👁️ Invisible Character Revealer
Professional invisible character detector that reveals hidden Unicode characters including zero-width spaces (ZWSP), non-breaking spaces (NBSP), tabs, carriage returns, and line feeds. Features visual indicators, selective cleaning, and detailed character analysis for debugging and text processing.
Character Analysis:
Found 8 Invisible Characters
4 types detected • ZWSP, NBSP, TAB, CR/LF
📝 Text Analysis
Original Text (with indicators):
Cleaned Text:
Welcome
to our site.
Zero-Width
ZWSP, ZWJ, BOM
Whitespace
NBSP, Thin Space
Control
TAB, CR, LF
🔍 Character Details
✨ Cleaning Results
✅ Removed 3 zero-width characters
✅ Converted 2 special spaces to regular spaces
✅ Normalized 3 line break characters
Result: Clean text ready for processing!
How to Use This Invisible Character Revealer
How to Use the Invisible Character Revealer
- Paste Your Text: Copy and paste any text that might contain invisible characters into the text area
- Choose Detection Level: Select Basic for common characters or Comprehensive for thorough analysis
- Enable Visual Indicators: Check this option to see colored tags showing invisible character locations
- Select Cleaning Options: Choose which types of characters to remove or normalize
- Click "Reveal Characters": Get detailed analysis and clean text output
- Review Results: See statistics, character positions, and cleaned text comparison
- Download or Copy: Save your analysis results or copy cleaned text
Tips for Best Results:
- Use "Comprehensive" detection for debugging complex text processing issues
- Enable visual indicators to understand exactly where invisible characters are hiding
- Be selective with cleaning options to preserve intentional formatting
- Check Unicode code points in detailed results for character identification
How It Works
How the Invisible Character Detection Works
Character Detection Engine
Our tool scans text character by character, identifying invisible Unicode characters using comprehensive character maps. It detects:
- Zero-Width Characters: ZWSP (U+200B), ZWJ (U+200D), ZWNJ (U+200C), BOM (U+FEFF)
- Special Whitespace: NBSP (U+00A0), Thin Space (U+2009), Narrow NBSP (U+202F)
- Control Characters: Tab (U+0009), Carriage Return (U+000D), Line Feed (U+000A)
- Advanced Unicode: Word joiners, directional marks, variation selectors
Visual Indicator System
When enabled, the tool inserts colored tags to make invisible characters visible:
- [ZWSP] Red tags for zero-width characters
- [NBSP] Teal tags for special whitespace
- [TAB] Purple tags for control characters
Cleaning Process
The selective cleaning system processes text based on your chosen options:
- Zero-Width Removal: Strips invisible characters that don't affect layout
- Whitespace Normalization: Converts special spaces to regular spaces
- Line Break Standardization: Normalizes CR/LF combinations to consistent format
- Control Character Filtering: Removes non-printable characters while preserving formatting
When You Might Need This
- • Debug text processing issues caused by copy-pasted content from websites
- • Clean data imported from PDFs that contains hidden formatting characters
- • Identify zero-width spaces causing unexpected line breaks in web layouts
- • Remove non-breaking spaces preventing proper text wrapping in mobile designs
- • Detect invisible characters in user-generated content before database storage
- • Troubleshoot email marketing campaigns with display issues from hidden characters
- • Analyze text files for compliance with plain text requirements in data processing
- • Find hidden Unicode characters in CSV files causing import/export problems
- • Identify control characters in configuration files causing parsing errors
- • Clean user input to prevent invisible character injection attacks in web forms
Frequently Asked Questions
What are invisible characters and why are they problematic?
Invisible characters are Unicode characters that don't display visually but still exist in text. They include zero-width spaces (ZWSP), non-breaking spaces (NBSP), and control characters like tabs and line breaks. They can cause issues with text processing, layout problems, data import errors, and unexpected behavior in applications.
How do invisible characters get into my text?
Invisible characters commonly come from copying text from websites, PDFs, Word documents, or rich text editors. They're also added by some formatting systems, email clients, and content management systems. Zero-width spaces are sometimes used intentionally for line-breaking hints or to prevent word joining.
What's the difference between ZWSP and NBSP?
ZWSP (Zero-Width Space, U+200B) is completely invisible and allows line breaks without showing space. NBSP (Non-Breaking Space, U+00A0) looks like a regular space but prevents automatic line breaks and word wrapping. Both can cause layout and text processing issues if used unintentionally.
Should I remove all invisible characters from my text?
Not always. Some invisible characters serve important purposes - like tabs for formatting, line breaks for structure, or intentional non-breaking spaces. Use selective cleaning options to remove problematic characters while preserving necessary formatting. Review the analysis before cleaning.
Can invisible characters be a security risk?
Yes, invisible characters can be used in homograph attacks, where malicious actors use them to create URLs or text that look identical but behave differently. They can also bypass security filters, hide malicious content, or cause unexpected behavior in applications that don't handle them properly.