Unicode reference

Unicode Whitespace Characters

Compare regular spaces, no-break spaces, tabs, typographic spaces, line separators, and zero-width format controls. Includes code points, visible behavior, and safe diagnostic steps.

Copy-and-paste workflow

Clean Text Copied from a PDF

Diagnose hard line breaks, repeated spaces, hidden no-break characters, hyphenation, and reading-order problems before choosing a transformation.

Why a guide is needed before some transformations

Whitespace is not a single character. A visible gap may be a regular space, a no-break space, a tab, or one of several typographic spaces. An invisible code point may control joining or wrapping. A PDF may not store paragraphs in the same order that a person sees them. Applying a broad replacement without identifying the cause can join words, destroy indentation, or change multilingual text.

A safe cleanup sequence

  1. Keep a copy of the original text.
  2. Determine whether the problem is horizontal spacing, line structure, or invisible format characters.
  3. Use the narrowest tool that targets the identified character or structure.
  4. Review live counts and compare the processed result with the source.
  5. For code, tables, Markdown, or multilingual writing, verify that meaningful formatting remains.

Tools referenced by the guides

The tool directory links to character-specific and line-specific utilities. They run in browser JavaScript and explain their transformation boundaries. The guides do not promise that one automatic mode is correct for every document; instead, they provide examples that help you choose deliberately.