Slug to Text
Turn a URL slug back into a readable title.
HTML Entity Encoder
Escape text so it displays literally in HTML.
Quick Tool Overview
The HTML Entity Encoder escapes the characters that would otherwise be parsed as markup, so text displays literally. The default is the five characters that genuinely need it, which keeps the output readable rather than turning the whole string into entities.
- What it does
- Escapes characters into HTML entities
- You give it
- A code sample, snippet or user-supplied text
- You get back
- Escaped markup that displays literally
- Best for
- Code samples, tutorials and email templates
About the HTML Entity Encoder
Putting a less-than sign in an HTML page starts a tag. Putting an ampersand starts an entity. To display those characters literally — in a code sample, a tutorial or any user-supplied text — they have to be escaped into entities first.
Five characters genuinely need escaping in HTML: the ampersand, the two angle brackets, the double quote and the single quote. This tool escapes those by default, which is the correct minimum and keeps the output readable. It can also escape every non-ASCII character into a named or numeric entity, which is occasionally needed for email templates and older systems that mangle UTF-8. Named entities are used where one exists, since © is far more readable than ©.
Key features of the HTML Entity Encoder
The correct minimum by default
Ampersand, both angle brackets and both quote characters — the five that actually need escaping.
Named entities where they exist
© instead of ©, because readable source is worth more than a byte or two.
Full escaping when needed
Escape every non-ASCII character for the older systems that mangle UTF-8.
Numeric fallback
Characters with no named entity get their numeric form automatically.
Honest about XSS
The page says plainly that context-aware framework escaping is the security answer, not this tool.
How to use the HTML Entity Encoder
-
1
Paste your text
A code sample, a tutorial snippet or any text going into HTML.
-
2
Choose how much to escape
The five required characters, or everything outside ASCII as well.
-
3
Pick named or numeric entities
Named entities are more readable; numeric ones work everywhere.
-
4
Copy the escaped markup
Paste it straight into your page and it will display literally.
Frequently asked questions
The ampersand and the two angle brackets always. Inside an attribute value, the quote character used to delimit it must be escaped too. Escaping all five is the safe default.
For text placed in an element body, escaping these characters is the correct defence. Inside attributes, URLs or script blocks the rules differ, so use your framework's context-aware escaping rather than treating this as a security tool.
Usually not. A page declared as UTF-8 handles them natively and the source stays readable. Escape them only when the text must survive a system that mangles UTF-8, such as some older email pipelines.
Both represent an apostrophe. ' is defined in HTML5 and XML but not in HTML4, so the numeric ' is the safer choice in older contexts. This tool uses the numeric form by default for that reason.
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