UTF-8 is an encoding system for Unicode. It can translate any Unicode character to a matching unique binary string, and can also translate the binary string back to a Unicode character. This is the meaning of “UTF”, or “Unicode Transformation Format.”

Understand text encoding An encoding standard is a numbering scheme that assigns each text character in a character set to a numeric value. A character set can include alphabetical characters, numbers, and other symbols.

Files generally indicate their encoding with a file header. There are many examples here. However, even reading the header you can never be sure what encoding a file is really using. For example, a file with the first three bytes 0xEF,0xBB,0xBF is probably a UTF-8 encoded file.

First, select the radio button for the Decode UTF8 option. Then, enter the UTF8 string in the Enter Value box. Click on the Convert button, and the tool will instantly decode the UTF8 string into the regular text. You can also copy the output results using one click.