Three small web tools I use: Unicode fancy fonts, Pinterest and TikTok downloaders

I keep a short list of lightweight browser tools that solve one problem each, with no install. Here are three, with notes on how they work under the hood.

1. Fancy fonts via Unicode – Letras Bonitas

Letras Bonitas turns ordinary text into "fonts" you can paste into Instagram bios, TikTok names or Discord. It doesn't use font files at all: it maps each Latin letter to a look-alike code point from the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols block (U+1D400–U+1D7FF) and a few related blocks (circled, full-width, small caps).

Things worth knowing as a developer:

• These characters are outside the BMP, so in JavaScript one glyph is two UTF-16 code units – use [...str] or Intl.Segmenter, not str.length.
• Screen readers often read them letter by letter or as "mathematical bold capital A", so keep them out of important labels.
• Search engines and NFKC normalization fold many of them back to plain ASCII.

2. Saving your own Pinterest media – PinSaveHD

PinSaveHD takes a pin URL and returns the underlying image or video file. Pinterest serves videos as HLS (.m3u8) playlists plus MP4 renditions; the tool resolves the pin page, finds the highest available rendition and gives you a direct download.

Use it for your own pins or content you have permission to reuse.

3. Archiving TikTok clips – TikTokDownload.io

TikTokDownload.io does the same for TikTok links: paste the share URL, get an MP4. It's handy for backing up your own uploads before editing them elsewhere or reposting to Shorts/Reels.

Takeaway

All three are single-purpose, run in the browser and respect a simple rule: download or transform only what you own or are allowed to use. If you build similar tools, test your Unicode handling with surrogate pairs and always show an accessibility note next to decorative text.