🔤 Hex to ASCII Text Converter
Professional Hexadecimal to Text Converter | ASCII Encoder & Decoder
📋 Common ASCII Character Reference (Printable)
| Char | Decimal | Hex | Char | Decimal | Hex | Char | Decimal | Hex | Char | Decimal | Hex |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space | 32 | 20 | ! | 33 | 21 | " | 34 | 22 | # | 35 | 23 |
| 0 | 48 | 30 | 1 | 49 | 31 | 2 | 50 | 32 | 9 | 57 | 39 |
| A | 65 | 41 | B | 66 | 42 | C | 67 | 43 | Z | 90 | 5A |
| a | 97 | 61 | b | 98 | 62 | c | 99 | 63 | z | 122 | 7A |
📚 Complete Guide to Hex to ASCII Conversion
Understanding ASCII and Hexadecimal Encoding
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a 7-bit character encoding standard developed in 1963. It assigns numeric codes (0-127) to letters, digits, punctuation, and control characters, enabling computers to represent and exchange text. Extended ASCII uses 8 bits (0-255) but standard ASCII remains dominant for English text. Character ranges: Control characters (0-31): Non-printable codes for device control, formatting (NUL, LF, CR, ESC, etc.). Printable characters (32-126): Space, digits 0-9 (codes 48-57), uppercase A-Z (65-90), lowercase a-z (97-122), punctuation and symbols (!@#$%^&*). Delete (127): DEL control character. Mathematical representation: Each ASCII character maps to decimal code \( c \) where \( 0 \leq c \leq 127 \). Example: Letter 'A' = decimal 65 = binary 01000001 = hexadecimal 41. Hexadecimal representation of ASCII: Each ASCII character requires 2 hexadecimal digits (1 byte = 8 bits = 2 hex digits). Range: 00-7F for standard ASCII, 00-FF for extended. Hex provides compact, readable format for character codes. Example: 'H' = 72₁₀ = 48₁₆; 'e' = 101₁₀ = 65₁₆; 'l' = 108₁₀ = 6C₁₆; 'o' = 111₁₀ = 6F₁₆. String "Hello" = 48656C6C6F in hexadecimal. Why use hex encoding: (1) Data transmission: Binary data transmitted as hex text over protocols requiring text (HTTP, email, JSON). Prevents corruption from control characters. (2) Storage and display: Binary files (images, executables) viewed as hex in editors (hex dump format shows memory contents). (3) Debugging: Protocol analysis tools (Wireshark) display packet contents in hex for byte-level inspection. (4) Cryptography: Hash functions output hex strings (MD5, SHA-256). Encryption keys represented as hex. (5) URL encoding: Special characters encoded as %XX hex (space=%20, @=%40). (6) Programming: Escape sequences use hex (\x41 = 'A' in C/Python). Character literals: 0x48 = 'H'.
Hex to ASCII Conversion Method
Conversion algorithm: Split hexadecimal string into 2-character pairs, convert each pair to decimal, map to ASCII character. Formula: For hex pair \( h_1h_0 \), decimal value = \( h_1 \times 16 + h_0 \), then lookup ASCII character for that code. Step-by-step procedure: (1) Parse input: Remove spaces, colons, or other delimiters from hex string. Example: "48 65 6C 6C 6F" → "48656C6C6F". (2) Split into pairs: Divide into 2-character segments (each represents 1 byte). "48656C6C6F" → ["48", "65", "6C", "6C", "6F"]. (3) Convert each pair: Parse hex to decimal. 