Non-English letter input/output problem

Question

I use this for language

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}  
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

Sometimes, i need input some special letter, for example Ö. The language setting worked fine before, but today it report error always when I input some special letter.(I do not remember what i changed to the latex code, seems no changes about language setting).

Below are snapshots for two errors. What is the problem?

enter image description here

The inputenc approach covers only a number of chars that have been set up: it can't easily do every UTF-8 char. Which ones are giving you problems (Ö for example should be fine). — Joseph Wright, Aug 21 '14 at 09:23
are you sure that your file is saved in utf-8 encoding (not for example latin1) — David Carlisle, Aug 21 '14 at 09:36
@postit OK, as David says that suggests an incorrect encoding or similar. Can you make the 'raw' file available using a file sharing system such as DropBox so we can take a look? — Joseph Wright, Aug 21 '14 at 10:09
@postit What editor do you use to save your file? Some of them allow choice of encoding 'on the fly'. — Joseph Wright, Aug 21 '14 at 10:09
Are you sure the file is in utf8 (the error you show suggests that it is declared as utf8 but is actually in another encoding (as the letters are not being recognised as valid utf8) — David Carlisle, Aug 21 '14 at 10:15
Thanks both of you, the file is generated by runtime program, i need check the program code — postit, Aug 21 '14 at 11:03
@JosephWright i know the reason, i used xelatex to generate pdf before — postit, Aug 21 '14 at 13:00
@postit Ah! You shouldn't be loading inputenc with XeTeX: I guess you've worked that out. — Joseph Wright, Aug 21 '14 at 13:01
@DavidCarlisle i know the reason, now i changed xelatex to pdflatex to do the compile, everything is fine then — postit, Aug 21 '14 at 13:01
you can't use inputenc with xelatex (and it is not needed as xelatex uses utf-8 in anycase) — David Carlisle, Aug 21 '14 at 13:09

Scz · Answer 1 · 2014-08-28T20:59:47.973

Note: The OP used xelatex for compilation and everything was fine after changing to pdflatex. However, I leave my old answer here for archive purposes.

If it worked for that letter before, you probably saved the file with an editor that converted it from utf-8 to some other format.

If it is a new letter you are entering (not ö, which should work), you can try adding the letter manually with

\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{03B1}{\ensuremath{\alpha}} %% α

Non-English letter input/output problem

1 Answers1