Remove Invisible Characters: what it does
Invisible characters are real characters that take no space on screen: the zero-width space (U+200B), zero-width joiners, the byte order mark (U+FEFF), soft hyphens, word joiners, direction marks and look-alike spaces such as the non-breaking space (U+00A0). They sneak in when you copy from websites, PDFs, chat apps and documents, and cause strange problems: a password or code that “doesn’t match”, a username that is taken when it looks free, a broken spreadsheet formula, or a caption that counts more characters than you can see. Paste your text: the list shows each invisible character with its Unicode code and how many times it appears, and the clean copy has them removed. Emoji sequences and the joiners that Persian, Hindi and other scripts need are kept.
How to use it
- Paste your text into the left box. Your draft stays in this browser only.
- Choose what to clean: hidden characters, odd spaces, markdown, extra lines, quotes, and Instagram blank lines.
- See the list of hidden characters that were in your text, and the clean version on the right.
- Click “Copy clean text” and paste it where you need it.
Tips
- A search or comparison that fails for no visible reason is the classic sign of a zero-width space.
- Copying code or commands from a web page? Clean them first: a non-breaking space can break a command.
- Hangul fillers (U+3164) are sometimes used for “blank” usernames and messages; they are found and removed too.
- If your text is Arabic, Hebrew or Urdu, left-to-right and right-to-left marks are kept, because they fix punctuation placement.
Frequently asked questions
What is a zero-width space?
A Unicode character (U+200B) that marks a possible line break but has no width. It is invisible, yet it counts as a character and makes otherwise identical text different.
How do I find invisible characters in my text?
Paste the text into the box. Under the options, “Found in your text” lists every invisible or unusual space character with its code and count.
Are emoji affected?
No. Joiners and variation selectors inside emoji sequences are recognised and kept, so 👩💻 stays one emoji.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser on your device.