diff --git a/commands/drawDesign.cjs b/commands/drawDesign.cjs
index c41b2de..3ab8608 100644
--- a/commands/drawDesign.cjs
+++ b/commands/drawDesign.cjs
@@ -213,15 +213,18 @@ function design4(input) {
 const surrogatePairs = /[\uD800-\uDBFF][\uDC00-\uDFFF]/g;
 var charIterateState;
 function charIterate(input) {
+	let stringLength = (input.length - 1);
+	for (let i = 0; i < stringLength; ++i) {
+		if (surrogatePairs.exec(input.charCodeAt(charIterateState)) !== null) {
+			stringLength--;
+		}
+	}
 	if (charIterateState == undefined) {
 		console.log("undefined! setting to zero");
 		charIterateState = 0;
 	} else {
-		if (charIterateState < (input.length - 1)) {
+		if (charIterateState < stringLength) {
 			charIterateState++;
-			if (surrogatePairs.exec(input.charCodeAt(charIterateState)) !== null) {
-				//charIterateState++;
-			}
 		} else {
 			charIterateState = 0;
 		}