Copy an invisible character
Click any button to copy that specific blank character to your clipboard:
Best for WhatsApp empty messages, Discord blank names, Instagram bio breaks.
Bypasses strict website username validation where Korean characters are blocked.
Completely invisible with 0px width. Used for soft line breaks and hidden watermarks.
Standard space that prevents words from wrapping onto a new line (Alt+0160).
Typing a non-breaking space on Windows
On Windows computers with a numeric keypad:
Hold down the Alt key and type 0160 (or 255) on the numeric keypad, then release Alt.
This inserts an NBSP (Non-Breaking Space). In Microsoft Word, you can also press Ctrl + Shift + Space.
Typing a non-breaking space on Mac
On macOS, press Option + Space.
This outputs a non-breaking space (U+00A0) that keeps currency symbols glued to their numbers (e.g., $ 100) or prevents units from breaking across page margins.
Which character for which job
They are not interchangeable. Each is invisible for a different reason, and that reason decides whether a given app keeps it or strips it.
- Hangul filler, U+3164. Technically a Korean letter that happens to have no visible form, so it counts as a real character almost everywhere. This is the one that works for an empty WhatsApp message, a blank Discord nickname or an Instagram bio line break.
- Zero-width space, U+200B. Takes no width at all. Useful for forcing a line break opportunity in a long word or URL, and for separating characters so a system does not read them as one token. Frequently stripped by forms that sanitise input.
- Non-breaking space, U+00A0. Visible as a space but prevents a line break across it. The right character for 10 kg or Figure 3, not for making something look empty.
- Zero-width non-joiner and joiner, U+200C and U+200D. Control how adjacent letters connect in Arabic and Indic scripts, and how emoji sequences combine. Do not use these as blanks; they change how surrounding text renders.
- Braille pattern blank, U+2800. An empty Braille cell that occupies width. Survives in several places the others do not, though screen readers announce it.
If one of these disappears when you paste it, try the next. Which characters a platform accepts changes without notice, and the Hangul filler has been the most durable for several years.
Where people actually use these
Sending an empty message. Chat apps reject a message made only of spaces. One invisible character makes it non-empty and the message sends with nothing visible. The step-by-step version is insending an empty WhatsApp message.
A blank username or display name. Games and chat platforms require a non-empty name field. An invisible character satisfies the requirement while displaying nothing.
Spacing in a bio. Instagram and similar platforms strip leading spaces and collapse blank lines. An invisible character on the otherwise-empty line keeps it.
Layout in a spreadsheet or form. A cell that must contain something but display nothing. Worth a note in the file, since a later reader will find an invisible character genuinely mystifying.
When they cause problems
The same properties that make these useful make them a recurring source of bugs, usually when they arrive by accident in copied text.
- A search for a word finds nothing because a zero-width space sits inside it
- A password field rejects a pasted password with an invisible character on the end
- Two spreadsheet columns refuse to match despite looking identical
- A form validates as non-empty when the user typed nothing visible
- A filename or URL behaves differently from the one you thought you copied
The unicode inspectorlists every character in a string including the invisible ones, and thetext cleaner removes them. If you are debugging text that behaves oddly after a paste, check for these before anything else.
Related
For why an invisible character can make two identical-looking strings compare as different, seeUnicode normalisation and search. For stripping them out of pasted text generally, seepasting symbols without formatting.