Invisible Character Remover

Detect and remove zero-width spaces, hidden control characters, and formatting marks that cause issues in code and data.

Dirty Text Input

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Lines
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Words
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Chars
Detection Report0 Found

No invisible characters detected.

Clean Output

Result will appear here...

Mastering Text Hygiene: Remove the Unseen

Have you ever spent hours debugging a script only to realize a "ghost" character was the culprit? Or tried to import a CSV file that inexplicably failed because of a hidden line break? You are not alone. In the digital world, what you see is not always what you get.

Invisible Characters are valid Unicode code points used for computer processing and advanced formatting. They dictate text direction, line breaking behavior, and character joining. However, when these characters end up where they don't belong (like in a URL, a password field, or source code), they become silent saboteurs.

Our Invisible Character Remover is an advanced utility designed to detect, identify, and surgically remove these hidden threats. Whether you are a developer sanitizing input, a data analyst cleaning datasets, or a writer fixing formatting glitches, this tool ensures your text is pure, predictable, and error-free.

Why Use This Tool?

Zero Width Detection

Targets U+200B (Zero Width Space), U+200C (Non-Joiner), and U+200D (Joiner) - the most common copy-paste "gremlins".

Code Sanitizer

Removes ASCII control characters (0-31) and Byte Order Marks (BOM) that cause compiler syntax errors.

Visual Debugging

Use the "Show Hidden" mode to replace invisible marks with visible tags like [ZWSP] to understand the issue.

File Support

Directly upload .txt, .js, .json, or .log files to batch process entire documents instantly.

Soft Hyphen Cleaning

Eliminates U+00AD (SHY) characters that appear when copying text from justified PDF layouts.

Instant Stats

Get a real-time report showing exactly how many and what type of invisible characters were found.

Real-World Scenarios

1

The "Phantom" Syntax Error

You copy a code snippet from a blog. It looks perfect, but your compiler throws an error on an empty line. This is often a non-breaking space (\u00A0) or a zero-width space masquerading as whitespace.

2

Corrupted User Data

A user pastes their name "John​Doe" into your signup form. The invisible ​ gets saved to the database. Later, when you search for "John Doe", zero results are found because the strings don't match binary-wise.

3

PDF Text Extraction

Copying text from a PDF often brings along "Soft Hyphens" that were used for line breaking. Pasting this into a Word doc results in words like "un-necessary" appearing in the middle of sentences.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are invisible characters?
Invisible characters are Unicode symbols that do not display visibly on the screen but exist in the digital data of the text. Common examples include Zero Width Spaces (U+200B), which are used for formatting line breaks, Soft Hyphens (U+00AD), and Right-to-Left marks (U+200F). While useful for typography, they often cause errors in programming and data processing.
Why do I need to remove them?
Hidden characters can cause silent failures. In programming, a zero-width space can cause a "Syntax Error" in code that looks perfectly correct. In databases, it can prevent search queries from matching records (e.g., "User" vs "User[ZWSP]"). Removing them ensures your text is clean, valid, and processes exactly as it appears.
What is a Zero Width Space (ZWSP)?
A Zero Width Space (U+200B) is a formatting character used to indicate where a line break is allowed without displaying a visible space. It frequently appears when copying text from modern websites, emails, or PDFs, and is one of the most common causes of "phantom" text errors.
Does this tool remove newlines or tabs?
No. By default, this tool targets "harmful" invisible characters like ZWSP, non-printable control codes, and byte order marks. It purposefully preserves your visible formatting, including standard newlines, spaces, and tabs, ensuring your document structure remains intact.
Can this fix copy-paste issues from PDFs?
Yes! PDFs are notorious for inserting soft hyphens, odd line separators, and other formatting artifacts that break text when pasted into Word, email, or code editors. This tool instantly scrubs those artifacts, leaving you with clean, plain text.
Is it safe to use for code?
Absolutely. It is specifically designed to help developers sanitize code snippets. It removes dangerous control characters and hidden joiners that compilers hate, while leaving valid syntax characters (like bracket indentation) alone.
What types of files can I upload?
You can upload plain text files (.txt), coding files (.js, .json, .html, .css), logs (.log), and markdown files (.md). The tool processes them locally in your browser, so your data never leaves your device.
What is the "Show Hidden" feature?
This unique feature replaces invisible characters with visible visible tags (like [ZWSP] or [SHY]) instead of just deleting them. This is incredibly useful for debugging, as it allows you to see exactly where the hidden marks were located in your original text.
Does it work with emojis?
Yes, this tool removes hidden formatting marks but leaves standard emojis intact. However, note that some complex emojis use Zero Width Joiners (ZWJ) to combine characters (e.g., family emojis). Stripping these might decompose the emoji into its individual parts.
What is a Byte Order Mark (BOM)?
The BOM (U+FEFF) is a character placed at the start of a text stream to define the endianness of the text (UTF-8 vs UTF-16). If it appears in the middle of text or in files that do not support it (like PHP scripts), it acts as a nuisance invisible character that causes headers already sent errors.

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