Fullwidth Halfwidth Converter

What are Fullwidth and Halfwidth Characters?

Fullwidth characters (全角, zenkaku) occupy exactly twice the horizontal width of standard Latin characters. They originated in East Asian computing where CJK ideographs needed more horizontal space. Halfwidth characters (半角, hankaku) are the standard single-width characters used in Western typography.

Common Use Cases

Data Entry: Normalize form data entered with Japanese IME
Spreadsheets: Convert fullwidth numbers for Excel calculations
Programming: Fix code accidentally typed in fullwidth mode
Database Cleaning: Standardize mixed fullwidth/halfwidth data

How It Works

The conversion uses Unicode standard mapping: fullwidth characters in the range FF01-FF5E map directly to ASCII characters 21-7E with an offset of 0xFEE0. Fullwidth space (U+3000) maps to regular space (U+0020).

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this convert Japanese Kana characters?

No, this tool converts Latin letters, numbers, and symbols only. Japanese Katakana halfwidth conversion is more complex and not included in this basic converter.

Why do fullwidth characters exist?

They were created so that Latin characters and numbers could align properly with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters which are naturally monospaced and twice as wide.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between fullwidth and halfwidth?

Fullwidth characters (Japanese/Chinese "zenkaku") occupy two columns and are used in CJK typography; halfwidth ("hankaku") are standard-width. This tool converts between them.

Does it convert Japanese text correctly?

Yes — hiragana/katakana punctuation, digits, letters and special chars are handled with the correct Unicode ranges.

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