Invisible Character Finder
Input
Paste your text here
Drop a text file here or paste with Ctrl+V / ⌘V
Hidden characters
How to find and remove invisible characters
- Paste or load your text Paste text into the page, choose a UTF-8 text file, or drop a file into the input pane. Load example lets you try text containing several hidden characters.
- Check the highlighted characters Read the code-point labels in the preview and the total number detected in the output header. Detection updates as you edit.
- Choose whether to include ordinary whitespace Spaces, tabs and line breaks are preserved by default. Enable Include spaces, tabs and line breaks to detect and remove them as well.
- Remove or copy the result Choose Remove detected to update the input. Choose Copy cleaned text in the output toolbar to copy the cleaned version while keeping the original input available.
Zero-width spaces, hidden symbols and unusual whitespace
- Zero-width characters Detect zero-width space (U+200B), zero-width non-joiner (U+200C), zero-width joiner (U+200D), word joiner (U+2060) and the byte order mark (U+FEFF).
- Non-breaking and special spaces Reveal non-breaking space (U+00A0), thin space (U+2009), narrow no-break space (U+202F), ideographic space (U+3000) and other Unicode whitespace.
- Direction and control characters Find direction marks, embeddings, overrides and isolates, along with control characters such as NUL. These may affect how text is displayed or processed.
- Variation selectors and blank characters The detector also includes Unicode default-ignorable code points, variation selectors, tag characters and Braille blank (U+2800).
A hidden character is not automatically an error. Joiners can affect how letters connect, and variation selectors can change character or emoji presentation. Review the results before removing characters from multilingual text or emoji sequences.
Check copied text that will not match or paste correctly
Use the finder when a copied identifier, spreadsheet value, search term or code snippet looks right but behaves differently from text you typed yourself. Hidden characters can become part of the value and affect exact comparisons. Inspect text copied from a document, web page or message before using it elsewhere.
This tool checks Unicode character properties. It does not compare fonts, detect every visual lookalike or repair every text-formatting problem. Removing detected whitespace deletes it rather than replacing it with a regular space, so check that neighboring words still have the spacing you need.
Find invisible characters in text
Two pieces of text can look identical while containing different characters. This invisible character finder reveals hidden Unicode characters in pasted text and UTF-8 text files. Use it to inspect zero-width spaces, non-breaking spaces, direction controls and other characters that are easy to miss in an editor.
The preview replaces detected characters with visible code-point labels such as U+200B. The output header shows the total number detected. Remove detected characters from the input, or use Copy cleaned text in the output toolbar to copy a version with those characters removed.
