Copy Clean Text

Copy clean unformatted text from web or PDF. Strips zero-width spaces, unwraps linebreaks, shields formulas. 100% local & private.

Copy clean, unformatted plain text from any website, online PDF, or document in one click. Copy Clean Text automatically strips hidden zero-width tracking characters, unwraps broken linebreaks from column layouts, converts typographic curly quotes to clean ASCII, removes academic citation brackets like [1], and shields spreadsheet formulas from injection exploits. Everything runs 100% locally on your computer. Your text never touches an external server. WHY USE COPY CLEAN TEXT? ------------------------------------------------ When you copy text from modern websites, PDFs, Wikipedia, research papers, or emails, you rarely get clean plain text. Behind the scenes, the clipboard collects: • Hidden tracking characters (zero-width spaces like \u200B and soft hyphens) • Messy inline HTML formatting, background colors, and broken font sizes • Hard linebreaks that split sentences in half across narrow columns or PDF pages • Academic citation tags ([1], [edit], [citation needed]) that clutter your notes • Smart quotes (“ ” ‘ ’) and em-dashes that break code editors, terminal commands, and JSON payloads • Dangerous spreadsheet operators (=, +, -, @) that trigger formula injection when pasted into Excel or Google Sheets Copy Clean Text solves this instantly. Select any text on a page, click the floating Quick Pill, and your clipboard gets pure, normalized text ready to paste into Notion, Google Docs, Slack, VS Code, or Excel. CORE FEATURES --------------------------- • 1-Click Floating Quick Pill: Highlight any text on a webpage to reveal a clean action pill directly above your selection: - [ Clean ]: Cleans and copies your selection to the clipboard instantly in 1 click. - [ Append ]: Adds the cleaned selection to your multi-item copy buffer. • 8-Stage Pure Text Cleaning Engine: 1. HTML Stripper: Eliminates all tags, script blocks, and inline styles while preserving word spacing. 2. Unicode Hygiene & ZWSP Purge: Strips zero-width spaces (\u200B–\u200D, \uFEFF, \u2060) used in digital fingerprinting and web tracking. 3. Whitespace Normalizer: Converts non-breaking spaces (\u00A0) and exotic Unicode spaces into standard ASCII spaces. 4. Smart Quote & Dash Normalization: Replaces curly quotes, angled quotes, and typographic dashes with clean ASCII equivalents (' " - ...). 5. Academic Citation Stripper: Automatically removes bracketed citation markers ([1], [note 2], [citation needed]) from Wikipedia and journals without leaving weird spaces before punctuation. 6. Hard Linebreak Unwrapper: Merges fragmented lines from PDFs and columns into clean, readable paragraphs while de-hyphenating wrapped words. 7. Blank Line Collapser: Reduces runaway carriage returns and empty whitespace to standard double newlines. 8. Layer 4 Formula Shield: Automatically prefixes spreadsheet operators (=, +, -, @) with a leading single quote (') so Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets treat pasted text as visual strings rather than executable formulas. • Multi-Item Copy Buffer: Need to grab quotes from three different paragraphs or multiple web articles? Use the [ Append ] button (or Alt+Shift+A) to collect multiple clips into a persistent buffer drawer. Choose your delimiter (Double Newline, Single Space, Bullet point •, or Custom Divider), preview your combined text, and copy everything in one shot or export directly as a .txt file. • Universal Keyboard Shortcuts: - Alt + Shift + C: Clean and copy selected text instantly. - Alt + Shift + A: Append selected text to your multi-item buffer. - Right-Click Context Menu: Instant access via "Copy Clean Text" or "Append Clean Text". • Adaptive Tri-State Theming: - Signature Navy Dark Mode for low eye-strain night research. - Clean Enterprise Light Mode with high-contrast slate typography. - Matches your operating system settings automatically or toggles with 1 click. ZERO-BLOAT PRIVACY GUARANTEE -------------------------------------------------------- • 100% Client-Side: Operates entirely inside the local browser memory. • Zero Telemetry: No Google Analytics, no tracking pixels, and zero outbound network calls. • Minimum Permissions: Requests only activeTab, scripting, storage, and contextMenus. No broad wildcard host permissions (<all_urls>), no history access, and no cookie inspection. • Free Philosophy: Built by TOCARES as a focused, lightweight productivity utility. HOW TO USE IN 3 SECONDS --------------------------------------------- 1. Highlight any text on any webpage. 2. Click the floating "Clean" pill that appears right above your cursor (or press Alt+Shift+C). 3. Paste clean, sanitized text anywhere you want!