The Crucial Role of Text in the Online World

Without a doubt, text is a crucial element on the internet. It's the first letter in "HTTP" and the only one in "HTML". Text is present in almost every website, appearing in URLs, marketing materials, product reviews, viral tweets, and blog posts. While it may seem like a basic component, it actually requires a well-organized system to be displayed on web browsers. In this article, we will explore one essential technology that is central to text on the web - UTF-8.

Before delving into the details, it's essential to have a basic understanding of HTML and be open to exploring some light computer science.

What is UTF-8?

UTF-8 stands for "Unicode Transformation Format - 8 bits". This may not hold much meaning for us now, but let's start with the basics to gain a clearer understanding.

Binary - The Language of Computers

Computers use a binary system to store information. This means that all data is represented by sequences of 1s and 0s. The smallest unit in binary is a bit, which can either be a 1 or 0. The next unit is a byte, which consists of 8 bits. For example, a byte may be represented as "01101011".

Text is just one type of data that computers store and process. Each character in text is represented by a string of bits, and these strings are combined to form words, sentences, paragraphs, and even entire novels.

ASCII - Converting Symbols to Binary

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is one of the earliest standardized encoding systems for text. Its purpose is to convert characters from human languages into binary sequences that can be understood by computers.

The ASCII library includes all upper- and lower-case letters in the Latin alphabet, digits from 0 to 9, and common symbols like /, !, and?. Each character is assigned a unique three-digit code and a unique byte. Here are some examples of ASCII characters with their corresponding codes and bytes:

• Character: A           ASCII Code: 065           BYTE: 01000001
• Character: a            ASCII Code: 097           BYTE: 01100001
• Character: B           ASCII Code: 066           BYTE: 01000010
• Character: b            ASCII Code: 098           BYTE: 01100010
• Character: Z           ASCII Code: 090           BYTE: 01011010
• Character: z            ASCII Code: 122           BYTE: 01111010
• Character: 0           ASCII Code: 048        The Importance of Unicode and UTF-8 Encoding for Web Design
• The first 128 characters in the Unicode library, or ASCII characters, are represented as one byte. For characters beyond this range, they are encoded into two, three, or four-byte units.
• To better understand this, let's take a look at the character table with the addition of UTF-8 binary encoding for each character. Notice how some characters only require one byte, while others need more.
• • CharacterA - Code point U+0041, UTF-8 binary encoding 01000001
  • Charactera - Code point U+0061, UTF-8 binary encoding 01100001
  • Character0 - Code point U+0030, UTF-8 binary encoding 00110000
  • Character9 - Code point U+0039, UTF-8 binary encoding 00111001
  • Character! - Code point U+0021, UTF-8 binary encoding 00100001
  • Character� - Code point U+00D8, UTF-8 binary encoding 11000011 10011000
  • Character_ - Code point U+0683, UTF-8 binary encoding 11011010 10000011
  • Character_ - Code point U+0C9A, UTF-8 binary encoding 11100000 10110010 10011010
  • Character__ - Code point U+2070E, UTF-8 binary encoding 11110000 10100000 10011100 10001110
  • Character__ - Code point U+1F601, UTF-8 binary encoding 11110000 10011111 10011000 10000001
• Understanding the Most Common Encoding Method - UTF-8
• Today, UTF-8 is the most widely used encoding method on the internet and is the default character set for HTML5. In fact, more than 95% of all websites, including yours, use UTF-8 to store characters. This is because other popular data transfer methods, such as XML and JSON, also follow UTF-8 standards.
• However, UTF-8 is not the only encoding method for Unicode characters. There is also UTF-16, which uses a two or four-byte binary string to represent characters. The main difference between UTF-8 and UTF-16 lies in the number of bytes needed to represent a character. While UTF-16 may be more suitable for certain languages, UTF-8 is generally preferred for its efficiency in storing text containing any type of character.
• Tips for Decoding the World of UTF-8 Encoding
• To summarize what we have learned so far:
• • Computers store data, including text characters, as binary values (1s and 0s).
  • Early encoding methods, like ASCII, had limitations in representing non-Latin characters and numbers in binary.
  • UTF-8 is a popular Unicode character encoding method that converts a code point into a binary string and vice versa.
  • It is the most widely used encoding method on the internet due to its efficiency in storing characters.
  • UTF-16 is another method, but is less effective for storing text files.
• If you notice your website taking up excessive space or displaying strange characters like _s and �s, it may be time to utilize your newfound knowledge of UTF-8. In the world of web design, understanding UTF-8 is crucial in ensuring your content is stored and displayed accurately for all users.