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UFOZoo

Unicode Converter: Encode, Decode & Look Up Characters

Unicode converter online: encode and decode text to Unicode code points, and look up character information and categories.

Updated 2026-08-26

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Features

  • Encode text to Unicode (UTF-8, UTF-16, HTML, CSS, URL)
  • Decode Unicode back to text
  • Auto-detect input format
  • Look up character information
  • View 11 encoding formats for each character
  • Bidirectional conversion support
  • Full Unicode coverage: every code point from U+0000 to U+10FFFF works, including emoji, CJK, and non-Latin scripts
  • Emoji and special symbols: look up the exact code point and UTF-8 bytes of any emoji, arrow, currency, or math symbol
  • One-click copy: copy any code point, UTF-8 byte sequence, or HTML entity without manual selection
  • Works offline after first load

How to Use

  1. 1Encode mode: Enter text to convert to Unicode format.
  2. 2Decode mode: Paste Unicode to convert back to text.
  3. 3Lookup mode: Enter a character to see all its encodings.
  4. 4Select output format (U+XXXX, JS escape, HTML entity, etc.).
  5. 5Click any value to copy it to clipboard.
  6. 6Type or paste a symbol like ©, ™, or → to discover its exact Unicode code point, UTF-8 bytes, and HTML entity, useful for adding special characters to your website.
  7. 7Use Lookup mode to inspect an emoji's Unicode properties: enter 😀 to see U+1F600, its UTF-8 encoding (F0 9F 98 80), and all related encoding formats.
  8. 8Decode a \uXXXX JavaScript escape sequence from your Node.js console output; paste \u4F60\u597D into Decode mode to get the Chinese text.
  9. 9Prepare HTML content for email newsletters by encoding special characters as HTML entities; enter ➡ to get ➡ or ➝ for maximum compatibility.
  10. 10Encode your CSS :before pseudo-element content by converting a Unicode character to its CSS escape format; enter ★ to get \2605 (the star symbol).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Unicode?

Unicode is a universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number (code point) to every character in all languages. It includes 143,000+ characters covering 154 scripts, symbols, and Emoji. Unlike ASCII (128 characters), Unicode can represent text in any language, making it the foundation of modern text processing.

What's a code point?

A code point is a unique number assigned to each Unicode character, written as U+XXXX in hexadecimal. For example, 'A' is U+0041, '你' is U+4F60, and '😀' is U+1F600. Code points range from U+0000 to U+10FFFF, providing space for over 1 million characters.

What's the difference between UTF-8 and UTF-16?

UTF-8 and UTF-16 are encoding schemes for Unicode. UTF-8 uses 1-4 bytes per character (ASCII uses 1 byte, most languages use 2-3, Emoji uses 4). UTF-16 uses 2 or 4 bytes. UTF-8 is the most common encoding for web and APIs because it's ASCII-compatible and space-efficient for Latin text. UTF-16 is used internally by JavaScript and Windows.

How do I use HTML entities?

HTML entities let you represent any Unicode character in HTML using its code point. For example, 😀 displays as 😀. Named entities like © (©) are more readable for common symbols. Use numeric entities (&#XXXX;) for any character, especially when your keyboard doesn't have the character or encoding issues might occur.

Why explore Unicode blocks?

Unicode blocks organize characters into logical groups (Latin, Greek, Chinese, Emoji, Math Symbols, etc.). Exploring blocks helps you: find special symbols for documents, discover Emoji, understand character ranges for validation, and learn about different writing systems. This tool shows common blocks with practical characters.

How do I find a specific character?

Use convert mode to analyze text containing your character. You'll see its code point, UTF-8/UTF-16 encoding, and HTML entity. You can also explore relevant blocks: Emoji in 'Emoticons', arrows in 'Arrows', math symbols in 'Mathematical Operators', or Chinese characters in 'CJK Unified Ideographs'.

What is a Unicode surrogate pair?

Surrogate pairs are two 16-bit code units (U+D800–U+DFFF) used in UTF-16 to represent characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP), like emoji. For example, 😀 (U+1F600) is encoded as surrogate pair \uD83D\uDE00 in JavaScript UTF-16 strings.

Why does the same emoji look different on different devices?

Emoji appearance depends on the platform's font and design. While the Unicode code point is the same (e.g., U+1F600 for 😀), Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung each design their own emoji art. The tool shows the standard code point and encoding, regardless of rendering differences.

What is the difference between Unicode normalization forms (NFC, NFD, NFKC, NFKD)?

NFC composes characters (ü as one code point), NFD decomposes them (ü as u + combining diaeresis). NFKC/NFKD are compatible forms that also replace typographic variants (fi → fi). 'Café' might be 4 or 5 code points depending on normalization; the tool shows you the actual encoding.

How do I type a Unicode character if my keyboard doesn't have it?

On Windows, use Alt + decimal code point (e.g., Alt+0169 for ©). On Mac, use Ctrl+Cmd+Space for emoji picker. In code, use \uXXXX escape in JavaScript strings, or &#XXXX; HTML entities. Use this tool's Encode mode to find the correct code for any character.

Why do some characters show as boxes or question marks?

This means your system lacks a font with that character. Unicode itself is a standard, but rendering depends on installed fonts. The tool shows the character information regardless of whether your browser can display it. Copy the code point to use it in web fonts or custom icons.

Why does my text show as garbled characters?

Garbled text usually means the file was saved in one encoding but read as another (mojibake). This converter shows the Unicode code points of your text, so you can verify the actual characters. If pasting from a file, try re-saving it as UTF-8 first.

How do I find the Unicode code point of a character?

Paste the character into the converter; it shows the hex and decimal code points, the UTF-8 bytes, and the character category. For emoji, it also shows the code point sequence, since emoji are often composed of multiple code points.

Why does my unicode converter show a different code point than another tool for the same-looking character?

Usually because one text is precomposed and the other is decomposed: é can be a single code point (U+00E9) or e plus a combining accent (U+0065 U+0301), and the two are visually identical but numerically different. Word processors and OCR sometimes switch forms silently. Normalize both sides to the same form (NFC is the usual choice) before comparing, and beware zero-width joiners inside emoji sequences.

Why does my unicode converter online change characters after I copy-paste from Word?

Word automatically converts straight quotes to curly quotes, three dots to …, hyphens to dashes, and applies NFC normalization, so the text you paste is not byte-identical to what you typed. The unicode converter shows the true code points; if you need exact characters, disable Word's AutoFormat (File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect), or re-type the affected symbols. Non-breaking spaces (U+00A0) inserted by Word are a common hidden difference.