diff --git a/src/kits/support/character_sets.cpp b/src/kits/support/character_sets.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6ab3097164
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/kits/support/character_sets.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,435 @@
+#include <string.h>
+#include <CharacterSet.h>
+#include <Debug.h>
+#include "character_sets.h"
+
+namespace BPrivate {
+
+/**
+ * These variables are used in defining the character_sets_by_id array below.
+ */
+
+const BCharacterSet unicode(0,106,"Unicode","UTF-8","UTF-8",NULL);
+
+const char * isoLatin1aliases[] =
+ { "iso-ir-100","ISO_8859-1","ISO-8859-1","latin1","11","IBM819","CP819","csISOLatin1",NULL };
+const BCharacterSet isoLatin1(0,106,"Unicode","UTF-8","UTF-8",isoLatin1aliases);
+
+/**
+ * The following initializes the global character set array.
+ * It is organized by id for efficient retrieval using predefined constants in UTF8.h and Font.h.
+ * Character sets are stored contiguously and may be efficiently iterated over.
+ * To add a new character set, define the character set above, and then add &<charSetName> to the
+ * following list.  That's all.
+ */
+
+const BCharacterSet * character_sets_by_id[] = {
+	&unicode,
+	&isoLatin1,
+};
+const uint32 character_sets_by_id_count = sizeof(character_sets_by_id)/sizeof(const BCharacterSet*);
+
+/**
+ * The following code initializes the global MIBenum array.
+ * This sparsely populated array exists as an efficient way to access character sets by MIBenum.
+ * The MIBenum array is automatically allocated, and initialized by the following class.
+ * The following class should only be instantiated once, this is assured by using an assertion.
+ * No changes are required to the following code to add a new character set.
+ **/
+
+const BCharacterSet ** character_sets_by_MIBenum;
+uint32 maximum_valid_MIBenum;
+
+class MIBenumArrayInitializer {
+public:
+	MIBenumArrayInitializer() {
+		DEBUG_ONLY(static int onlyOneTime = 0;)
+		ASSERT_WITH_MESSAGE(onlyOneTime++ == 1,"MIBenumArrayInitializer should be instantiated only one time.");
+		// analyzing character_sets_by_id
+		uint32 max_MIBenum = 0;
+		for (uint32 index = 0 ; index < character_sets_by_id_count ; index++ ) {
+			if (max_MIBenum < character_sets_by_id[index]->GetMIBenum()) {
+				max_MIBenum = character_sets_by_id[index]->GetMIBenum();
+			}
+		}
+		// initializing extern variables
+		character_sets_by_MIBenum = new (const BCharacterSet*)[max_MIBenum+2];
+		maximum_valid_MIBenum = max_MIBenum;
+		// initializing MIBenum array
+		memset(character_sets_by_MIBenum,0,sizeof(BCharacterSet*)*(max_MIBenum+2));
+		for (uint32 index2 = 0 ; index2 < character_sets_by_id_count ; index2++ ) {
+			const BCharacterSet * charset = character_sets_by_id[index2];
+			character_sets_by_MIBenum[charset->GetMIBenum()] = charset;
+		}
+	}
+	~MIBenumArrayInitializer()
+	{
+		delete [] character_sets_by_MIBenum;
+	}
+} runTheInitializer;
+
+}
+
+/*
+//! This array holds the pointer sorted by id.
+//! It uses the BFont::SetEncoding ids, starting with UTF8=0, ISO1=1, etc.
+//! Some luck is that the conversion ids are only one off from this.
+static const character_set character_sets_by_id[CHARACTER_SET_IDS] = {
+	{ 0, 106, "Unicode", "UTF-8", "UTF-8", { NULL } },
+	{ 1, 4, "ISO Latin 1", "ISO_8859-1:1987","ISO-8859-1", 
+	  { "iso-ir-100", "ISO_8859-1", "ISO-8859-1",
+	    "latin1", "11", "IBM819", "CP819", "csISOLatin1", NULL } 
+	},
+};
+
+
+//! this is the length
+uint32 character_sets_by_id_count = 2;
+//! This array holds the character sets so they can be retrieved by MIB enum
+BCharacterSet * character_sets_by_MIBenum[VALID_MIB_ENUMS];
+
+character_sets_by_id[0] = 
+character_sets_by_MIBenum[106] = 
+	new BCharacterSet(0,106,"Unicode","UTF-8","UTF-8",0,0);
+
+character_sets_by_id[1] = 
+character_sets_by_MIBenum[4] = 
+	new BCharacterSet(1,4,"ISO Latin 1","ISO_8859-1:1987","ISO-8859-1",0,0);
+
+}
+*/
+
+/*
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_1;
+	cs->MIBenum = 4;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Latin 1");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-1:1987");
+	cs->aliases_count = 8;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-100";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-1";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-1";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "latin1";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "11";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "IBM819";
+	cs->aliases[6] = "CP819";
+	cs->aliases[7] = "csISOLatin1";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_2;
+	cs->MIBenum = 5;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Latin 2");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-2:1987");
+	cs->aliases_count = 6;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-101";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-2";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-2";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "latin2";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "12";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "csISOLatin2";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_3;
+	cs->MIBenum = 6;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Latin 3");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-3:1988");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->print_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 6;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-109";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-3";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-3";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "latin3";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "13";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "csISOLatin3";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_4;
+	cs->MIBenum = 7;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Latin 4");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-4:1988");
+	cs->aliases_count = 6;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-110";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-4";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-4";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "latin4";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "14";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "csISOLatin4";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_5;
+	cs->MIBenum = 8;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Cyrillic");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-5:1988");
+	cs->aliases_count = 5;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-144";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-5";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-5";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "cyrillic";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "csISOLatinCyrillic";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_6;
+	cs->MIBenum = 9;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Arabic");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-6:1987");
+	cs->aliases_count = 7;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-127";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-6";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-6";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "ECMA-114";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "ASMO-708";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "arabic";
+	cs->aliases[6] = "csISOLatinArabic";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_7;
+	cs->MIBenum = 10;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Greek");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-7:1987");
