diff --git a/wled00/src/font/codepages.h b/wled00/src/font/codepages.h
index 829fcf0f..d4d1badd 100644
--- a/wled00/src/font/codepages.h
+++ b/wled00/src/font/codepages.h
@@ -2,14 +2,16 @@
 #define WLED_CODEPAGES_H
 #include <stdlib.h> // needed to get uint16_t definition
 
-// translates unicode UTF-8 "character code" into 2-byte "code point" (reduced UTF-16)
-uint16_t unicodeToWchar16(const char* utf8, size_t maxLen);     // unicodetool.cpp
+// UTF‑8 → reduced UTF‑16 decoding
+// translates the next unicode UTF-8 item into a 2-byte "code point"
+// return "•" in case of input errors, and for unsupported/invalid UTF-8
+uint16_t unicodeToWchar16(const unsigned char* utf8, size_t maxLen);           // unicodetool.cpp
 
 // returns a pointer to the next unicode item - can be used to "advance" conversion after unicodeToWchar16()
 // return nullptr at end of input
-const char* nextUnicode(const char* utf8, size_t maxLen);      // unicodetool.cpp
+const unsigned char* nextUnicode(const unsigned char* utf8, size_t maxLen);    // unicodetool.cpp
 
 // translates unicode 2-byte (UTF-16) "code point" into corresponding character in codepage 437 (IBM PC aka PC-8)
-uint16_t wchar16ToCodepage437(uint16_t wideChar);              // codepage437.cpp
+uint16_t wchar16ToCodepage437(uint16_t wideChar);                              // codepage437.cpp
 
 #endif
diff --git a/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp b/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp
index 05b86e47..a0d63ce4 100644
--- a/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp
+++ b/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp
@@ -2,23 +2,67 @@
 
 #include "codepages.h"
 #include <string.h>
+#include <algorithm>  // adds std::min / std::max
+using namespace std;  // I don't want to write std::min
 
-// translates the next unicode UTF-8 item to 2-byte "code points" (reduced UTF-16)
-uint16_t unicodeToWchar16(const char* utf8, size_t maxLen) {
-  // TODO: implement proper UTF‑8 → reduced UTF‑16 decoding
-  (void)utf8;
-  (void)maxLen;
-  return 0;  // sentinel: "no character"
+// Helper to validate continuation byte
+static inline bool isValidContinuation(unsigned char byte) {
+  return (byte & 0b11000000) == 0b10000000;
+}
+
+// UTF‑8 → reduced UTF‑16 decoding
+// translates the next unicode UTF-8 item into a 2-byte "code point"
+uint16_t unicodeToWchar16(const unsigned char* utf8, size_t maxLen) {
+  if (!utf8 || (maxLen < 1) || *utf8 == '\0') return 0; // sanity check
+
+  size_t length = strlen((const char*) utf8);
+  length = min(length, maxLen);
+  if (length < 1) return 0;            // sanity check
+
+  unsigned char ch0 = *utf8;           // get leading character
+  uint32_t codepoint = ch0;            // our resulting UTF-16 code point
+
+  if (ch0 <= 0x7F) return ch0;                    // 1-byte ASCII (0x00-0x7F)
+  if ((ch0 & 0b11100000) == 0b11000000) {         // 2-byte sequence (0xC2-0xDF)
+    // uses lower 5 bits of the first byte, and lower 6 bits from the next byte
+    if (length < 2 || !isValidContinuation(utf8[1])) return 0x2022; // • for malformed
+    codepoint = ((ch0 & 0b00011111) << 6) | (utf8[1] & 0b00111111);
+    if (codepoint < 0x80) return 0x2022; // Reject overlong encodings (must be >= 0x80)
+    return uint16_t(codepoint);
+  } else {
+    if ((ch0 & 0b11110000) == 0b11100000) {       // 3-byte sequence (0xE0-0xEF)
+      // uses lower 4 bits of the first byte, and lower 6 bits from the next byte, lower 6 bits from third byte
+      if (length < 3 || !isValidContinuation(utf8[1]) || !isValidContinuation(utf8[2])) return 0x2022; // • for malformed
+      codepoint = ((ch0 & 0b00001111) << 12) | ((utf8[1] & 0b00111111) << 6) | (utf8[2] & 0b00111111);
+      if (codepoint < 0x800) return 0x2022;                          // Reject overlong encodings (must be >= 0x800)
+      if (codepoint >= 0xD800 && codepoint <= 0xDFFF) return 0x2022; // Reject UTF-16 surrogate pairs (U+D800..U+DFFF)
+      if (codepoint >= 0x010000) codepoint = 0x2022;                 // result exceeds uint16_t => return • for "unknown"
+      return uint16_t(codepoint);
+    }
+  }
+  // 4-byte sequence or invalid lead byte - since we only support up to 0xFFFF, return error marker
+  return 0x2022; // • for unsupported/invalid
 }
 
 // returns a pointer to the next unicode item - can be used to "advance" conversion after unicodeToWchar16()
 // return nullptr at end of input
-const char* nextUnicode(const char* utf8, size_t maxLen) {
-  (void)maxLen;
-  if (!utf8) return nullptr;
-  if (strlen(utf8)>0) return utf8+1;
-  else return  nullptr; // last code read
-  // TODO: implement proper UTF‑8 iteration
+const unsigned char* nextUnicode(const unsigned char* utf8, size_t maxLen) {
+  if ((!utf8) || (maxLen < 1) || (*utf8 == 0)) return nullptr; // sanity check
+  size_t length = strlen((const char*) utf8); // safe, because utf8 is a C string with proper NUL termination
+  length = min(length, maxLen);
+  if (length < 1) return nullptr;      // we are at end of input
+
+  unsigned char ch0 = *utf8;           // get leading character
+  size_t codeLength = 1;               // default:  1-byte ASCII
+  if (ch0 >= 0x80) {
+    if      ((ch0 & 0b11100000) == 0b11000000) codeLength = 2; // 2-byte sequence
+    else if ((ch0 & 0b11110000) == 0b11100000) codeLength = 3; // 3-byte sequence
+    else if ((ch0 & 0b11111000) == 0b11110000) codeLength = 4; // 4-byte sequence (not fully supported but we need to skip it)
+    else codeLength = 1; // Skip single invalid byte and try to resync
+  }
+
+  if (length < codeLength) return nullptr; // Check if we have enough bytes
+  else return utf8 + codeLength; // success: advance stream
 }
 
 #endif