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New in Toolbox 1.3

Find hidden characters in text on your Mac

Some characters can't be seen. A zero-width space copied from a web page breaks a password or a line of code, a non-breaking space stops a search from matching, and a Cyrillic а looks exactly like a Latin a in a fake web address. Unicode Inspector lists every character in your text with its code point, its Unicode name and its UTF-8 bytes, and marks the hidden and look-alike ones in red, in the list and in the text. Clean Up removes them, and can swap look-alike letters for the real ones.

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One-time purchase · macOS 15 or later

Unicode Inspector in Toolbox for Mac: See every character in a piece of text, and find hidden ones: zero-width spaces, odd spaces and look-alike letters.Unicode Inspector in Toolbox for Mac: See every character in a piece of text, and find hidden ones: zero-width spaces, odd spaces and look-alike letters.

How to use Unicode Inspector

  1. Open Unicode Inspector and paste your text.

  2. Read the list of characters. Hidden and look-alike ones are marked in red.

  3. Turn on Only show problems to see just those.

  4. Click Clean Up to remove hidden characters, or also fix look-alike letters, then Copy.

Questions about Unicode Inspector

How do I find zero-width spaces in text?

Paste the text into Unicode Inspector. Zero-width spaces, joiners, byte order marks and direction marks are marked in red with their names, and highlighted in the text where they are.

What is a look-alike character?

A letter from another alphabet that looks the same as a Latin one, such as Cyrillic а and о or Greek Ο. They're used in fake web addresses and can make text that looks identical fail to match. Unicode Inspector names each one and says which letter it imitates.

Can it remove the hidden characters?

Yes. Clean Up removes invisible and control characters and turns unusual spaces into normal ones. The second option also replaces look-alike letters with the Latin letters they imitate.

Is it free, and is my text uploaded?

Toolbox is a paid app, and one purchase includes every tool, with no subscription or account. Text is inspected on your Mac and never sent anywhere.

94 Mac tools. One app. Pay once.

From $19 one-time · macOS 15 Sequoia or later

Buy Toolbox from $19