This post is based on Korean text (the Korean self-introduction essay, “jasoseo”, that job applicants submit). The character count of the same essay changes depending on whether spaces are included, and which one is correct is decided by the employer’s application guidelines. If the guidelines do not say, set your text to the “with spaces” count, which also counts spaces and line breaks, and you stay under the limit whichever way it is counted. Below are the values we got by running both counts side by side in the Geuljasu calculation function, and the order in which to check before you submit.
What each count adds
In “with spaces”, Geuljasu counts a space, consecutive spaces, a line break and a tab as one character each. “Without spaces” removes all of them. The more you split paragraphs and add blank lines, the wider the gap between the two numbers.
Values from running the calculation
The values below come from entering each text into the Geuljasu character count function. The inputs are Korean text; an English gloss follows in brackets where needed.
| Input | With spaces | Without spaces | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 「저는 고객의 문제를 끝까지 책임지는 개발자입니다.」 (I am a developer who sees a customer’s problem through to the end.) | 27 | 22 | 5 |
| Title line + blank line + one sentence (2 line breaks, 36 characters’ worth) | 36 | 27 | 9 |
| 「가」 x 100 + 20 spaces + 「나」 x 80 | 200 | 180 | 20 |
| 「가 」 repeated 250 times (a space between every character) | 500 | 250 | 250 |
The last row is the extreme case. For text with many spaces, a text with 250 characters without spaces becomes 500 characters with spaces. Conversely, text written to fit a 500-character with-spaces limit looks much shorter when pasted into a without-spaces field, and may fall short of the required length.
How it affects the limit
The same text exactly fills a 500-character limit under with-spaces counting, but looks like half of it under without-spaces counting. So it is risky to write to “within 500 characters” without checking which rule applies. If the counter in the application form and the number in your word processor differ, it is almost always this difference in rules.
Check in this order before you submit
- Look in the guidelines or the field’s notes for “with spaces” or “without spaces”.
- If nothing is stated, count with spaces and fit the text within the limit.
- After pasting into the form, compare once more with the number the form shows. The counter on the submission screen is the final rule.
- Check that no needless line breaks or double spaces slipped in. Pasting can turn one line break into two.
Frequently asked questions
Is a line break (Enter) counted as a character? The with-spaces count in Geuljasu counts one line break as 1 character. In the second row of the table, the two line breaks made the with-spaces count 9 higher than the without-spaces count. How the receiving system counts line breaks can differ.
Do I have to write exactly to the limit? Given the difference in rules, it is safer to write within 90 to 100 percent of the limit. If the with-spaces count is under the limit, the without-spaces count is always under it too.
Are characters and bytes the same thing? No. If a field has a byte limit, check it separately with the byte counter, not the character count.
To see the with-spaces and without-spaces counts on one screen, paste your text into the Word Counter. To see which part goes over the limit, enter a limit such as 500 in the Character Limit Trimmer.