diff --git a/components/esm3/esmreader.cpp b/components/esm3/esmreader.cpp
index a10eba2378..667132c60f 100644
--- a/components/esm3/esmreader.cpp
+++ b/components/esm3/esmreader.cpp
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ std::string ESMReader::getString(int size)
 
     // Convert to UTF8 and return
     if (mEncoder)
-        return mEncoder->getUtf8(ptr, size);
+        return mEncoder->getUtf8(std::string_view(ptr, size));
 
     return std::string (ptr, size);
 }
diff --git a/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.cpp b/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.cpp
index f7dc33fcbf..3c4421c605 100644
--- a/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.cpp
+++ b/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.cpp
@@ -77,12 +77,15 @@ Utf8Encoder::Utf8Encoder(const FromType sourceEncoding):
     }
 }
 
-std::string Utf8Encoder::getUtf8(const char* input, size_t size)
+std::string Utf8Encoder::getUtf8(std::string_view input)
 {
+    if (input.empty())
+        return input;
+
     // Double check that the input string stops at some point (it might
     // contain zero terminators before this, inside its own data, which
     // is also ok.)
-    assert(input[size] == 0);
+    assert(input[input.size()] == 0);
 
     // Note: The rest of this function is designed for single-character
     // input encodings only. It also assumes that the input encoding
@@ -93,19 +96,19 @@ std::string Utf8Encoder::getUtf8(const char* input, size_t size)
     // Compute output length, and check for pure ascii input at the same
     // time.
     bool ascii;
-    size_t outlen = getLength(input, ascii);
+    size_t outlen = getLength(input.data(), ascii);
 
     // If we're pure ascii, then don't bother converting anything.
     if(ascii)
-        return std::string(input, outlen);
+        return std::string(input.data(), outlen);
 
     // Make sure the output is large enough
     resize(outlen);
     char *out = &mOutput[0];
 
     // Translate
-    while (*input)
-        copyFromArray(*(input++), out);
+    for (const char* ptr = input.data(); *ptr;)
+        copyFromArray(*(ptr++), out);
 
     // Make sure that we wrote the correct number of bytes
     assert((out-&mOutput[0]) == (int)outlen);
@@ -118,12 +121,15 @@ std::string Utf8Encoder::getUtf8(const char* input, size_t size)
     return std::string(&mOutput[0], outlen);
 }
 
-std::string Utf8Encoder::getLegacyEnc(const char *input, size_t size)
+std::string Utf8Encoder::getLegacyEnc(std::string_view input)
 {
+    if (input.empty())
+        return input;
+
     // Double check that the input string stops at some point (it might
     // contain zero terminators before this, inside its own data, which
     // is also ok.)
-    assert(input[size] == 0);
+    assert(input[input.size()] == 0);
 
     // TODO: The rest of this function is designed for single-character
     // input encodings only. It also assumes that the input the input
@@ -134,19 +140,19 @@ std::string Utf8Encoder::getLegacyEnc(const char *input, size_t size)
     // Compute output length, and check for pure ascii input at the same
     // time.
     bool ascii;
-    size_t outlen = getLength2(input, ascii);
+    size_t outlen = getLength2(input.data(), ascii);
 
     // If we're pure ascii, then don't bother converting anything.
     if(ascii)
-        return std::string(input, outlen);
+        return std::string(input.data(), outlen);
 
     // Make sure the output is large enough
     resize(outlen);
     char *out = &mOutput[0];
 
     // Translate
-    while(*input)
-        copyFromArray2(input, out);
+    for (const char* ptr = input.data(); *ptr;)
+        copyFromArray2(ptr, out);
 
     // Make sure that we wrote the correct number of bytes
     assert((out-&mOutput[0]) == (int)outlen);
diff --git a/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.hpp b/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.hpp
index d8c9f09d5d..07960ae3f9 100644
--- a/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.hpp
+++ b/components/to_utf8/to_utf8.hpp
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 #include <string>
 #include <cstring>
 #include <vector>
+#include <string_view>
 
 namespace ToUTF8
 {
@@ -28,17 +29,9 @@ namespace ToUTF8
             Utf8Encoder(FromType sourceEncoding);
 
             // Convert to UTF8 from the previously given code page.
-            std::string getUtf8(const char *input, size_t size);
-            inline std::string getUtf8(const std::string &str)
-            {
-                return getUtf8(str.c_str(), str.size());
-            }
-
-            std::string getLegacyEnc(const char *input, size_t size);
-            inline std::string getLegacyEnc(const std::string &str)
-            {
-                return getLegacyEnc(str.c_str(), str.size());
-            }
+            std::string getUtf8(std::string_view input);
+
+            std::string getLegacyEnc(std::string_view input);
 
         private:
             void resize(size_t size);