Unicode Character Not Supported (pdfLaTeX)
! Package inputenc Error: Unicode char U+XXXX not set up for use with LaTeX.
What this error means
Your document contains a Unicode character (accented letter, emoji, special symbol, etc.) that pdfLaTeX can't handle. pdfLaTeX uses 8-bit encodings and requires special packages to support Unicode input.
FormaTeX smart compile
FormaTeX smart compile detects non-ASCII characters in the source and automatically switches from pdfLaTeX to XeLaTeX with fontspec enabled.
Common causes
- Document contains accented characters (é, ü, ñ) without the inputenc package
- Copy-pasted text from another source containing Unicode characters
- Using smart quotes or em dashes directly in the source
- Non-Latin scripts (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) in the source
How to fix it
The simplest fix is to switch to XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX with \usepackage{fontspec} — they support Unicode natively. Alternatively, add \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} to pdfLaTeX for basic Latin Unicode support.
Code examples
\documentclass{article}
% pdflatex — no Unicode support configured
\begin{document}
Café, naïve, résumé, 日本語
\end{document}\documentclass{article}
% Option 1: XeLaTeX / LuaLaTeX (full Unicode)
\usepackage{fontspec}
% Option 2: pdfLaTeX with UTF-8 (limited Unicode)
% \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
% \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
Café, naïve, résumé
\end{document}Related errors
File Not Found
! LaTeX Error: File 'XXX' not found.
Unknown Graphics Extension
! LaTeX Error: Unknown graphics extension: .XXX.
Cannot Determine Size of Graphic (No BoundingBox)
! LaTeX Error: Cannot determine size of graphic (no BoundingBox).
Citation Undefined
LaTeX Warning: Citation 'XXX' on page N undefined.
Test the fix live
Paste your LaTeX into the playground and compile instantly.