Encoding Converter
The Encoding Converter takes a subtitle or text file saved in any character encoding and rewrites it in the one you need, almost always UTF-8. Text files do not store letters directly; they store numbers (bytes), and a character encoding is the lookup table that maps those bytes back to letters. When a file is created with one table and opened with a different one, accented letters, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic or East-Asian characters turn into garbage like é or £. That garble has a name, mojibake, and fixing it is exactly what this tool is for.
Subtitles are where this problem bites hardest. A huge number of SRT, VTT and ASS files floating around the web were saved years ago in legacy regional encodings such as Windows-1252 (Western Europe), Windows-1251 (Cyrillic) or Shift_JIS (Japanese). Open one of those in a modern editor or load it into a video player that expects UTF-8, and every special character breaks. Converting the file to UTF-8 once, cleanly, makes it readable everywhere and safe to edit, translate, compare or merge.
Everything happens inside your browser using the built-in TextDecoder and TextEncoder APIs. Your files are never uploaded, which matters when you are working on an unreleased film, a client's script or any material under embargo. You can convert a whole batch at once and download them together as a ZIP.
Use the tool edit
SRT · VTT · ASS/SSA · SUB · TXT and more · Processed in your browser · You can add several at once
How to use Encoding Converter edit
Follow these steps to use the tool:
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Add your files
Drop one or more subtitle or text files. Everything stays on your device.
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Check the detected encoding
Each file is auto-detected. Override the source encoding manually if a file still looks garbled.
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Pick the target
Choose UTF-8 (the safe default), UTF-8 with BOM, or UTF-16, and optionally normalise line endings.
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Convert & download
Download a single converted file, or a ZIP when you convert several at once.
Frequently asked questions edit
Use cases edit
A downloaded SRT shows "é" instead of "é". Pick the right source encoding, confirm the preview looks correct, and export clean UTF-8.
Translation and subtitling tools expect UTF-8. Convert source files first so accented characters and non-Latin scripts survive the round trip.
A folder of subtitles from different sources in different encodings can be normalised to UTF-8 in one pass and downloaded as a ZIP.
A file authored on Windows (CRLF) misbehaves in a Unix tool. Convert the line endings to LF while you are re-encoding.
Old TXT, CSV or notes saved in a regional codepage become universally readable once converted to UTF-8.
How it works edit
When you add a file, the tool reads its raw bytes (not text) into memory. It first looks for a byte-order mark, a short invisible signature at the very start of some files that explicitly declares UTF-8, UTF-16 LE or UTF-16 BE. If a BOM is present, the encoding is known with certainty.
If there is no BOM, the tool attempts a strict UTF-8 decode. Valid UTF-8 has a very specific byte structure, so if the decode succeeds without error the file is almost certainly UTF-8. If strict decoding fails, the tool falls back to Windows-1252, the most common legacy encoding for European text, and shows you the result so you can judge it. You can override the source encoding at any time from a list of Unicode, Western, Central and Eastern European, Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, and East-Asian encodings, with a live preview that updates instantly.
Output is built byte by byte. For UTF-8 the tool uses the standard encoder; for UTF-8 with BOM it prepends the three-byte marker; for UTF-16 LE it writes the BOM and then two bytes per character. If you asked to normalise line endings, it rewrites every line break to LF or CRLF before encoding. The result is handed to you as a download, so the bytes on disk are exactly what you chose.
Tips and best practices edit
- Watch the preview. The fastest way to find the right source encoding for a garbled file is to change the source dropdown until the preview reads correctly, then convert.
- UTF-8 without a BOM is the right choice for almost everything today, web, modern players and editors all expect it. Only add a BOM if a specific older program demands it.
- If accented characters look fine but you still have problems, the issue may be line endings rather than encoding, try switching those to LF or CRLF.
- Convert a whole folder at once by selecting multiple files; the tool bundles the results into a single ZIP.
- The tool treats input purely as text, so subtitle timing lines and tags are preserved exactly, only the byte encoding changes.
Common mistakes edit
Legacy encodings overlap, so a wrong guess can look almost right. Always confirm with the live preview before converting, especially for Cyrillic, Greek and Turkish text.
A UTF-8 BOM can confuse some parsers, shell scripts and older players, making a stray character appear at the start of the file. Leave the BOM off unless something specifically requires it.
Plain English text is identical in UTF-8 and most legacy encodings, so a file can look correct until the first accented character. Convert proactively if the file came from an unknown source.
Converting an already-UTF-8 file as if it were Windows-1252 will corrupt it. If the preview under auto-detect already looks perfect, the file is likely fine, convert only if you need a BOM or a line-ending change.
Comparison edit
How browser-based encoding conversion compares to common alternatives:
| Aspect | ToolzPedia (browser) | Text editor "save as" | Command line (iconv) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy | File never leaves your device | Local | Local |
| Auto-detection | BOM + UTF-8 probe + fallback | Varies, often manual | None, you must know the source |
| Batch conversion | Many files to one ZIP | One file at a time | Yes, with scripting |
| Live preview | Yes, before you commit | Only after opening | No |
| Ease of use | No install, no commands | Easy but per-file | Powerful but technical |
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See also edit
- All utilities on ToolzPedia
- All tools, every utility in the encyclopedia
- Tutorials and guides related to utilities
- Report a bug or request a feature