Remove empty lines from text, free and private
To remove empty lines from text for free, paste it into the Input Text box or click Choose File, leave Removal Mode on Remove All, and copy the result from Cleaned Text. Every empty line and every line that holds only spaces or tabs is deleted, and your other lines are left exactly as they were. Nothing is uploaded: the cleaning runs in your browser, and the Network tab in DevTools stays quiet while you work.
A blank line remover deletes lines that carry no visible content. This one tells two kinds apart: empty lines, which have no characters, and whitespace-only lines, which hold spaces, tabs or other white space. The Statistics panel counts both, plus the content lines and the result, and shows how many lines were removed as a number and a percentage.
Five modes cover different jobs, from deleting every blank to keeping one tidy gap between paragraphs. If you need to collapse repeated entries as well, run the text through remove duplicate lines, or put the lines in order with sort lines alphabetically.
Table of Use: which mode for which job
Each row pastes the example in, picks a Removal Mode and shows the result. ↵ marks a line break, ⇥ a line that holds only a tab, and ␣ a space.
| Task | Removal Mode | Input | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delete every blank line from a list | Remove All | a↵↵b↵⇥↵c | a↵b↵c |
| Delete the space and tab lines, keep real empty lines | Whitespace Only | a↵↵b↵⇥↵c | a↵↵b↵c |
| Shrink the gaps left by merged files | Compress | a↵↵↵↵b | a↵↵b |
| Clear the blank lines above a pasted block | Trim Edges | ↵↵a↵↵b | a↵↵b |
| Even out the spacing of an article | Paragraph Mode | a↵↵↵b↵⇥↵c | a↵↵b↵↵c |
| Tidy pasted code and keep its indentation | Remove All | if x:↵↵␣␣␣␣run() | if x:↵␣␣␣␣run() |
Features
- Five Removal Modes. Remove All, Whitespace Only, Compress, Trim Edges and Paragraph Mode, each with a one-line hint on its button.
- Two kinds of blank. A line counts as whitespace-only when nothing but spaces, tabs or other Unicode white space is on it, such as a non-breaking space.
- Statistics. Original lines, Empty lines, Whitespace-only lines, Content lines and Result lines, with the number and percentage of lines removed.
- Content untouched. Lines with text are never trimmed or reindented, so code, tables and poems keep their layout.
- Line endings kept. Unix, Windows and old Mac line breaks are recognised, the output reuses your line ending, and a final line break is neither counted as an empty line nor lost.
- Files in and out. Open .txt, .md, .json, .xml, .csv, .tsv, .log or .html files; Download .txt saves cleaned-text.txt.
- Use Result and Reset. Use Result sends the cleaned text back in as the input so you can apply a second mode. Reset clears the text and returns to Remove All.
Afterwards, count what is left with the line counter, number the lines with add line numbers, or take numbers off a pasted listing with remove line numbers.
How to Remove Empty Lines Step by Step
- Paste your text into Input Text, or click Choose File under "Or open a text file".
- Pick a Removal Mode. Remove All is selected to begin with.
- Check the Statistics to see how many empty and whitespace-only lines were found and removed.
- Read the result under Cleaned Text, then click Copy or Download .txt.
- Click Use Result to apply a second mode to the cleaned text, or Reset to start again.
Who Can Use It
Writers and editors paste text from a web page, an email or a PDF and use Paragraph Mode to get one even gap between paragraphs, then check the length with the word counter. Students tidy lecture notes the same way.
Developers and analysts clear blank lines from logs, config files and CSV exports, where some importers read a blank line as an empty record. A cleaned export can go straight into the CSV to JSON converter. Two cleaned versions of a file are easy to compare in the text diff tool.
For joining wrapped lines or other edits that this tool does not do, find and replace with regular expressions is the next stop, and the text case converter fixes capitals once the layout is right.
FAQs
How do I remove empty lines from text online for free?
Paste your text into the Input Text box, or click Choose File to open a text file. With Removal Mode on its default, Remove All, every empty and whitespace-only line is deleted and the result appears under Cleaned Text. Click Copy or Download .txt to keep it. The tool is free, needs no account and works entirely in your browser.
How do I remove blank lines but keep the spacing between paragraphs?
Choose Paragraph Mode. It leaves exactly one empty line between paragraphs, however many blank lines were there before, and removes blank lines at the very start and end. Compress is similar but only shrinks each run of blank lines to one line, so it keeps a single blank line at the start or end of the text if one was there.
What is the difference between an empty line and a whitespace-only line?
An empty line has no characters at all. A whitespace-only line contains spaces, tabs or other Unicode white space and nothing else. Both look blank on screen. Remove All deletes both kinds. Whitespace Only deletes just the second kind and keeps the truly empty lines. The Statistics panel counts the two kinds separately.
How do I remove multiple blank lines and keep just one?
Click Compress. Each run of consecutive blank lines, empty or whitespace-only, is replaced by a single blank line, so three blank lines in a row become one. Lines with content are not touched. Use Compress after merging several files or pasting from a web page, when you want to keep paragraph breaks but lose the extra gaps.
Will it remove the indentation from my code?
No. Only lines that are empty or contain nothing but white space are removed or merged. Every line with content is copied exactly as written, including leading tabs or spaces and any trailing spaces. A Python or YAML block keeps its indentation, and in Paragraph Mode the blank separators come out as truly empty lines.
How do I remove blank lines only at the start and end of my text?
Click Trim Edges. It deletes empty and whitespace-only lines before the first line of content and after the last one, and leaves every blank line in the middle exactly as it is. This is handy for pasted emails, code snippets and log extracts that carry a few stray blank lines above and below the part you want.
Can this tool remove line breaks inside a paragraph?
No. This tool deletes blank lines, not the line break that ends a line of text. To join lines into one, use the find and replace tool with Regular Expression turned on, search for \n and replace it with a space. That swaps each line break for a space, which turns wrapped text into a single paragraph.
Is my text uploaded when I remove empty lines?
No. The lines are cleaned by JavaScript in your browser and a file you open is read on your device, so nothing is sent to ZipConvert or anyone else. You can check the Network tab in DevTools while you paste: no request is made. Nothing is saved either, so closing or refreshing the tab clears the text.