In Unicode equivalence some sequences of code points represent essentially the same character. This feature was introduced in the standard to allow compatibility with preexisting standard character sets. Unicode provides two ways of handling that: canonical equivalence and compatibility.

   Canonical equivalence: Code point sequences are
   assumed to have the same appearance and meaning
   when printed or displayed. For example, n + ◌̃ = ñ.

   Compatible equivalence: Code point sequences are assumed
   to have possibly distinct appearances, but the same meaning
   in some contexts. For example ff character has the equivalent
   to ff.