From Text Cleaner to Full Toolkit: Building 30+ Free Browser Tools
Source: Dev.to
A few months ago, I needed to clean up some messy text from a PDF. The online tools I found were either drowning in ads, required sign‑ups, or wanted to send my data to their servers.
So I built my own. Then I kept building.
What started as a simple text cleaner has grown into CleanUpTxt: a suite of 30+ free browser tools covering text processing, image OCR, code conversion, and creative generators. Everything runs client‑side. No data leaves your browser.
Here’s how it happened and what I learned along the way.
The Stack
- React + TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Tesseract.js for OCR (fully client‑side)
- Hosted on Vercel
The priority was speed. Most tools load instantly and work offline once cached. No backend means no data‑privacy concerns – your text and images never touch a server.
What’s in the Toolkit
Text Cleaning
- Remove line breaks, duplicates, empty lines, HTML tags, commas
- Trim whitespace
Text Formatting
- Case converter, find & replace, sort lines, add prefix/suffix, slugify text, make text CSV‑safe
- Bionic Reading converter
Conversion Tools
- Markdown editor with live preview
- HTML escape/unescape
- Base64 encode/decode
- URL encode/decode
- JSON to TOON formatter
- Lorem Ipsum generator
Analysis
- Word counter, character counter, readability checker
- Text diff comparison
- Email/data extractor for pulling structured info from messy text
Image to Text (OCR)
Runs entirely in the browser using Tesseract.js. Upload a screenshot or photo and get editable text back—no server upload.
Creative Generators
- Fancy text generator, Discord fonts, cursive text, glitch text, Zalgo text, invisible characters
These let you create stylized text for social bios, usernames, and messages.
What Actually Gets Traffic
The Fancy Text Generator and Discord Fonts dominate. People want fancy text for Instagram bios, Discord usernames, and Twitter profiles. OCR also sees strong usage, especially from students extracting text from lecture slides and screenshots.
Developer tools (Base64, JSON, Markdown) receive steady traffic but face more competition.
Lesson learned: Build for problems people are actively Googling, not just what seems technically impressive.
The Boring Middle
Week one is exciting—shipping fast, dopamine flowing. Then comes the grind: SEO tweaks, edge‑case fixes, mobile responsiveness, writing meta descriptions for 30+ pages.
I treat side projects like a two‑project rotation. When one gets boring, I switch to the other, keeping momentum without burning out on repetitive tasks.
The projects that win are the ones you don’t abandon.
Privacy as a Feature
Every tool processes data client‑side. Your text, your images—none of it hits a server.
This isn’t just an ethical choice; it’s simpler to build, cheaper to run, and people actually care. “No sign‑up, no data collection” resonates more than expected.
What’s Next
- More generators (ASCII art, additional Unicode styles)
- Better mobile experience
- Possibly an API for developers who want to integrate these tools
Try It
Everything is free at CleanUpTxt.com. No sign‑up, no limits.
If there’s a tool you wish existed, let me know in the comments. Always looking for what to build next.