Invisible Character Remover

Remove invisible Unicode characters online

This invisible character remover scans text by Unicode code point, removes selected zero-width characters, and preserves ordinary spaces. It preserves ZWJ and ZWNJ by default, preserves variation selectors by default, and handles U+FEFF by position instead of always calling it a byte-order mark. Bidi-control removal is optional. Remove, space and visible-marker replacement modes are supported, every action is shown in the log below, and the original input is kept unchanged. Cleaning runs locally in the browser.

Invisible character removal example

Rendered input (contains a real zero-width space between "user" and "name"):

user​name = admin

Escaped representation:

user\u200bname = admin

Expected cleaned output with the safe preset:

username = admin

Expected summary: invisible characters removed 1, zero-width spaces removed 1, ordinary spaces preserved 2.

Advanced example with a joiner, for reference only (not run by default): user‍name contains a real U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER between "user" and "name". Under the safe preset the joiner is preserved and the text is unchanged.

Zero-width spaces, joiners and word joiners

U+200B is ZERO WIDTH SPACE. U+200C is ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER. U+200D is ZERO WIDTH JOINER. U+2060 is WORD JOINER. These four characters are not interchangeable: ZWJ and ZWNJ can affect language shaping and emoji sequences, while ZWSP and word joiner are more commonly unwanted artifacts from copying or automated formatting. Safe cleanup removes U+200B and U+2060 but preserves ZWJ and ZWNJ.

Soft hyphens and zero-width no-break spaces

U+00AD SOFT HYPHEN is a discretionary hyphen that is normally invisible and may appear in text copied from documents or web pages. U+FEFF at the very start of input may be a byte-order-mark artifact, while U+FEFF elsewhere behaves as ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE. Position matters, so this tool offers separate leading and embedded removal options, and both are reported with their original position when removed.

Bidirectional controls

Bidirectional controls influence the visual ordering of text and may be legitimate in multilingual content. In code, filenames or identifiers they can obscure the true reading order of characters. Safe cleanup preserves bidi controls by default. The security-review preset can detect and, when enabled, remove them. Diagnostics render bidi-control labels safely and do not allow them to reorder the results table or preview. Use the Invisible Character Detector to inspect them in more detail.

Variation selectors and emoji

Variation selectors affect text or emoji presentation. U+FE0E requests text presentation and U+FE0F requests emoji presentation. ZWJ links characters in many emoji sequences, including family and profession emoji. Removing variation selectors or ZWJ can visibly change how an emoji renders, so both are preserved by default and only removable under advanced options.

Invisible characters vs control characters

"Invisible" is a visual description, not a single Unicode category. C0, DELETE and C1 control characters are a separate range handled by the Control Character Remover. Zero-width and other formatting characters require different rules from control characters. Ordinary non-breaking spaces and other whitespace cleanup belong with the Whitespace Normalizer, and broader cleanup is available in the Unicode Text Cleaner.

Safe removal presets

Safe cleanup targets commonly unwanted characters such as zero-width spaces, word joiners, soft hyphens and U+FEFF. Security review adds bidi-control detection for code, identifiers and copied text. Aggressive cleanup can remove joiners, variation selectors, the combining grapheme joiner and emoji tag characters, and it can alter language shaping and emoji, so it always shows a warning and is never the default. Custom mode allows direct control over every group. The original input remains unchanged in every preset, and diagnostics should be reviewed before publishing.

How to use the remover

1. Paste or type text into the input field.
2. Choose a safe, security-review, aggressive or custom preset.
3. Review the selected invisible-character groups.
4. Select remove, space replacement or visible markers.
5. Run the invisible-character remover.
6. Inspect the cleaned text, warnings and action log before copying it.

Common use cases

• Remove zero-width spaces from usernames and identifiers.
• Clean hidden characters from copied text.
• Remove soft hyphens from documents and web content.
• Inspect bidi controls in code or domain-like strings.
• Preserve emoji while removing unwanted zero-width spaces.
• Debug invisible differences between visually identical strings.
• Clean imported text before database or API processing.
• Create Unicode security and validation test fixtures.

Privacy and local processing

Cleaning runs with JavaScript directly in your browser. Your pasted text is not submitted to UnicodeNow servers.

Frequently asked questions