diff --git a/drw.c b/drw.c
index 78a2b27..eb71da7 100644
--- a/drw.c
+++ b/drw.c
@@ -9,54 +9,40 @@
 #include "util.h"
 
 #define UTF_INVALID 0xFFFD
-#define UTF_SIZ     4
 
-static const unsigned char utfbyte[UTF_SIZ + 1] = {0x80,    0, 0xC0, 0xE0, 0xF0};
-static const unsigned char utfmask[UTF_SIZ + 1] = {0xC0, 0x80, 0xE0, 0xF0, 0xF8};
-static const long utfmin[UTF_SIZ + 1] = {       0,    0,  0x80,  0x800,  0x10000};
-static const long utfmax[UTF_SIZ + 1] = {0x10FFFF, 0x7F, 0x7FF, 0xFFFF, 0x10FFFF};
-
-static long
-utf8decodebyte(const char c, size_t *i)
+static int
+utf8decode(const char *s_in, long *u, int *err)
 {
-	for (*i = 0; *i < (UTF_SIZ + 1); ++(*i))
-		if (((unsigned char)c & utfmask[*i]) == utfbyte[*i])
-			return (unsigned char)c & ~utfmask[*i];
-	return 0;
-}
-
-static size_t
-utf8validate(long *u, size_t i)
-{
-	if (!BETWEEN(*u, utfmin[i], utfmax[i]) || BETWEEN(*u, 0xD800, 0xDFFF))
-		*u = UTF_INVALID;
-	for (i = 1; *u > utfmax[i]; ++i)
-		;
-	return i;
-}
-
-static size_t
-utf8decode(const char *c, long *u, size_t clen)
-{
-	size_t i, j, len, type;
-	long udecoded;
+	static const unsigned char lens[] = {
+		/* 0XXXX */ 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
+		/* 10XXX */ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,  /* invalid */
+		/* 110XX */ 2, 2, 2, 2,
+		/* 1110X */ 3, 3,
+		/* 11110 */ 4,
+		/* 11111 */ 0,  /* invalid */
+	};
+	static const unsigned char leading_mask[] = { 0x7F, 0x1F, 0x0F, 0x07 };
+	static const unsigned int overlong[] = { 0x0, 0x80, 0x0800, 0x10000 };
 
+	const unsigned char *s = (const unsigned char *)s_in;
+	int len = lens[*s >> 3];
 	*u = UTF_INVALID;
-	if (!clen)
-		return 0;
-	udecoded = utf8decodebyte(c[0], &len);
-	if (!BETWEEN(len, 1, UTF_SIZ))
+	*err = 1;
+	if (len == 0)
 		return 1;
-	for (i = 1, j = 1; i < clen && j < len; ++i, ++j) {
-		udecoded = (udecoded << 6) | utf8decodebyte(c[i], &type);
-		if (type)
-			return j;
-	}
-	if (j < len)
-		return 0;
-	*u = udecoded;
-	utf8validate(u, len);
 
+	long cp = s[0] & leading_mask[len - 1];
+	for (int i = 1; i < len; ++i) {
+		if (s[i] == '\0' || (s[i] & 0xC0) != 0x80)
+			return i;
+		cp = (cp << 6) | (s[i] & 0x3F);
+	}
+	/* out of range, surrogate, overlong encoding */
+	if (cp > 0x10FFFF || (cp >> 11) == 0x1B || cp < overlong[len - 1])
+		return len;
+
+	*err = 0;
+	*u = cp;
 	return len;
 }
 
@@ -242,7 +228,7 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsigned int h, unsigned int lp
 	unsigned int tmpw, ew, ellipsis_w = 0, ellipsis_len, hash, h0, h1;
 	XftDraw *d = NULL;
 	Fnt *usedfont, *curfont, *nextfont;
-	int utf8strlen, utf8charlen, render = x || y || w || h;
+	int utf8strlen, utf8charlen, utf8err, render = x || y || w || h;
 	long utf8codepoint = 0;
 	const char *utf8str;
 	FcCharSet *fccharset;
@@ -272,11 +258,11 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsigned int h, unsigned int lp
 	if (!ellipsis_width && render)
 		ellipsis_width = drw_fontset_getwidth(drw, "...");
 	while (1) {
-		ew = ellipsis_len = utf8strlen = 0;
+		ew = ellipsis_len = utf8err = utf8charlen = utf8strlen = 0;
 		utf8str = text;
 		nextfont = NULL;
 		while (*text) {
-			utf8charlen = utf8decode(text, &utf8codepoint, UTF_SIZ);
+			utf8charlen = utf8decode(text, &utf8codepoint, &utf8err);
 			for (curfont = drw->fonts; curfont; curfont = curfont->next) {
 				charexists = charexists || XftCharExists(drw->dpy, curfont->xfont, utf8codepoint);
 				if (charexists) {