48₁₆ = 4×16 + 8 = 72₁₀. (4) Map to character: Lookup ASCII character for code. 72₁₀ = 'H'. (5) Concatenate: Combine all characters. Result: "Hello". Detailed Example 1: Convert 48656C6C6F to ASCII. Split: 48 | 65 | 6C | 6C | 6F. Conversions: 48₁₆ = 72₁₀ = 'H'; 65₁₆ = 101₁₀ = 'e'; 6C₁₆ = 108₁₀ = 'l'; 6C₁₆ = 108₁₀ = 'l'; 6F₁₆ = 111₁₀ = 'o'. Result: "Hello". Detailed Example 2: Convert 576F726C64 to ASCII. Split: 57 | 6F | 72 | 6C | 64. Conversions: 57₁₆ = 87₁₀ = 'W'; 6F₁₆ = 111₁₀ = 'o'; 72₁₆ = 114₁₀ = 'r'; 6C₁₆ = 108₁₀ = 'l'; 64₁₆ = 100₁₀ = 'd'. Result: "World". Detailed Example 3: Convert 41424320313233 to ASCII. Split: 41 | 42 | 43 | 20 | 31 | 32 | 33. Conversions: 41₁₆=65₁₀='A'; 42₁₆=66₁₀='B'; 43₁₆=67₁₀='C'; 20₁₆=32₁₀=' ' (space); 31₁₆=49₁₀='1'; 32₁₆=50₁₀='2'; 33₁₆=51₁₀='3'. Result: "ABC 123". Hex pair calculation details: Hex pair AB₁₆: First digit A = 10₁₀ (position value 16¹ = 16). Second digit B = 11₁₀ (position value 16⁰ = 1). Decimal = 10×16 + 11 = 160 + 11 = 171₁₀. ASCII 171 = « symbol (extended ASCII). Handling different formats: Spaced: "48 65 6C 6C 6F" (common in documentation). Colon-separated: "48:65:6C:6C:6F" (network notation). Continuous: "48656C6C6F" (compact storage). 0x prefix: "0x48 0x65 0x6C 0x6C 0x6F" (programming). All represent same text "Hello"—parser removes delimiters before conversion.
ASCII to Hex Conversion Method
Reverse process: Get ASCII code of each character, convert to 2-digit hexadecimal. Formula: For character c, get ASCII code \( a \) (decimal), convert to hex \( h = a_{16} \), pad to 2 digits. Step-by-step procedure: (1) Iterate characters: Process each character in string. (2) Get ASCII code: Lookup decimal value. Example: 'H' → 72₁₀. (3) Convert to hex: Divide by 16 repeatedly. 72 ÷ 16 = 4 r8 → 48₁₆. Or use direct conversion: 72₁₀ = 48₁₆. (4) Pad to 2 digits: Single hex digit gets leading zero. 'A' = 65₁₀ = 41₁₆ (already 2 digits). TAB = 9₁₀ = 09₁₆ (padded). (5) Concatenate: Join all hex pairs (optionally with separators). Detailed Example 1: Convert "Test" to hex. 'T' = 84₁₀ = 54₁₆; 'e' = 101₁₀ = 65₁₆; 's' = 115₁₀ = 73₁₆; 't' = 116₁₀ = 74₁₆. Result: 54657374 (no spaces) or 54 65 73 74 (spaced). Detailed Example 2: Convert "123" to hex. '1' = 49₁₀ = 31₁₆; '2' = 50₁₀ = 32₁₆; '3' = 51₁₀ = 33₁₆. Result: 313233. Note: Digits 0-9 have ASCII codes 48-57 (30-39 hex), not their numeric values. Detailed Example 3: Convert "A1" to hex (letter and digit). 'A' = 65₁₀ = 41₁₆; '1' = 49₁₀ = 31₁₆. Result: 4131. Control characters: Newline (\n) = 10₁₀ = 0A₁₆. Carriage return (\r) = 13₁₀ = 0D₁₆. Tab (\t) = 9₁₀ = 09₁₆. Windows line ending \r\n = 0D0A₁₆. Case sensitivity: Uppercase and lowercase have different codes. 'A' = 65₁₀ = 41₁₆ vs 'a' = 97₁₀ = 61₁₆. Difference always 32₁₀ = 20₁₆ (lowercase = uppercase + 32). Example: 'Z' = 90₁₀ = 5A₁₆; 'z' = 122₁₀ = 7A₁₆ (7A - 5A = 20₁₆ = 32₁₀).
