Remove Accents/Diacritics
Instantly convert accented characters to plain ASCII.
About the Remove Accents/Diacritics Tool
We built this tool to provide a simple and reliable way to "normalize" text by removing accents and diacritics. These are the special marks above or below letters, like in `é`, `à`, and `ü`. While these characters are essential in many languages, they can sometimes cause problems in software systems, URLs, or databases that only expect plain ASCII characters. Our tool instantly converts all such characters to their simple English alphabet equivalents.
To make this the best tool for the job, we added extra options for case conversion and handling of other special characters (like the German `ß`). The entire process runs securely in your browser, so your text is never sent to our servers. It's a fast, private, and powerful way to clean and standardize your text data.
How to Use the Tool
- Paste your text containing accented characters into the "Input Text" editor on the left.
- The cleaned text will appear in the "Cleaned Output" editor on the right, updating in real-time.
- Use the Options to control the final output:
- Choose a Case Option to convert the text to lowercase or uppercase.
- Toggle the Special Characters option to also convert characters like `ß` to `ss`.
- Use the buttons to copy or download your cleaned text.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a diacritic?
A diacritic is a mark, point, or sign added or attached to a letter to distinguish it from another of similar form, to give it a particular phonetic value, or to indicate stress. Common examples include the acute accent (´) in `é`, the cedilla (¸) in `ç`, and the umlaut (¨) in `ü`.
Why would I need to remove accents from text?
Removing accents is a common step in "text normalization." It's often required when processing data for systems that don't support special characters, creating URL-friendly "slugs" from a title, or preparing text for a search index where you want "resume" and "résumé" to be treated as the same word.
How does this tool work?
This tool uses the standard JavaScript `normalize('NFD')` method. This method separates a character from its accent mark into two separate Unicode characters. We can then use a regular expression to remove just the accent marks, leaving the original base letter behind. This is the most reliable way to handle all types of diacritics.
Will this tool remove emojis or other symbols?
No. This tool is specifically designed to remove diacritical marks attached to letters. It will not remove standalone symbols (like `@`, `#`, `$`) or emojis. For that functionality, you can use our "Remove Punctuation" tool.
Is the text I enter private?
Yes. All text processing happens directly in your web browser on your computer. Your data is never sent to our servers, so you can safely use this tool with sensitive information.