ISPF supports extended code pages that allow ISPF to display panels, messages, and variable application data correctly on terminals using any of the supported code pages. For example, ISPF can display a German panel on a French CECP (Country Extended Code Page) terminal, with all common characters displayed correctly. Any characters in the panel that do not exist in the terminal code page are displayed as periods.

The code page and character set are specified by CCSID (Coded Character Set Identifier) as defined by Character Data Representation Architecture (CDRA). ISPF supports these EXTENDED CODE PAGE CCSIDs for the TRANS service and also with the use of the CCSID keyword on panels and messages.

These Extended CCSIDs (shown in Table 3) are also supported for panels and messages that specify an extended code page. These are the mixed SBCS/DBCS CCSIDs for these languages.

Japanese (Katakana) and Simplified Chinese EXTENDED CODE PAGES are not supported on any terminal but these EXTENDED CODE PAGES are supported for the TRANS service and with the CCSID keyword on panels and messages.