ASCII Character Code Reference Table
| Category | Range (Dec) | Range (Hex) | Characters | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | 0-31 | 00-1F | Non-printable | NUL(0), LF(10=0A), CR(13=0D), ESC(27=1B) |
| Space | 32 | 20 | Space character | ' ' (visible as gap) |
| Symbols | 33-47 | 21-2F | Punctuation | ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / |
| Digits | 48-57 | 30-39 | 0-9 | '0'=48(30), '5'=53(35), '9'=57(39) |
| Symbols | 58-64 | 3A-40 | More punct. | : ; < = > ? @ |
| Uppercase | 65-90 | 41-5A | A-Z | 'A'=65(41), 'M'=77(4D), 'Z'=90(5A) |
| Symbols | 91-96 | 5B-60 | Brackets | [ \ ] ^ _ ` |
| Lowercase | 97-122 | 61-7A | a-z | 'a'=97(61), 'm'=109(6D), 'z'=122(7A) |
| Symbols | 123-126 | 7B-7E | Final punct. | { | } ~ |
| Delete | 127 | 7F | DEL control | DEL (delete/backspace) |
Practical Applications Across Computing
Network Protocol Analysis: Packet sniffers (Wireshark, tcpdump) display network traffic as hex dumps. HTTP request header example: "47 45 54 20 2F" = "GET /" (GET request). Analyzing malformed packets requires hex-to-ASCII to identify protocol fields. MAC addresses transmitted as hex bytes converted to colon notation. DNS queries show domain names in hex format within packets. File Format Analysis and Forensics: File headers (magic numbers) identify format. PNG: 89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A (starts "\x89PNG\r\n\x1A\n"). JPEG: FF D8 FF E0. ZIP: 50 4B 03 04 ("PK" initials of Phil Katz). Forensic tools use hex editors to recover deleted files, analyze metadata, detect steganography. Hex dumps reveal hidden text in binary files. Database and Encoding Issues: Database BLOB fields stored as hex strings for portability. Character encoding debugging: Incorrect charset causes garbled text—hex reveals actual byte values. UTF-8 vs ASCII differences visible in hex (multi-byte characters show sequences >7F). SQL injection detection examines hex-encoded payloads. Web Development: URL encoding uses hex: space=%20, @=%40, €=%E2%82%AC (UTF-8 multi-byte). HTML entities: A = 'A' (hex 41). JavaScript escape: "\x48\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F" = "Hello". Base64 encoding often combined with hex for data URIs. Cryptography and Security: Encryption keys displayed as hex strings: AES-256 key = 64 hex digits (32 bytes). Hash outputs: MD5 (32 hex), SHA-1 (40 hex), SHA-256 (64 hex). Digital signatures, certificates (X.509) contain hex-encoded data. HMAC, checksums, CRC values expressed in hex. Embedded Systems and IoT: Serial communication protocols transmit hex commands. Arduino/Raspberry Pi sensor data often hex-formatted. UART/SPI/I2C debugging shows hex byte sequences. Firmware updates distributed as hex files (.hex, Intel HEX format). Reverse Engineering: Disassemblers show assembly with hex opcodes. Memory dumps from crashes analyzed in hex. Malware analysis requires hex examination of executables. Debugging tools display register contents, stack frames in hex. Data Recovery: Disk sector editors (HxD, Hex Fiend) access raw disk in hex. Recovering corrupted files by manually editing hex. Partition table repair requires hex understanding. File carving searches hex patterns to reconstruct deleted files.
Why Choose RevisionTown's Hex to ASCII Converter?
