TEXT INSPECTION

Find invisible characters before removing them

Two pieces of text can look alike while containing different characters. A non-breaking space, optional hyphen or zero-width character may affect where text wraps or how another system handles a paste. Inspect the character before deciding it is unwanted.

Have some text ready to go?

Open Invisible Character Remover ↗

Identify the character by its code

Paste your text into Invisible Character Remover. The inspector lists supported categories with their Unicode code and occurrence count. Expand the context view to see visible markers such as ⟦U+200B⟧ where supported invisible characters occur.

Those markers exist only in the inspection view. They are never inserted into the copied result. Long inspection previews are shortened for readability, while counts and output still cover the full input.

Removing a character and replacing a space have different effects

BEFORE

Inspection view:
A hidden⟦U+200B⟧space.
Keep⟦U+00A0⟧these words together.

AFTER

After selecting both categories:
A hiddenspace.
Keep these words together.

Choose a specific change

No removal is selected by default. Checking a removable category changes every occurrence of that category. Zero-width spaces, word joiners, byte-order marks and soft hyphens can be removed; supported non-breaking spaces can be replaced with an ordinary space.

A special space can be intentional, including in numbers and punctuation. Compare the result with the original, and use Reset options to return to an unchanged output.

Keep characters that carry meaning

Zero-width joiners and non-joiners can affect the shaping of text, and joiners can participate in emoji sequences. Direction controls affect the order in which mixed-direction text is displayed. Textidy identifies these categories but does not remove them.

Other Unicode characters, including those outside the supported inspection set, are left unchanged. This approach favours preserving the writing over indiscriminate deletion.

Avoid drawing conclusions about authorship

Invisible characters do not establish who wrote a passage or which tool produced it. Textidy is not an AI-watermark detector, authorship checker or a guarantee that text will pass another system’s validation.

If a form still rejects a paste, check its stated character and formatting requirements. Keep a copy of the original so that required characters can be restored.

References: Unicode guidance on default-ignorable characters

Try the behaviour yourself

Hidden space versus non-breaking space

Select U+200B to remove zero-width spaces and U+00A0 to replace non-breaking spaces with ordinary spaces. Removal can join words.

Input

hidden⟦U+200B⟧space and keep⟦U+00A0⟧together

Expected text output

hiddenspace and keep together
Try this example in the tool →

Keep emoji joiners

U+200D joins parts of the emoji. It is protected even if requested for removal.

Input

Developer: 👩⟦U+200D⟧💻

Expected text output

Developer: 👩⟦U+200D⟧💻
Try this example in the tool →

Put it into practice.

Your next paste can be a little simpler.

Try Invisible Character Remover ↗