Invisible Character

Some characters show nothing at all, yet they are real characters with their own codes. They are useful when an app insists on some text but you want it to look empty, and they cause baffling problems when they sneak into code, passwords or data. This page covers both sides: copy a blank character, or find out which hidden ones a text contains.

The blank characters

The Hangul Filler (U+3164) is a letter in the Korean script that is drawn as empty space. Because systems count it as a letter, it is the character most often accepted for blank names in games and apps. The Braille Pattern Blank (U+2800) is a braille cell with no raised dots, which most fonts show as a space. The zero-width space, word joiner and zero-width joiner take up no width at all. The no-break, figure, em and narrow no-break spaces are visible gaps of particular widths with special line-breaking behaviour. Each has a note on how it behaves.

Copying several at once

Some apps trim a single blank or require a minimum length. Set “How many characters to copy” to the number you need and every copy button copies that many. Platforms change their rules from time to time, so if one character is removed, try another.

Finding hidden characters

Paste any text into the checker to see every invisible or unusual space it contains, with its name, code point and how often it appears. Typical finds include the byte order mark at the start of files, soft hyphens from word processors, left-to-right marks from mixed-language text, zero-width spaces from web pages and chat apps, and non-breaking spaces from Word or email. If the text contains none, the checker says so.

Why hidden characters cause problems

Two values that look identical but differ by an invisible character are not equal to a computer. A username with a zero-width space cannot log in, a spreadsheet lookup fails, a password copied from a document does not work, and source code refuses to compile with an error pointing at a line that looks perfectly fine. Once found, such characters can be removed with the Text Cleaner.

Using blank characters responsibly

Blank names and messages are harmless fun, but invisible characters are also misused to impersonate others, hide links or get around filters. Use them for your own names and messages only, and respect each platform’s rules.

Private

Everything happens in your browser; the text you check is not uploaded.

A worked example

Two usernames in a list both read “anna”, but a login fails for the second. Pasting it into the checker shows one Zero Width Space (U+200B), which was copied from a chat message along with the name. Deleting that character fixes the login. The same check explains spreadsheet lookups that return no match, filenames that will not open and code that will not compile even though the line looks correct.

Related tools

Count characters, including invisible ones, with the Character Counter, remove emoji with Remove Emojis, or create glitch text with the Zalgo Text Generator.