diff --git a/wled00/FX.h b/wled00/FX.h
index 42897cb4..ee39887f 100644
--- a/wled00/FX.h
+++ b/wled00/FX.h
@@ -827,7 +827,8 @@ typedef struct Segment {
     void drawCharacter(unsigned char chr, int16_t x, int16_t y, uint8_t w, uint8_t h, uint32_t color, uint32_t col2 = 0, bool drawShadow = false);
     inline void drawCharacter(unsigned char chr, int16_t x, int16_t y, uint8_t w, uint8_t h, CRGB c, CRGB c2) { drawCharacter(chr, x, y, w, h, uint32_t(c) & 0x00FFFFFF, uint32_t(c2) & 0x00FFFFFF); } // automatic inline
     // unicode-aware wrapper for drawCharacter(), to be called from  mode_2Dscrollingtext()
-    void drawText(const unsigned char* Text, int16_t x, int16_t y, uint8_t w, uint8_t h, uint32_t color, uint32_t col2 = 0, bool drawShadow = false);
+    void drawText(const unsigned char* text, size_t maxLen, int16_t x, int16_t y, uint8_t w, uint8_t h, uint32_t color, uint32_t col2 = 0, bool drawShadow = false);
+    // #if !WLED_ENABLE_FULL_FONTS => drawText() will fall back to just forwarding each char to drawCharacter()
 
     void wu_pixel(uint32_t x, uint32_t y, CRGB c);
     //void blur1d(fract8 blur_amount); // blur all rows in 1 dimension
diff --git a/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp b/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp
index a0d63ce4..37bae2a4 100644
--- a/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp
+++ b/wled00/src/font/unicodetool.cpp
@@ -53,7 +53,9 @@ const unsigned char* nextUnicode(const unsigned char* utf8, size_t 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
+
+  // Calculate code length based on lead byte
+  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
@@ -61,8 +63,13 @@ const unsigned char* nextUnicode(const unsigned char* utf8, size_t maxLen) {
     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
+  // handle invalid continuation bytes
+  if ((codeLength >= 2) && (length < 2 || !isValidContinuation(utf8[1]))) codeLength = 1; // try to re-sync
+  if ((codeLength >= 3) && (length < 3 || !isValidContinuation(utf8[2]))) codeLength = 1; // try to re-sync
+  if ((codeLength >= 4) && (length < 4 || !isValidContinuation(utf8[3]))) codeLength = 1; // try to re-sync
+
+  if (length < codeLength) return nullptr;                     // Check if we have enough bytes
+  else return utf8 + codeLength;                               // success: advance stream
 }
 
 #endif