The zero-width space (ZWSP; rendered: ; HTML entity: ​ or ​) is a non-printing character used in computerized typesetting to indicate word boundaries to text-processing systems for scripts that do not use explicit spacing, or after characters not followed by a visible space after which there may be a line break.
The zero-width space marks a potential line break without hyphenation. Its semantics and HTML implementation are similar to the soft hyphen, but soft hyphens display a hyphen character at the point where the line is broken.
The zero-width space can be used to mark word breaks in languages without visible space between words, such as Thai, Myanmar, Khmer, and Japanese. [1] [2]
Unlike fixed-width spaces, in justified text that increases spacing between letters, characters adjacent to the zero-width space are spaced as if it was not present. [2]
To show the effect of the zero-width space in text, the following words have been separated with zero-width spaces:
LoremIpsumDolorSitAmetConsecteturAdipiscingElitSedDoEiusmodTemporIncididuntUtLaboreEtDoloreMagnaAliquaUtEnimAdMinimVeniamQuisNostrudExercitationUllamcoLaborisNisiUtAliquipExEaCommodoConsequatDuisAuteIrureDolorInReprehenderitInVoluptateVelitEsseCillumDoloreEuFugiatNullaPariaturExcepteurSintOccaecatCupidatatNonProidentSuntInCulpaQuiOfficiaDeseruntMollitAnimIdEstLaborum
And the following words have not been separated with these spaces:
LoremIpsumDolorSitAmetConsecteturAdipiscingElitSedDoEiusmodTemporIncididuntUtLaboreEtDoloreMagnaAliquaUtEnimAdMinimVeniamQuisNostrudExercitationUllamcoLaborisNisiUtAliquipExEaCommodoConsequatDuisAuteIrureDolorInReprehenderitInVoluptateVelitEsseCillumDoloreEuFugiatNullaPariaturExcepteurSintOccaecatCupidatatNonProidentSuntInCulpaQuiOfficiaDeseruntMollitAnimIdEstLaborum
The first text only breaks at word boundaries, while the second text will not be broken at all. Resizing the browser window will re-break the text accordingly.
In
HTML pages, the HTML element
<wbr>
functions as a zero-width space. In
Internet Explorer 6, the zero-width space was not supported in some fonts.
[3]
ICANN rules prohibit domain names from containing non-displayed characters, including the zero-width space, and most browsers prohibit their use within domain names because they can be used to create a homograph attack, where a malicious URL is visually indistinguishable from a legitimate one. [4] [5]
The zero-width space character is encoded in
Unicode as U+200B ZERO WIDTH SPACE,
[6] and input in HTML as ​
, ​
or ​
. Contrary to what their names suggest, the character entities ​
, ​
, ​
, and ​
also refer to the zero-width space.
[7]
The
TeX representation is \hskip0pt
; the
LaTeX representation is \hspace{0pt}
;
[8] and the
groff representation is \:
.
[9]
Les espaces sans chasse sont conçues pour les langues qui ne séparent pas les mots à l'aide d'espaces visibles, comme le thaï ou le japonais.