title: What makes a file UTF-8?
body: <p>I've read that adding the UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (3 characters) at the start of a text file makes it a UTF-8 file, but I've also read that unicode recommends against using the BOM for UTF-8.</p>
  
  <p>I'm generating files in PHP and I have a requirement that the files be UTF-8. I've added the UTF-8 BOM to the start of the file but I've received feedback about garbage characters at the start of the file from the company that is parsing the files and that gave me the requirement to make the files UTF-8.</p>
  
  <p>If I open the file in notepad it doesn't show the BOM, and if I go to save as, it shows UTF-8 as the default choice.</p>
  
  <p>Opening the file in Textpad32 shows the 3 characters at the start of the file.</p>
  
  <p>So what makes a file UTF-8?</p>