RevisionTown's professional converter provides: (1) Bidirectional Conversion—Convert hex→ASCII and ASCII→hex seamlessly with instant results; (2) Flexible Input Formats—Accepts hex with spaces, colons, 0x prefixes, or continuous strings (48656C6C6F, 48 65 6C 6C 6F, 48:65:6C:6C:6F all work); (3) Formatting Options—Choose spaced or continuous hex output, uppercase or lowercase hex digits; (4) Extended ASCII Support—Handles full 8-bit ASCII (0-255) including extended characters beyond standard ASCII (128-255); (5) Error Handling—Validates hex input (detects invalid characters), handles odd-length hex strings, reports conversion errors clearly; (6) Copy to Clipboard—One-click copy of conversion results for immediate use in other applications; (7) Comprehensive Reference Table—Quick lookup for common ASCII characters with decimal and hex codes; (8) Mobile Optimized—Responsive design works perfectly on smartphones, tablets, and desktops for on-the-go conversions; (9) Zero Cost—Completely free with no ads, registration, or usage limitations; (10) Professional Accuracy—Trusted by programmers, network engineers, security researchers, web developers, system administrators, forensic analysts, and IT professionals worldwide for debugging (converting hex dumps from logs to readable text), network analysis (decoding packet payloads 48656C6C6F=Hello in Wireshark), web development (URL encoding %48%65%6C%6C%6F=%Hello), cryptography (examining hash outputs, encrypted data in hex format), database work (BLOB data encoded as hex strings), file analysis (hex editor magic numbers 504B0304=ZIP), embedded systems (UART serial data hex sequences), reverse engineering (analyzing binary executables, memory dumps), data recovery (disk sector hex editing), protocol testing (constructing hex payloads for API testing), education (teaching ASCII encoding, hexadecimal numbering), and all applications requiring accurate hex-ASCII conversions with professional-grade tools for software development, cybersecurity, digital forensics, and comprehensive computing tasks worldwide.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Split hex into 2-digit pairs, convert each to decimal, then to ASCII character. Steps: (1) Remove spaces/delimiters from hex string. (2) Split into 2-character segments (each = 1 byte). (3) Convert each pair from hex to decimal. (4) Map decimal to ASCII character. (5) Concatenate all characters. Example: 48656C6C6F to ASCII. Split: 48|65|6C|6C|6F. Convert: 48₁₆=72₁₀='H'; 65₁₆=101₁₀='e'; 6C₁₆=108₁₀='l'; 6C₁₆=108₁₀='l'; 6F₁₆=111₁₀='o'. Result: "Hello". Formula: For hex pair \(h_1h_0\), decimal = \(h_1 \times 16 + h_0\). Example: 6C₁₆ = 6×16 + 12 = 96+12 = 108₁₀. Calculator method: Use online converter or programming: Python: bytes.fromhex('48656C6C6F').decode('ascii') → "Hello". JavaScript: String.fromCharCode(...'48656C6C6F'.match(/.{2}/g).map(h=>parseInt(h,16))). Common patterns: 20₁₆=space; 30-39₁₆=digits 0-9; 41-5A₁₆=A-Z uppercase; 61-7A₁₆=a-z lowercase.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) = 7-bit character encoding standard assigning numbers 0-127 to characters. Developed 1963, foundation of text representation in computers. Character ranges: (1) Control (0-31): Non-printable device control codes. NUL(0), LF(10)=line feed, CR(13)=carriage return, ESC(27)=escape. (2) Printable (32-126): Space(32), digits 0-9 (48-57), uppercase A-Z (65-90), lowercase a-z (97-122), punctuation (!@#$%^&*), symbols. (3) Delete (127): DEL control character. Extended ASCII: 8-bit extension (128-255) adds accented characters (é, ñ, ü), symbols (©, ®, °), box-drawing characters. Not standardized—various code pages (Latin-1, Windows-1252). Examples: 'A'=65₁₀=41₁₆=01000001₂; 'a'=97₁₀=61₁₆; '0'=48₁₀=30₁₆ (digit zero character, not numeric 0); Space=32₁₀=20₁₆. Hex representation: Each ASCII character = 2 hex digits (00-7F standard, 00-FF extended). Modern context: UTF-8 encoding backwards-compatible with ASCII (0-127 same codes). ASCII subset of Unicode. Still dominant for English text, programming languages, protocols.
