Universal Character Set.A character set using 16-bit character codes, also called ISO 10646.UCS is a standard defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and allows 65,536 (or 256 x 256) character instead of the 256 available in ASCII.If a printer has the UCS feature, it can use a larger range of character.The 8-bit character sets ASCII and ISO Latin 1 are subset within UCS.