# Zero Width Character Remover Remove zero-width and invisible characters from text > Canonical page: https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/zero-width-remover - **Category:** Text Processing - **Keywords:** zero-width, invisible, character, remover, cleaner, unicode, hidden ## Overview The Zero Width Character Remover is a specialized utility designed to detect and strip invisible Unicode characters, control codes, and hidden formatting from your text to ensure data integrity and clean input. ## Inputs - **Text Input** (textarea): Enter text with zero-width characters to clean... - **Remove All Spaces** (checkbox): Remove all whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, newlines) - **Remove Control Characters** (checkbox): Remove control characters (ASCII 0-31, 127-159) - **Show Statistics** (checkbox): Display statistics about removed characters ## When to use - When your code or database queries fail due to unexpected hidden characters. - When copying text from PDFs or websites that introduces invisible formatting artifacts. - When you need to sanitize user input to prevent injection or display issues in your application. ## How it works - Paste your text into the input area to automatically scan for zero-width spaces, non-joiners, and other invisible Unicode characters. - Toggle optional settings to include the removal of standard control characters or all whitespace if necessary. - View the processed output and review the statistics to see exactly which hidden characters were identified and removed. ## Use cases - Cleaning API request payloads that contain invisible characters causing validation errors. - Sanitizing scraped web content to remove hidden formatting that disrupts layout or database storage. - Fixing broken search functionality caused by hidden characters embedded in user-submitted search terms. ## Frequently asked questions ### What are zero-width characters? They are non-printing Unicode characters used for formatting, such as zero-width spaces or non-joiners, which are invisible to the human eye but can break code logic. ### Does this tool remove standard spaces? Only if you explicitly enable the 'Remove All Spaces' option; otherwise, it preserves standard spacing while removing hidden formatting characters. ### Is my data sent to a server? No, all processing is performed locally in your browser to ensure your text remains private and secure. ### What are control characters? Control characters are non-printable codes (ASCII 0-31 and 127-159) often used to signal hardware or formatting instructions that can cause errors in modern text fields. ### Can I see what was removed? Yes, by enabling the 'Show Statistics' option, the tool provides a summary of the specific hidden characters detected and removed from your input. ## Related tools - [Empty Line Remover](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/empty-line-remover): Remove all empty lines from text (lines with no content) - [Line Number Remover](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/line-number-remover): Remove line numbers from text or code with intelligent pattern recognition - [Non-Alphanumeric Cleaner](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/non-alphanumeric-cleaner): Remove all non-alphanumeric special characters from text with flexible preservation options - [Prefix Remover](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/prefix-remover): Remove common prefixes from each line with intelligent detection and customizable options - [Suffix Remover](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/suffix-remover): Remove common suffixes from each line with intelligent detection and customizable options - [Text Emoji Remover](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-emoji-remover): Remove emojis and special symbols from text content - [Remove All Empty Lines](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/text-empty-lines-remover): Quickly delete all blank lines from text - [Chinese Character Extractor (汉字提取器)](https://elysiatools.com/en/tools/chinese-character-extractor): Extract all Chinese characters from text, filtering out punctuation and English letters, numbers, and non-Chinese symbols ## Samples - [Special Characters Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-special-characters-samples): Sample text files with various special characters, punctuation, and symbols for testing non-alphanumeric character removal - [Text with Emoji Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-with-emoji-samples): Mixed language text containing various Unicode emojis for testing emoji extraction - [Duplicate Line Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/text-duplicate-line-samples): Sample files with various types of duplicate lines for testing duplicate removal tools - [Code Comment Samples](https://elysiatools.com/en/samples/code-comment-samples): Sample code files with various comment styles for testing comment removal ## Related content - [Unicode, Emoji, and Invisible Character Debugging Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/unicode-emoji-debugging): Inspect hidden characters, normalize fullwidth text, decode escapes, review IDN punycode, and clean emoji-heavy strings in one Unicode debugging hub. - [Editorial Copy Review and Brand Voice Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/editorial-copy-review-and-brand-voice): Compare headline, readability, tone, typography, whitespace, and Markdown quality tools in one hub for editorial review before publishing. - [Text Case, Encoding, and Normalization Conversion Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/text-convert): Compare text case conversion, character-width conversion, encoding conversion, quoted-printable handling, and inline text normalization tools in one hub. - [Text Tools](https://elysiatools.com/en/hubs/text-utility): Explore 33 text tools for utility workflows and compare closely related utilities quickly.