foobar ulklkj lkjlkj'; print strlen($str) . "\n"; $maxlength = 8; $cutlength = $maxlength; while (0 < $delta = $maxlength - measure(substr($str, 0, $cutlength))) { print "\nDELTA: " . $delta . "\n"; $cutlength += $delta; } while (preg_match('#[a-zA-Z0-9]#', $str{$cutlength})) { ++$cutlength; } print "\nEND DELTA: " . $delta . "\n"; print substr($str, 0, $cutlength);