About

This tool performs a lossy conversion of UTF-8 text into the ASCII character set (0-127). It is designed to handle the "ASCII Folding" process used in search engines and legacy database migrations.

Unlike simple character stripping, this converter attempts to preserve meaning by mapping complex characters to their nearest Latin equivalents. For example, the ligature æ becomes ae, and the currency symbol € becomes EUR. This process ensures that data remains readable even in environments that strictly enforce the 7-bit ASCII standard.

Formulas

The core algorithm follows a multi-stage reduction process:

f(S) = Filter(Decompose(Map(S)))

Where:

Map applies specific dictionary replacements (e.g., œ → oe).
Decompose splits characters (NFD Normalization): é → e + ´.
Filter removes non-ASCII range U > 127.

Reference Data

Category	Unicode Input	ASCII Output	Description
Ligatures	æ, œ, ß	ae, oe, ss	Expands joined letters into separate characters.
Diacritics	é, ñ, ü	e, n, u	Strips accent marks while keeping the base letter.
Smart Punctuation	", ", -	", ", -	Standardizes curly quotes and dashes to typewriter equivalents.
Currency	€, £, ¥	EUR, GBP, YEN	Transliterates common symbols to ISO codes (optional).
Enclosed	①, Ⓐ	1, A	Unwraps circled alphanumeric characters.

Frequently Asked Questions

Since Emojis have no direct ASCII text equivalent, they are treated as "Unknown" characters. In "Strict Mode", they are removed. In "Maintain Mode", they remain in the text, though the result will no longer be strict ASCII.

A simple regex like `/[^\x00-\x7F]/g` blindly deletes characters. This tool "folds" them, converting "Jürgen" to "Jurgen" instead of "Jrgen", preserving the searchability and readability of names and words.

No. This is a lossy process. Information such as accents (semantic distinction between "résumé" and 'resume') is permanently discarded to ensure compatibility.

This tool focuses on Latin-based scripts and symbols. Complete transliteration of logographic languages (like Mandarin to Pinyin) requires heavy libraries not suitable for this lightweight utility.