physics

ISO 2033

ISO 2033 is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand ISO 2033 rather than just read about it. In short: The ISO 2033:1983 standard ("Coding of machine readable characters (MICR and OCR)") defines character sets for use with Optical Character Recognition or Magnetic Ink Character Recognition systems. The Japanese standard JIS X 9010:1984 ("Coding of machine readable characters (OCR and MICR)", originally designated JIS C 6229-1984) is closely related.

Key takeaways

ISO 2033 belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect ISO 2033 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of ISO 2033 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The ISO 2033:1983 standard ("Coding of machine readable characters (MICR and OCR)") defines character sets for use with Optical Character Recognition or Magnetic Ink Character Recognition systems. The Japanese standard JIS X 9010:1984 ("Coding of machine readable characters (OCR and MICR)", originally designated JIS C 6229-1984) is closely related.

Character set for OCR-A The version of the encoding for the OCR-A font registered with the ISO-IR registry as ISO-IR-91 is the Japanese (JIS X 9010 / JIS C 6229) version, which differs from the encoding defined by ISO 2033 only in the addition of a Yen sign at 5C.

Character set for OCR-B The version of the G0 set for the OCR-B font registered with the ISO-IR registry as ISO-IR-92 is the Japanese (JIS X 9010 / JIS C 6229) version, which differs from the encoding defined by ISO 2033 only in being based on JIS-Roman (with a dollar sign at 0x24 and a Yen sign at 0x5C) rather than on the ISO 646 IRV (with a backslash at 0x5C and, at the time, a universal currency sign (¤) at 0x24). Besides those code points, it differs from ASCII only in omitting the backtick (`) and tilde (~). An additional supplementary set registered as ISO-IR-93 assigns the pound sign (£), universal currency sign (¤) and section sign (§) to their ISO-8859-1 codepoints, and the backslash to the ISO-8859-1 codepoint for the Yen sign.

Character set for JIS X 9008 (JIS C 6257) JIS X 9010 (JIS C 6229) also defines character sets for the JIS X 9008:1981 (formerly JIS C 6257-1981) "hand-printed" OCR font. These include subsets of the JIS X 0201 Roman set (registered as ISO-IR-94 and omitting the backtick (`), lowercase letters, curly braces ({, }) and overline (‾)), and kana set (registered as ISO-IR-96 and omitting the East Asian style comma (､) and full stop (｡), the interpunct (･) and the small kana), in addition to a set (registered as ISO-IR-95) containing only the backslash, which is assigned to the same code point as in ISO-IR-93. The JIS C 6527 font stylises the slash and backslash characters with a doubled appearance. The character names given are "Solidus" and "Reverse Solidus", matching the Unicode character names for the ASCII slash and backslash. However, the Unicode Optical Character Recognition block includes an additional code point for an "OCR Double Backslash" (⑊), although not for a double (forward) slash, although a double slash is available elsewhere, as U+2AFD ⫽ DOUBLE SOLIDUS OPERATOR.

Character set for E-13B

The ISO-IR-98 encoding defined by ISO 2033 encodes the character repertoire of the E13B font, as used with magnetic ink character recognition. Although ISO 2033 also specifies other encodings, the encoding for E-13B is the encoding referred to as ISO_2033_1983 by Perl libintl, and as ISO_2033-1983 or csISO2033 by the IANA. Other registered labels include iso-ir-98, its ISO-IR registration number, and simply e13b. The digits are preserved in their ASCII locations. Letters and symbols unavailable in the E13B font are omitted, while specialised punctuation for bank cheques included in the E13B font is added. The same symbols are available in Unicode in the Optical Character Recognition block.

References

External links ISO 2033 distributed by ISO JIS X 9010 distributed by AFNOR

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with ISO 2033

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what ISO 2033 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to ISO 2033 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about ISO 2033 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of ISO 2033

In research: ISO 2033 appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses ISO 2033 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: ISO 2033 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Character sets, ISO standards, OCR typefaces, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for ISO 2033 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study ISO 2033 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what ISO 2033 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain ISO 2033 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is ISO 2033 in simple terms?

Why does ISO 2033 matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study ISO 2033?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on ISO 2033.