Quoted-printable decoder and encoder, with =?UTF-8?Q?…?= subjects
In short: Decodes quoted-printable bodies and RFC 2047 encoded-word headers in the part's own charset, flags broken escapes and lines over 76 characters, and encodes text or a subject the other way. Limit: It decodes one part at a time; for a whole multipart message use the EML viewer.
Quoted-printable is how email carries non-ASCII text through servers that only pass 7-bit lines: é becomes =C3=A9 in UTF-8, and a line ending in = continues on the next. Paste the encoded text, a whole MIME part or an =?UTF-8?Q?…?= subject to decode it in the right charset, or switch to Encode to produce it.
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Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Sample result
"caf=C3=A9 =E2=80=94" decodes to "café —" in UTF-8, read from the part's own Content-Type.
- Decoded
- Your café order is confirmed —
- =XX escapes
- 10
- Soft line breaks
- 1
What this means for you
The raw message is readable again, in the charset it was sent in.
- Bodies and =?UTF-8?Q?…?= subjects
- 12 charsets, or the part's own
- Broken escapes and long lines flagged
- Encodes text and subjects too
- MIME
- Encoding
- Raw email
By SimpleVerifier Team · Last updated · Runs in your browser; nothing you paste is sent to us
How do I decode quoted-printable text?
- Copy the encoded part from the raw message (in Gmail: ⋮, Show original). Include its Content-Type and Content-Transfer-Encoding lines if you can, so the charset is read from them.
- Paste it and press Decode. Without headers, pick the charset; UTF-8 is right for most mail sent since 2010.
- Copy or download the decoded text. If it is HTML, open the whole .eml file in the EML viewer to see it rendered.
- To go the other way, choose Encode a body or Encode a subject, type the text and copy the encoded result.
Example
- You enter
- A MIME part with
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"andContent-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable, containingJos=C3=A9,caf=C3=A9,=E2=80=94,we=E2=80=99lland one soft line break. - You get
- "Hi José, Your café order is confirmed — we’ll send the receipt to [email protected] once it ships." Read as utf-8 from the pasted Content-Type, with 10 =XX escapes and 1 soft line break decoded.
caf=E9with Windows-1252 chosen also gives "café";=?UTF-8?Q?Caf=C3=A9_order?=gives "Café order". - Limits
- Runs in your browser; one part at a time. Encoding produces UTF-8.
What is quoted-printable encoding?
A content transfer encoding defined in RFC 2045, section 6.7. Printable ASCII stays as it is, so English text remains readable; every other byte becomes = and two hex digits, and = itself becomes =3D. Lines are limited to 76 characters, and a line that ends in = is a soft line break: it was only split for transport and is joined back on decoding. That's why raw emails show caf=C3=A9, a stray =20 before a line break, or words cut in half with an =.
The escapes are bytes, not characters, so the charset decides what they mean. =C3=A9 is é in UTF-8, while =E9 is é in Windows-1252 or ISO-8859-1. Decoding with the wrong charset gives the familiar é or � mojibake; the CSV encoding fixer repairs the same problem in spreadsheets.
How do I decode =?UTF-8?Q?…?= in a subject line?
Headers can't carry 8-bit text, so RFC 2047 wraps it in encoded words: =?charset?Q?text?= for a quoted-printable variant in which _ means a space, or =?charset?B?text?= for base64. Paste the Subject or From line and both forms are decoded; adjacent encoded words are joined as the RFC says. Encode a subject does the reverse, splitting long subjects into encoded words of at most 75 characters without cutting a character in two.
If you're reading raw source to work out why a message was filtered, the email header analyzer reads the authentication results and hops from the same headers, and the EML viewer decodes a whole saved message, every part and attachment, in one go.
Quoted-printable or base64?
| Quoted-printable | Base64 | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Mostly ASCII text with some accents | Binary files and non-Latin text |
| Readable when raw | Mostly | No |
| Size | Grows with every non-ASCII byte (3 characters each) | About 33% larger, always |
| Header form | =?UTF-8?Q?…?= | =?UTF-8?B?…?= |
Who uses this tool, and for what?
- Developers
- Read the body of a raw message or a bounce your app received, in the charset it was sent in.
- Deliverability teams
- Decode the subject and body of a message from Show original while working out why it was filtered.
- Support teams
- Make sense of a customer's forwarded raw email full of =C3=A9 and soft line breaks.
What can’t this tool tell you?
- It decodes one part at a time; for a whole multipart message use the EML viewer.
- Encoding produces UTF-8 only.
- Without a pasted Content-Type, the charset you pick is assumed; a wrong pick shows as mojibake, not an error.
Common questions
- What does =20 mean in an email?
- A space. =20 is the hex code of the space character; quoted-printable encodes a space when it falls at the end of a line, so mail servers don't strip it.
- Why are there = signs at the end of lines in my email?
- They're soft line breaks. Quoted-printable limits lines to 76 characters, so long lines are split with a trailing =. Decoding removes the = and joins the line back together.
- Why does the decoded text show é or ’?
- UTF-8 bytes decoded as Windows-1252. Pick UTF-8 as the charset, or paste the part with its Content-Type line so the right charset is read from it.
- Can it decode base64 parts too?
- Yes, when the pasted part includes Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64. Encoded-word subjects in either Q or B form are decoded without headers.
- Is my email uploaded?
- No. Decoding and encoding run in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
Sources
Authentication and capacity are half of deliverability.
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