# Unicode Normalizer — Accent Strip & Transliterate (`hipersoft/unicode-normalizer`) Actor

Normalize text: apply Unicode NFC/NFKC, strip accents and diacritics, transliterate to ASCII and fix garbled mojibake. For clean matching, dedupe and slugs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hipersoft/unicode-normalizer.md
- **Developed by:** [hiper soft](https://apify.com/hipersoft) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.0005 / text normalized

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Unicode Normalizer — Accent Strip, Transliterate & Fix Mojibake

**Normalize text at scale** — apply Unicode NFC/NFKC, strip accents and diacritics, transliterate to ASCII, and repair garbled "mojibake" text. Clean strings for reliable matching, deduplication, slugs and imports.

![Unicode Normalizer input — configure the options in the Apify Console](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/SUfvnaFLd9z9eBCtV/records/unicode-normalizer-input.png)

### What it does

- Applies **Unicode normalization** (NFC / NFD / NFKC / NFKD).
- **Strips accents** (café → cafe) and transliterates special letters (ß → ss, æ → ae).
- Optionally forces pure **ASCII** and **lowercases**.
- **Fixes mojibake** — text where UTF-8 was mis-decoded as Latin-1 (é → é).

### Use cases

- **Data matching / dedupe** — normalize names and addresses so variants match.
- **Slugs & IDs** — produce clean ASCII keys from accented text.
- **Import cleanup** — repair garbled characters from legacy exports.

### Input

```json
{ "texts": ["Café des Élèves", "Größe"], "form": "NFC", "stripAccents": true, "toAscii": false, "fixMojibake": false }
```

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `texts` | array | Strings to normalize. |
| `form` | string | `NFC`, `NFD`, `NFKC` or `NFKD`. |
| `stripAccents` | boolean | Remove diacritics. |
| `toAscii` | boolean | Transliterate and drop non-ASCII. |
| `fixMojibake` | boolean | Repair UTF-8-as-Latin-1 garbling. |
| `lowercase` | boolean | Lowercase the output. |

### Output

![Unicode Normalizer output — the results as a clean dataset](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/SUfvnaFLd9z9eBCtV/records/unicode-normalizer-output.png)

```json
{ "original": "Café des Élèves", "normalized": "Cafe des Eleves", "ascii": "Cafe des Eleves", "changed": true }
```

#### Output schema

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `original` | string | The input string. |
| `normalized` | string | Normalized text (per your options). |
| `ascii` | string | Pure-ASCII version. |

### FAQ

**What's mojibake?** Text like `é` that appears when UTF-8 is read as Latin-1 — enable `fixMojibake` to repair it.

**Can I automate it?** Yes — via [integrations on the Apify platform](https://apify.com/integrations) and the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2).

### Notes

Original clean-room implementation.

# Actor input Schema

## `texts` (type: `array`):

One or more strings to normalize.

## `form` (type: `string`):

Unicode normalization form to apply.

## `stripAccents` (type: `boolean`):

Remove diacritics (café → cafe).

## `toAscii` (type: `boolean`):

Transliterate and drop any remaining non-ASCII characters.

## `fixMojibake` (type: `boolean`):

Repair text where UTF-8 was mis-decoded as Latin-1 (é, ’).

## `lowercase` (type: `boolean`):

Lowercase the normalized output.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "texts": [
    "Café des Élèves — “Größe”",
    "Ĥéllo Wörld",
    "Mojibakeé test"
  ],
  "form": "NFC",
  "stripAccents": true,
  "toAscii": false,
  "fixMojibake": false,
  "lowercase": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

The results as dataset items.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "texts": [
        "Café des Élèves — “Größe”",
        "Ĥéllo Wörld",
        "Mojibakeé test"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hipersoft/unicode-normalizer").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "texts": [
        "Café des Élèves — “Größe”",
        "Ĥéllo Wörld",
        "Mojibakeé test",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hipersoft/unicode-normalizer").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "texts": [
    "Café des Élèves — “Größe”",
    "Ĥéllo Wörld",
    "Mojibakeé test"
  ]
}' |
apify call hipersoft/unicode-normalizer --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hipersoft/unicode-normalizer"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ORanP8b7cKyKHZgO9/builds/WKaLumLbsasQgqV87/openapi.json