Remove-Watermarks

A PowerShell script for removing invisible watermarks from text files.

Overview

This script recursively scans directories for text files and removes invisible watermarks such as zero-width characters and other hidden formatting characters that may be concealed in documents. It respects .gitignore rules and handles hidden files and directories accordingly.

Features

• Thorough Watermark Removal:

  • Removes all Unicode format characters (Unicode category Cf)
  • Eliminates known zero-width characters (invisible characters with no width)
  • Replaces Cyrillic homoglyphs with their Latin equivalents

• Intelligent File Detection:

  • Identifies genuine text files through content inspection
  • Automatically skips binary files

• Respect for Development Conventions:

  • Honors .gitignore rules
  • Respects hidden files and directories
  • Supports line ending conversion (CRLF ↔ LF)

• Robust Error Handling:

  • Checks write permissions before processing
  • Comprehensive error handling and logging
  • Skips files or directories without access rights

Usage

# Basic usage
.\Remove-Watermarks.ps1 -Path C:\Projects\MyRepo

# Dry run without making actual changes with detailed output
.\Remove-Watermarks.ps1 -Path C:\Projects\MyRepo -WhatIf -Verbose

# Clean all files, convert to LF line endings, and preserve timestamps
.\Remove-Watermarks.ps1 -Path C:\Projects\MyRepo -LF -Touch -Verbose

# Process hidden files and ignored files as well
.\Remove-Watermarks.ps1 -Path C:\Projects\MyRepo -Force

Parameters

Parameter	Description
-Path	The root directory to start processing from.
-WhatIf	Shows which files would be modified without actually making changes.
-Force	Ignores .gitignore rules and hidden file/folder attributes.
-CLRF	Converts lone LF line endings ("\n" without a preceding "\r") to CRLF ("\r\n").
-LF	Converts all CRLF line endings ("\r\n") to simple LF ("\n").
-Touch	Restores the original LastWriteTime timestamp after writing.
-Verbose	Standard PowerShell verbose switch for detailed output.

Installation

1. Download the script or clone the repository.
2. Optional: Add the directory containing the script to your PowerShell environment variable.

# The script can be run from any directory
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/midorlo/Remove-Watermarks/master/Remove-Watermarks.ps1 -OutFile Remove-Watermarks.ps1

Use Cases

• Developers: Remove hidden watermarks from code files before committing
• Editors: Clean text documents before publication
• Security Analysts: Remove potential hidden identifiers from shared files
• DevOps: Integrate into CI/CD pipelines for automatic cleaning

Requirements

• PowerShell 5.1 or higher
• Read permissions for directories to be scanned
• Write permissions for files to be modified

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue to report bugs or suggest features, or create a pull request with your changes.

Security Note

This script modifies files. It is recommended to create a backup before use or to test first with the -WhatIf option.