Get ASCII code of each character (decimal), convert to hexadecimal, pad to 2 digits. Steps: (1) Take each character in string. (2) Lookup ASCII decimal code. (3) Convert decimal to hex. (4) Pad with leading zero if single digit. (5) Concatenate all hex pairs. Example: "Hello" to hex. 'H'=72₁₀=48₁₆; 'e'=101₁₀=65₁₆; 'l'=108₁₀=6C₁₆; 'l'=108₁₀=6C₁₆; 'o'=111₁₀=6F₁₆. Result: 48656C6C6F. Decimal to hex conversion: Divide by 16 repeatedly, read remainders bottom-up. 108÷16=6 r12(C), 6÷16=0 r6 → 6C₁₆. Or direct: 108₁₀ = 6×16 + 12 = 6C₁₆. Programming: Python: ''.join(f'{ord(c):02X}' for c in "Hello") → '48656C6C6F'. JavaScript: Array.from("Hello").map(c=>c.charCodeAt(0).toString(16).padStart(2,'0')).join('') → '48656c6c6f'. Common conversions: Space=' '=32₁₀=20₁₆; Digit '0'=48₁₀=30₁₆; 'A'=65₁₀=41₁₆; 'a'=97₁₀=61₁₆; Newline=10₁₀=0A₁₆. Output formats: Continuous: 48656C6C6F. Spaced: 48 65 6C 6C 6F. Colon: 48:65:6C:6C:6F. 0x prefix: 0x48 0x65 0x6C 0x6C 0x6F.
48656C6C6F in hexadecimal = "Hello" in ASCII text. Breakdown: 48₁₆ = 72₁₀ = 'H' (uppercase H). 65₁₆ = 101₁₀ = 'e' (lowercase e). 6C₁₆ = 108₁₀ = 'l' (lowercase l, repeated twice). 6F₁₆ = 111₁₀ = 'o' (lowercase o). Result: H + e + l + l + o = "Hello". Calculation details: 48₁₆: 4×16 + 8 = 64+8 = 72₁₀ → ASCII 'H'. 65₁₆: 6×16 + 5 = 96+5 = 101₁₀ → ASCII 'e'. 6C₁₆: 6×16 + 12 = 96+12 = 108₁₀ → ASCII 'l'. 6F₁₆: 6×16 + 15 = 96+15 = 111₁₀ → ASCII 'o'. Pattern recognition: Hex 48-5A typically uppercase letters (41-5A = A-Z). Hex 61-7A typically lowercase letters (61-7A = a-z). Hex 30-39 = digits 0-9. Hex 20 = space. Common hex strings: 54657374 = "Test". 313233 = "123" (digit characters, not number). 41424320 = "ABC " (includes space 20₁₆). Why hex used: Compact binary representation. Easier than binary (8 bits vs 2 hex digits). Used in protocols, debugging, data transmission.
2 hexadecimal digits = 1 ASCII character (1 byte). Mathematical reason: ASCII uses 7-8 bits per character. 1 byte = 8 bits = 2 hex digits (each hex digit = 4 bits). Range: 00₁₆-FF₁₆ (0-255 decimal) covers all ASCII codes. Standard ASCII: 00-7F (0-127). Extended ASCII: 80-FF (128-255). Examples: 'A' = 41₁₆ (2 hex digits). 'Hello' = 5 characters = 10 hex digits (48656C6C6F). Space = 20₁₆ (2 hex digits, leading 2 + trailing 0). TAB = 09₁₆ (2 hex digits, leading zero padded). Calculation: n characters = 2n hex digits. Text "Test" (4 chars) = 8 hex digits (54657374). Sentence "Hi!" (3 chars) = 6 hex digits (486921). Hex digit breakdown: First hex digit = high nibble (upper 4 bits of byte). Second hex digit = low nibble (lower 4 bits). Example: 6C₁₆ = 01101100₂. High nibble: 6₁₆=0110₂. Low nibble: C₁₆=1100₂. UTF-8 difference: ASCII characters (0-127) still 2 hex digits in UTF-8. Non-ASCII (accented letters, emoji) require 4-8+ hex digits (multi-byte encoding). Example: é (U+00E9) = C3A9 (4 hex digits in UTF-8), but E9 (2 digits) in Latin-1 extended ASCII.
