If you add the extended ASCII Codes directly into a string, the Arduino IDE will display it correctly:
http://www.ascii-code.com/

For example:
char str[] = "\xE4";
Serial.println(str);

-> ä

However the Visual Micro Serial Monitor doesn't like this and displays a question mark instead. Probably just some encoding issue.

There is a fix in sp1 download

Thanks for the report

Hi,

You have to save your sketch code as utf-8 by clicking "File>Save As>With encoding" but normally when you enter unicode into your code and click the "Save" button on the tool bar or file menu then Atmel should ask you if you want to switch the encoding.

Also send me your sketch code file or a file with the characters in so I can test thanks

Okay I switched the encoding from utf-8 to 1252 which works the same as the Arduino IDE now.

Char 128 produces a Euro symbol in both Visual Micro and the Arduino Ide

With Arduino 1.5 I used the following to see the Euro symbol

Serial.write(128);
Serial.println();
 

I think I should add an encoding option to the serial monitor. With utf-8 I was able to see these characters instead of garbage.

Serial.println("hello: ٨ ٩ ٪ ٫ ٬ ٭ ٮ ٯ ٰ ٱ ٲ ٳ ٴ ٵ ٶ ٷ ٸ ٹ ٺ ٻ ټ ٽ پ ٿ ڀ ځ"); 

Thanks for the hints. It's been very useful. It is important that Visual Micro works the same as the Arduino Ide out of the box.

There will be an official release for the Arduino Zero shortly so upgrade whenever you like.

Thanks again

Yes some Arabic text I found on web from an Arduino training company. It looked strange enough to be a reasonable test

But was not