Why Word and Character Counts Differ Between Tools
A word count or character limit is meaningful only when you know what the software counts. Different applications can use different units.
Words need boundaries
For English, spaces are a useful starting point, but punctuation, contractions and hyphens complicate a simple split. Chinese and Thai also need language-specific segmentation. MRKCAL Tools uses the browser's Intl.Segmenter where available and offers an explicit text-language selection. A fallback is labeled when that API is unavailable.
Visible symbols can contain several code points
A family emoji can be displayed as one combined symbol while containing several underlying code points. A letter and a combining accent can also appear as one visible character. Our character result counts grapheme clusters where supported; it is different from JavaScript's UTF-16 string length. The accompanying sample includes both cases.
Spaces and paragraphs need definitions too
The without-spaces count excludes whitespace-only grapheme clusters. Paragraphs in this tool are separated by blank lines, so a single line break does not automatically create a new paragraph. Reading time is an estimate; the English option states its 200-words-per-minute assumption instead of silently applying it to every language.
Use the destination's rule for a submission
An assignment platform or social service can enforce its own length calculation. Use that service's counter as the final check when its limit is binding. For search-title display length, MRKCAL Store's SEO Title Length Checker addresses a different task from full-document counting. Text Compare can help review what changed between two drafts.
Try the samples
These original samples were created for this site. Download a copy and try the related tool. Some samples contain English text so that the same input can be compared across interfaces.
sample-text.txt ↓Continue with a related tool
Questions or a correction? mrkcal@mrkcal.com