.67, and Passenger 2.2.15. I am using I18n.t on string literals defined for various locales, for example: I18n.t(:organization), where the :es locale defines organization: “organización”. I have verified the following: - is set on HTML5 doctypes - is set on HTML4 doctypes - my text editor is set to encode files as UTF-8 - I am not pulling the strings from the database, so the database is not an issue. - My browser is set to UTF-8 and auto-detect Universal. And I still see the dreaded black diamond “?” for extended chars. If I substitute HTML entities for the offending chars, e.g. organization: “organización” and call html\_safe on the result, I18n.t(:organization).html\_safe, the characters display correctly in the browser, , but it seems like that should not be required, and tedious to code. What obvious thing am I missing here? Any help appreciated. Thanks, Michael ---
**Author:** ![mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrkohrea)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 9:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i18n-t-and-utf-8-black-diamond/194632/2 "2010-09-08T09:07:44Z")
On Sep 8, 7:05 am, Michael K. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > - my text editor is set to encode files as UTF-8 > tedious to code. > > What obvious thing am I missing here? Any help appreciated. Have you checked what bytes are being sent over the wire by the server ? Fred ---
**Author:** ![mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrkohrea)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i18n-t-and-utf-8-black-diamond/194632/3 "2010-09-08T14:49:33Z")
Michael K. wrote: > I am using Rails 3.0.0.rc, Nginx 0.7.67, and Passenger 2.2.15. I am > using I18n.t on string literals defined for various locales, for > example: I18n.t(:organization), where the :es locale defines > organization: “organizaci�n”. > > I have verified the following: > > - is set on HTML5 doctypes > - > > is set on HTML4 doctypes > > - my text editor is set to encode files as UTF-8 > - I am not pulling the strings from the database, so the database is > not an issue. > - My browser is set to UTF-8 and auto-detect Universal. > > And I still see the dreaded black diamond “?” for extended chars. Those facts cannot all be true. If you are seeing the diamond, then your browser is trying to display the content as UTF-8 but being fed something else – most likely ISO 8859-1. Make sure the file containing the string in question is properly encoded – run it through iconv if necessary. Best, – Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Sent from my iPhone ---
**Author:** ![mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@mrkohrea](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mrkohrea)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/i18n-t-and-utf-8-black-diamond/194632/4 "2010-09-08T19:57:04Z")
Thanks for the replies. Marnen, you were correct, and the original file was in the wrong encoding. -Michael