What's the difference between a character, a code point, and a grapheme?

A code point is a single Unicode number like U+1F600 (😀). A grapheme is what a human reads as one character, 👨👩👧👦 is 7 code points joined by zero-width joiners but one grapheme. 'Character' is ambiguous; in Python it usually means code point, in JavaScript it means UTF-16 code unit. For user-facing counts, use extract-unicode-graphemes.

Why do two strings that look identical sometimes compare unequal?

Different normalization forms. A Mac keyboard may produce é as e + U+0301 combining acute (NFD), while copy-paste from a web page gives the single code point U+00E9 (NFC). Both look the same; neither matches the other in byte comparison. Run both through normalize-unicode-text with NFC and the check passes.

How do I detect a Cyrillic or Greek lookalike impersonating a Latin string?

Run check-spoofed-unicode-text. It scans every code point and flags any character from a script that doesn't match the surrounding majority, Cyrillic а (U+0430) inside a Latin word, Greek ο (U+03BF) swapped for o. Common targets include Pаypal, Amаzon, and Gооgle in phishing links and typo-squatted usernames.

What does the \uXXXX sequence in JSON and Python strings mean?

It's a Unicode escape, \u00e9 represents U+00E9 (é). JSON produces these when ensure_ascii=True is set and the string contains non-ASCII; log pipelines keep them to sidestep encoding traps. unicode-escape-decoder reverses them into readable characters, and escape-unicode produces them when a config file must stay pure ASCII.

How do emoji break character counters?

A single emoji can span multiple code points and multiple UTF-16 units. 😀 is one code point (U+1F600) but two UTF-16 units, JavaScript's '😀'.length returns 2. A family emoji 👨👩👧👦 is 7 code points. A skin-toned 👍🏽 is 2 code points. For tweet limits and SMS segment counts, use count-unicode-characters in grapheme mode.

UTF-8 vs. UTF-16 vs. UTF-32, which should I use?

UTF-8 uses 1-4 bytes per code point and dominates the web and Linux, over 98% of public web pages served in 2025 used it. UTF-16 is JavaScript's internal string encoding and the native format of Windows APIs. UTF-32 uses a fixed 4 bytes and is mainly an internal representation. Store and transmit in UTF-8 via convert-unicode-to-utf8; reach for convert-unicode-to-utf16 only when debugging a JS surrogate-pair bug.

How do I safely put Arabic, Chinese, or emoji in a URL?

Percent-encode them with url-encode-unicode. A search query like شاي turns into %D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%8A, the UTF-8 byte sequence expressed as percent-encoded triplets. Modern browsers display the readable form in the address bar but send the encoded version over the wire, so old proxies, CDN rules, and server logs stay happy.

Unicode Tools

Unicode tools handle the 154,998 characters Unicode 15.1 defines, converting between UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32, normalizing combining marks, escaping non-ASCII for JSON, and catching homoglyph spoofing where Cyrillic а masquerades as Latin a. A forum moderator screening 200 new usernames an hour can paste each handle into a spoof checker and reject Pаypal, Amаzon, and Gооgle lookalikes in seconds.

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All tools in this category

Add Combining Characters →

ASCII to Unicode Converter →

Center Unicode Text →

Check Spoofed Unicode Text →

Chunkify Unicode Text →

Convert Code Points to Unicode →

Convert Emoji to Image →

Convert Unicode to ASCII →

Convert Unicode to Base64 →

Convert Unicode to Binary →

Convert Unicode to Bytes →

Convert Unicode to Code Points →

Convert Unicode to Data URL →

Convert Unicode to Decimal →

Convert Unicode to Hex →

Convert Unicode to HTML →

Convert Unicode to Image →

Convert Unicode to Octal →

Convert Unicode to String Literal →

Convert Unicode to UTF-16 →

Convert Unicode to UTF-32 →

Convert Unicode to UTF-8 →

Count Unicode Characters →

Cyclically Shift Unicode →

Decrement Code Points →

Emoji Picker →

Escape Unicode →

Extract Unicode Graphemes →

Extract Unicode Range →

Generate a Unicode Character Range →

Join Lines Into One String →

Left Pad Text →

Normalize Unicode Text Online →

Repeat Text →

Reverse Unicode Text, Emoji Safe →

Right Pad Text →

Rotate Text Characters →

Sort Characters →

Split Text into Characters →

Split Text Into Fragments →

Spoof Unicode Text →

Truncate Text →