+	cs->aliases_count = 8;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-126";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-7";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-7";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "ELOT_928";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "ECMA-118";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "greek";
+	cs->aliases[6] = "greek8";
+	cs->aliases[7] = "csISOLatinGreek";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_8;
+	cs->MIBenum = 11;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Hebrew");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-8:1988");
+	cs->aliases_count = 5;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-138";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-8";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-8";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "hebrew";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "csISOLatinHebrew";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_9;
+	cs->MIBenum = 12;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Latin 5");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-9:1989");
+	cs->aliases_count = 6;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-148";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-9";
+	cs->aliases[2] = cs->mime_name = "ISO-8859-9";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "latin5";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "15";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "csISOLatin5";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_ISO_8859_10;
+	cs->MIBenum = 12;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO Latin 6");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO_8859-10");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 5;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-157";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "16";
+	cs->aliases[2] = "ISO-8859-10:1992";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "csISOLatin6";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "latin6";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{ // this is a guess
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = B_MACINTOSH_ROMAN;
+	cs->MIBenum = 2027;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"Macintosh Roman");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"macintosh");
+	cs->aliases_count = 2;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "mac";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "csMacintosh";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 12;
+	cs->MIBenum = 17;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"Shift JIS");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"Shift_JIS");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 2;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "MS_Kanji";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "csShiftJIS";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 13;
+	cs->MIBenum = 17;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"EUC Packed Format Japanese");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"Extended_UNIX_Code_Packed_Format_for_Japanese");
+	cs->aliases_count = 2;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = cs->mime_name = "EUC-JP";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "csEUCPkdFmtJapanese";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{ // this is just a guess...
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 14;
+	cs->MIBenum = 19;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"EUC Fixed Width Japanese");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"Extended_UNIX_Code_Fixed_Width_for_Japanese");
+	cs->aliases_count = 1;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "csEUCFixWidJapanese";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 15;
+	cs->MIBenum = 2252;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"MS-Windows Codepage 1252");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"windows-1252");
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 16;
+	cs->MIBenum = 1000;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"Unicode 2.0");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO-10646-UCS-2");
+	cs->aliases_count = 1;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "csUnicode";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 17;
+	cs->MIBenum = 2084;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"KOI8-R Cyrillic");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"KOI8-R");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 1;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "csKOI8R";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 18;
+	cs->MIBenum = 2251;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"MS-Windows Codepage 1251");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"windows-1251");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 19;
+	cs->MIBenum = 2086;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"IBM Codepage 866");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"IBM866");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 3;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "cp866";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "866";
+	cs->aliases[2] = "csIBM866";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 20;
+	cs->MIBenum = 2011;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"IBM Codepage 437");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"IBM437");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 3;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "cp437";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "437";
+	cs->aliases[2] = "csPC8CodePage437";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 21;
+	cs->MIBenum = 38;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"EUC Korean");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"EUC-KR");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 1;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "csEUCKR";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 22;
+	cs->MIBenum = 109;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO 8859-13");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO-8859-13");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 23;
+	cs->MIBenum = 110;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO 8859-14");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO-8859-14");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 6;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "iso-ir-199";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "ISO_8859-14:1998";
+	cs->aliases[2] = "ISO_8859-14";
+	cs->aliases[3] = "latin8";
+	cs->aliases[4] = "iso-celtic";
+	cs->aliases[5] = "l8";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+{
+	cs = new CharacterSet();
+	cs->id = 24;
+	cs->MIBenum = 111;
+	strcpy(cs->print_name,"ISO 8859-15");
+	strcpy(cs->iana_name,"ISO-8859-15");
+	cs->mime_name = cs->iana_name;
+	cs->aliases_count = 2;
+	cs->aliases = new (char*)[cs->aliases_count];
+	cs->aliases[0] = "ISO_8859-15";
+	cs->aliases[1] = "Latin-9";
+	character_sets[cs->id] = cs;
+}
+*/
+
diff --git a/src/kits/support/character_sets.h b/src/kits/support/character_sets.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a757f7d17a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/kits/support/character_sets.h
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#ifndef character_sets_H
+#define character_sets_H
+
+#include <CharacterSet.h>
+
+namespace BPrivate {
+
+extern const BCharacterSet * character_sets_by_id[];
+extern const uint32 character_sets_by_id_count;
+extern const BCharacterSet ** character_sets_by_MIBenum;
+extern uint32 maximum_valid_MIBenum;
+
+}
+
+#endif // character_sets_H