ASCII = character encoding standard (assigns numbers to characters). Hexadecimal = number system (base-16) used to represent those numbers. ASCII: Defines mapping: 'A'↔65, 'B'↔66, 'a'↔97, '0'↔48, space↔32. Standard for text representation. Character set with 128 codes (0-127). Hexadecimal: Base-16 notation using digits 0-9, A-F. Compact way to write binary/decimal numbers. Not specific to text—represents any data. Relationship: Hex commonly used to display ASCII codes compactly. Example: Character 'H' has ASCII code 72₁₀ = 48₁₆ = 01001000₂. Hex (48) more readable than binary (01001000), more compact than decimal (72). Comparison: ASCII code (decimal): 'H'=72, 'e'=101, 'l'=108, 'o'=111. ASCII code (hexadecimal): 'H'=48₁₆, 'e'=65₁₆, 'l'=6C₁₆, 'o'=6F₁₆. Binary: 'H'=01001000₂, 'e'=01100101₂. Usage: ASCII used when discussing characters/text ("What's the ASCII code for '@'? Answer: 64"). Hex used when representing binary data, memory contents, byte values ("Memory contains 48 65 6C 6C 6F"). Confusion point: Hex digits A-F are also ASCII characters! 'A' character = ASCII 65₁₀ = 41₁₆. But A₁₆ (hex digit) = 10₁₀ (value). Context determines meaning: "41₁₆" = hex number 65 decimal, or "character 'A' is code 41 hex".
%20 is percent-encoding (URL encoding) where space character's ASCII hex code is 20₁₆. Space = ASCII 32₁₀ = 20₁₆. URL encoding format: %XX where XX = hex code. Therefore space = %20. Why encoding needed: URLs cannot contain spaces (space terminates URL in HTTP protocol). Special characters have meaning in URLs (?, &, #, / are delimiters). ASCII control characters (0-31) and non-ASCII (>127) need encoding. Percent-encoding allows any character in URL safely. Encoding rules: Format: % + 2-digit hex code. Example: @ = ASCII 64₁₀ = 40₁₆ → %40. # = ASCII 35₁₀ = 23₁₆ → %23. Common encodings: Space = %20 (or + in query strings). ! = %21. " = %22. # = %23. $ = %24. % = %25 (percent itself). & = %26. + = %2B. / = %2F. : = %3A. = = %3D. ? = %3F. @ = %40. Example URL: "Hello World!" → "Hello%20World%21". "user@example.com" → "user%40example.com". "50% off" → "50%25%20off". Decoding: Convert %XX to character: %48%65%6C%6C%6F = Hello. Browsers automatically decode displayed URLs. Servers decode to get original text. Alternative notation: Plus sign (+) sometimes used for space in query strings (older convention). Modern standard: %20 universally. UTF-8 encoding: Non-ASCII uses multiple %XX: "café" → "caf%C3%A9" (é = C3A9 in UTF-8 hex = %C3%A9).
Hex dump displays memory/file contents as rows of hex bytes with ASCII text representation. Standard format: Address (hex offset) | Hex bytes (16 per line, 8+8 grouped) | ASCII text (printable chars, dots for non-printable). Example hex dump: 00000000: 48 65 6C 6C 6F 20 57 6F 72 6C 64 21 0A | Hello World!. 00000010: 54 65 73 74 20 64 61 74 61 | Test data. Reading guide: (1) Address column: Byte offset from start (00000000 = position 0, 00000010 = position 16). (2) Hex bytes: Each 2-digit hex = 1 byte. Example: 48 = 'H', 20 = space, 0A = newline. Spaces between bytes for readability. Often grouped by 8 (shows 8-byte boundaries). (3) ASCII column: Human-readable text. Printable chars shown (A-Z, 0-9, punctuation). Non-printable shown as dots (.) or special symbols. Control chars (0-31) appear as dots. Converting hex to text: Take hex bytes: 54 65 73 74. Convert pairs: 54₁₆=84₁₀='T', 65₁₆=101₁₀='e', 73₁₆=115₁₀='s', 74₁₆=116₁₀='t'. Result: "Test". Common patterns: 20₁₆ = space (frequent separator). 0A₁₆ = LF (Unix line ending). 0D 0A = CRLF (Windows line ending). 00₁₆ = NULL (string terminator in C). FF₁₆ = 255 (often padding/empty space). Use cases: Debugging binary files (identify file format by magic numbers). Network packet analysis (see exact bytes transmitted). Memory dumps (examine crash state). Malware analysis (identify embedded strings, shellcode). Data recovery (search for known patterns in disk sectors).
