diff --git a/.changeset/strip-default-ignorable-chars.md b/.changeset/strip-default-ignorable-chars.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..90de3f920
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/strip-default-ignorable-chars.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@react-pdf/layout": patch
+---
+
+fix(layout): strip default-ignorable characters (bidi controls, zero-width chars, BOM) so they are not rendered as fallback `.notdef` glyphs
diff --git a/packages/layout/src/text/ignoreChars.ts b/packages/layout/src/text/ignoreChars.ts
index cb4f24384..b103333bb 100644
--- a/packages/layout/src/text/ignoreChars.ts
+++ b/packages/layout/src/text/ignoreChars.ts
@@ -1,27 +1,107 @@
 import { Font, Fragment } from '@react-pdf/textkit';
 
-const IGNORABLE_CODEPOINTS = [
-  8232, // LINE_SEPARATOR
-  8233, // PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR
-  8288, // WORD_JOINER
-];
-
-const buildSubsetForFont = (font: Font) =>
-  IGNORABLE_CODEPOINTS.reduce((acc, codePoint) => {
+// Separators historically stripped by this module. They are not
+// Default_Ignorable_Code_Points but should keep being removed to avoid a
+// visible-glyph regression.
+const EXTRA_IGNORABLE_CODEPOINTS = new Set([
+  0x2028, // LINE_SEPARATOR
+  0x2029, // PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR
+]);
+
+/**
+ * Whether a code point is a Unicode Default_Ignorable_Code_Point.
+ *
+ * These characters (bidi controls, zero-width spaces/joiners, the BOM, variation
+ * selectors, etc.) are not meant to be rendered as visible glyphs. This mirrors
+ * fontkit's own `isDefaultIgnorable` (derived from DerivedCoreProperties.txt),
+ * so text laid out here matches what the shaper considers ignorable.
+ */
+const isDefaultIgnorableCodePoint = (ch: number): boolean => {
+  const plane = ch >> 16;
+  if (plane === 0) {
+    // BMP
+    switch (ch >> 8) {
+      case 0x00:
+        return ch === 0x00ad;
+      case 0x03:
+        return ch === 0x034f;
+      case 0x06:
+        return ch === 0x061c;
+      case 0x17:
+        return ch >= 0x17b4 && ch <= 0x17b5;
+      case 0x18:
+        return ch >= 0x180b && ch <= 0x180e;
+      case 0x20:
+        return (
+          (ch >= 0x200b && ch <= 0x200f) ||
+          (ch >= 0x202a && ch <= 0x202e) ||
+          (ch >= 0x2060 && ch <= 0x206f)
+        );
+      case 0xfe:
+        return (ch >= 0xfe00 && ch <= 0xfe0f) || ch === 0xfeff;
+      case 0xff:
+        return ch >= 0xfff0 && ch <= 0xfff8;
+      default:
+        return false;
+    }
+  }
+  switch (plane) {
+    case 0x01:
+      return (
+        (ch >= 0x1bca0 && ch <= 0x1bca3) || (ch >= 0x1d173 && ch <= 0x1d17a)
+      );
+    case 0x0e:
+      return ch >= 0xe0000 && ch <= 0xe0fff;
+    default:
+      return false;
+  }
+};
+
+/**
+ * Removes default-ignorable characters that the fragment's font cannot render.
+ *
+ * Without this, characters such as the bidi controls U+202A/U+202C or the RLM
+ * U+200F reach glyph mapping, miss the font's cmap, and get drawn as a fallback
+ * `.notdef` glyph — appearing as visible garbage (e.g. overprinted on an adjacent
+ * letter). If the font does provide a glyph for a given code point we keep it, so
+ * fonts that intentionally render these are unaffected.
+ */
+const buildIgnorableChars = (font: Font, string: string): string[] => {
+  const chars = new Set<string>();
+  for (const char of string) {
+    const codePoint = char.codePointAt(0);
+    if (codePoint === undefined) continue;
+    if (
+      !isDefaultIgnorableCodePoint(codePoint) &&
+      !EXTRA_IGNORABLE_CODEPOINTS.has(codePoint)
+    )
+      continue;
     if (
       font &&
       font.hasGlyphForCodePoint &&
       font.hasGlyphForCodePoint(codePoint)
-    ) {
-      return acc;
-    }
-    return [...acc, String.fromCharCode(codePoint)];
-  }, []);
+    )
+      continue;
+    chars.add(char);
+  }
+  return [...chars];
+};
+
+const escapeRegExp = (char: string): string =>
+  char.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&');
 
 const ignoreChars = (fragments: Fragment[]): Fragment[] =>
   fragments.map((fragment) => {
-    const charSubset = buildSubsetForFont(fragment.attributes.font[0]);
-    const subsetRegex = new RegExp(charSubset.join('|'));
+    const ignorable = buildIgnorableChars(
+      fragment.attributes.font[0],
+      fragment.string,
+    );
+
+    if (ignorable.length === 0) {
+      return fragment;
+    }
+
+    const subsetRegex = new RegExp(ignorable.map(escapeRegExp).join('|'), 'gu');
 
     return {
       string: fragment.string.replace(subsetRegex, ''),
diff --git a/packages/layout/tests/text/ignoreChars.test.ts b/packages/layout/tests/text/ignoreChars.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..74ae88a85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/layout/tests/text/ignoreChars.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+import { describe, expect, test } from 'vitest';
+
+import type { Font, Fragment } from '@react-pdf/textkit';
+
+import ignoreChars from '../../src/text/ignoreChars';
+
+const fontWithout = (codePoints: number[] = []): Font =>
+  ({
+    hasGlyphForCodePoint: (codePoint: number) => codePoints.includes(codePoint),
+  }) as unknown as Font;
+
+const fragment = (string: string, font: Font): Fragment =>
+  ({ string, attributes: { font: [font] } }) as unknown as Fragment;
+
+const run = (string: string, font: Font = fontWithout()): string =>
+  ignoreChars([fragment(string, font)])[0].string;
+
+describe('layout text ignoreChars', () => {
+  test('strips bidi controls the font cannot render (LRE, PDF, RLM)', () => {
+    expect(run('\u202aExample Name\u202c\u200f')).toBe('Example Name');
+  });
+
+  test('strips zero-width, word joiner, isolates and BOM', () => {
+    expect(run('\uFEFF\u200bA\u200cB\u2060C\u2066D\u2069')).toBe('ABCD');
+  });
+
+  test('keeps the previously handled separators and word joiner', () => {
+    expect(run('a\u2028b\u2029c\u2060d')).toBe('abcd');
+  });
+
+  test('leaves ordinary and accented text untouched', () => {
+    expect(run('Æblegård Müller 日本語')).toBe('Æblegård Müller 日本語');
+  });
+
+  test('keeps a default-ignorable code point when the font provides a glyph', () => {
+    // 0x2060 WORD JOINER present in the font -> not stripped.
+    expect(run('a\u2060b', fontWithout([0x2060]))).toBe('a\u2060b');
+  });
+
+  test('returns the fragment unchanged when nothing is ignorable', () => {
+    const font = fontWithout();
+    const input = [fragment('plain', font)];
+    expect(ignoreChars(input)[0]).toBe(input[0]);
+  });
+});