I18N

i18n (from "internationalization", a 20-letter word) is the best practice that enables products or services to be readily adapted to any target culture.

Internationalization is the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language. (The W3C definition)

Among other things, i18n requires support for multiple

  • character sets (usually via Unicode)
  • units of measure (currency, °C/°F, km/miles, etc.)
  • time and date formats
  • keyboard layouts
  • text directions

See also