What’s the deal with Python 3.4, Unicode, different languages and Windows?

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Update: Since Python 3.6, the code example that prints Unicode strings directly should just work now (even without py -mrun).

Python can print text in multiple languages in Windows console whatever chcp says:

T:\> py -mpip install win-unicode-console
T:\> py -mrun your_script.py

where your_script.py prints Unicode directly e.g.:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
print('š áč')      # cz
print('ł ń')       # pl
print('リング')     # jp
print('五行')      # cn
print('ш я жх ё') # ru
print('í çáà')    # pt

All you need is to configure the font in your Windows console that can display the desired characters.

You could also run your Python script via IDLE without installing non-stdlib modules:

T:\> py -midlelib -r your_script.py

To write to a file/pipe, use PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 as @Mark Tolonen suggested:

T:\> set PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8
T:\> py your_script.py >output-utf8.txt

Only the last solution supports non-BMP characters such as 😒 (U+1F612 UNAMUSED FACE) — py -mrun can write them but Windows console displays them as boxes even if the font supports corresponding Unicode characters (though you can copy-paste the boxes into another program, to get the characters).

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