CodeKitHubWhat Is This Tool?
This tool removes unwanted characters from text in two selectable modes. "Punctuation only" targets common punctuation marks — periods, commas, exclamation points, quotes, parentheses, and similar symbols — while leaving letters, numbers, and other characters untouched. "All special characters" is broader: it strips anything that isn't a letter, digit, or whitespace, using Unicode-aware matching so accented letters and non-Latin scripts (Chinese, Cyrillic, Arabic, etc.) are correctly preserved as letters rather than stripped.
A "keep spaces" checkbox controls whether removed characters leave a gap (spaces preserved) or the remaining words get pulled together with normalized single spacing.
Why Use It?
- Two clear modes — punctuation-only or all special characters — instead of one fixed behavior.
- Unicode-aware: correctly keeps accented and non-Latin letters as letters, not special characters.
- Option to keep or collapse spaces left behind by removed characters.
- Local processing — text never leaves your browser.
- No sign-up, no limits, free to use.
How to Use
- Paste your text into the input box.
- Choose "Remove punctuation only" or "Remove all special characters."
- Toggle "Keep spaces" depending on whether you want gaps left behind.
- Click Remove and copy the result.
Example
Input
Hello, World! (test)Output
Hello World testPunctuation-only mode removes the comma, exclamation mark, and parentheses, leaving the words separated by the original spaces.
Common uses
- Cleaning text before feeding it into a word-frequency counter or search index.
- Stripping formatting artifacts from text copied out of a PDF or scanned document.
- Preparing text for tokenization in a language-learning or NLP script.
- Removing quote marks and punctuation from a list before deduplicating entries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as "punctuation" versus "all special characters"?
Punctuation-only removes marks like . , ! ? ; : ' " ( ) [ ] { } and similar symbols used to structure sentences. All-special-characters is broader — it also strips symbols like @ # $ % ^ & * that aren't strictly punctuation but aren't letters or digits either.
Will this remove Chinese, Arabic, or accented letters?
No. Both modes use Unicode-aware character matching, so letters from any script — plus accented Latin letters like é or ü — are correctly recognized as letters and kept, not treated as special characters.
What happens to spaces when I remove punctuation?
If "Keep spaces" is checked, the original spacing between words is preserved (collapsing only accidental double spaces). If unchecked, all whitespace is normalized to single spaces and trimmed.
Does this work on numbers?
Numbers are never removed by either mode — only punctuation or non-alphanumeric symbols are stripped, digits are always kept.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. Processing happens locally in JavaScript in your browser; nothing is sent to a server.