Invisible characters are Unicode characters
that take up space in text but don't
display visibly. They can cause various problems:
- Zero-width spaces (U+200B): Can
break functions in code, URLs, and file
names.
- Non-breaking spaces (U+00A0):
Look like regular spaces but prevent line
breaks.
- Bidirectional text control
characters: Can be used for phishing by
manipulating text direction.
- Other formatting characters: Can
cause unexpected behavior in
applications.
These characters often end up in your text
when:
- Copying text from websites or PDF documents
- Working with text from different sources or systems
- Converting documents between formats
- Someone has deliberately inserted them (sometimes for malicious purposes)