Invisible Text Detector
An invisible character is a character that sits inside text but shows nothing on screen — a zero-width space, a soft hyphen, a blank that is not an ordinary space. This detector finds every one in text you paste, counts them and shows the exact line and position of each, inside your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
Everything happens in your browser. Your text is never uploaded, stored or logged.
Where they are in your text
Your text, with a coloured marker wherever a hidden character sits. Red was almost certainly put there on purpose. Amber could be either. Grey is the ordinary mess left behind by copying and pasting.
How to use it
- Copy your text. From an email, a document, a message — anywhere.
- Paste it in the box above. The check starts as you type. There is no button to press.
- Read the answer. It tells you if anything is hidden, how much, and where it sits.
Your text is never changed. This tool only looks.
What you will see
Most of the time you will get a short, calm answer: nothing hidden, or a few leftover bits from copying. That is normal.
If something looks deliberate, the tool says so clearly. It also tells you which line and which position, so you can find it in your original file.
Press A hidden message under the box above. It fills the box with a CV line that really does carry a hidden instruction, and you will see the tool count the characters, point at the line, and read the message back in plain English.
Every character it can find is named in the full list of invisible characters.
It reads the hidden message, not just counts it
Knowing that something is hidden is only half an answer. You still want to know what it says.
Hidden text is usually written one of two ways. Both are just codes. This tool knows both, turns them back into ordinary words, and shows you what they say.
Anything we uncover is shown as plain text and marked untrusted. Whoever wrote it did not mean for you to read it. Treat it as evidence — never as an instruction to follow.
When should I worry?
Simple guide:
- Nothing found — nothing to do.
- A few odd spaces or soft hyphens — normal copy-and-paste leftovers. Harmless. Clean them with the remover if they bother you.
- A hidden message, or a long run of hidden characters — this did not happen by accident. Keep the original file and take a screenshot of what the tool found.
Common questions
Someone sent me a document and it feels wrong. What do I do?
Open the file, select all the text, copy it, and paste it above. Then keep the original file. If this matters — a job application, a school case, a legal issue — a screenshot of the result next to the original file is far more useful than the cleaned-up text on its own.
Can I check a PDF or a Word file directly?
Not yet. Open the file, select the text, copy it and paste it here. We have not added file uploads because that would mean your file leaving your computer, which is exactly what this site avoids.
It found something. Does that mean someone cheated?
Usually not. Most hidden characters are just leftovers from copying between programs. Worry about three things: a readable hidden message, a long even run of hidden characters, or characters that flip text direction. None of those arrive by accident, and the tool points them out.
It says nothing was found. Is my text definitely clean?
It means we found nothing we recognise. That covers everything used in practice today, but no tool can promise a file is clean forever. If a lot rests on the answer, treat it as one piece of evidence rather than the final word.
It found nothing, but my text is still a mess.
Then the problem is whitespace you can see rather than characters you cannot: double spaces, spaces on the ends of lines, a wall of blank rows. That is a different tool — the whitespace cleaner tidies all of it and leaves your words alone.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The check happens in your browser. Load the page, disconnect from the internet, and it still works — that is the easiest way to see for yourself.