diff --git a/kitty/screen.c b/kitty/screen.c
index 55f3d3046..309a0b0cd 100644
--- a/kitty/screen.c
+++ b/kitty/screen.c
@@ -1101,11 +1101,6 @@ draw_control_char(Screen *self, text_loop_state *s, uint32_t ch) {
     }
 }
 
-static bool
-is_roundtripped_zero_width_char(char_type ch) {
-    return ch == 0xad || ch == 0x200b || ch == 0x2060;
-}
-
 static void
 draw_text_loop(Screen *self, const uint32_t *chars, size_t num_chars, text_loop_state *s) {
     init_text_loop_line(self, s);
@@ -1124,13 +1119,11 @@ draw_text_loop(Screen *self, const uint32_t *chars, size_t num_chars, text_loop_
         int char_width = wcwidth_std(cp);
         if (UNLIKELY(char_width < 1)) {
             if (char_width == 0) {
-                // check for some zero width chars that we want to preserve for
-                // round tripping that are not added to prev cell by grapheme
-                // segmentation.
-                if (s->prev.cc && is_roundtripped_zero_width_char(ch)) {  // soft hyphen, zero width space, word joiner
-                    draw_combining_char(self, s, ch);
-                }
-                continue;  // we cannot represent zero width chars except as combining chars
+                // Preserve zero width chars as combining chars even though
+                // they were not added to the prev cell by grapheme segmentation.
+                // Zero width chars can only be represented as combining chars.
+                if (s->prev.cc) draw_combining_char(self, s, ch);
+                continue;
             }
             char_width = 1;
         }
@@ -1317,7 +1310,7 @@ screen_handle_multicell_command(Screen *self, const MultiCellCommand *cmd, const
             char_type ch = self->lc->chars[i];
             CharProps cp = char_props_for(ch);
             if (cp.is_invalid) continue;
-            if ((s = grapheme_segmentation_step(s, cp)).add_to_current_cell || (wcwidth_std(cp) == 0 && is_roundtripped_zero_width_char(ch) && lc.count)) lc.chars[lc.count++] = ch;
+            if ((s = grapheme_segmentation_step(s, cp)).add_to_current_cell || (wcwidth_std(cp) == 0 && lc.count)) lc.chars[lc.count++] = ch;
             else {
                 if (lc.count) handle_variable_width_multicell_command(self, mcd, &lc);
                 if (wcwidth_std(cp) < 1) lc.count = 0;
diff --git a/kitty_tests/datatypes.py b/kitty_tests/datatypes.py
index 7b420f6ce..812135168 100644
--- a/kitty_tests/datatypes.py
+++ b/kitty_tests/datatypes.py
@@ -640,7 +640,41 @@ class TestDataTypes(BaseTest):
     def test_split_into_graphemes(self):
         self.assertEqual(char_props_for('\ue000')['category'], 'Co')
         self.ae(split_into_graphemes('ab'), ['a', 'b'])
+        s = self.create_screen(cols=12)
+        excluded_chars = set(range(32))
+
+        def is_excluded(text):
+            return bool(set(map(ord, text)) & excluded_chars)
+
+        def adapt_cell_text(cells):
+            for cell in cells:
+                gp = split_into_graphemes(cell)
+                if len(gp) == 1:
+                    yield cell
+                else:
+                    for i, g in enumerate(gp[:-1]):
+                        if wcswidth(gp[i+1][0]) != 0:
+                            raise AssertionError(
+                                f'cell {cell!r} contains grapheme break point at non zero width character for Test #{i}: {test["comment"]}')
+                    yield from gp
+
         for i, test in enumerate(json.loads(read_kitty_resource('GraphemeBreakTest.json', __name__.rpartition('.')[0]))):
             expected = test['data']
-            actual = split_into_graphemes(''.join(expected))
+            text = ''.join(expected)
+            actual = split_into_graphemes(text)
             self.ae(expected, actual, f'Test #{i} failed: {test["comment"]}')
+            if is_excluded(text):
+                continue
+            s.carriage_return(), s.erase_in_line()
+            s.draw(' ' + text)
+            actual = []
+            for x in range(s.cursor.x):
+                cell = s.cpu_cells(0, x)
+                if cell['x'] > 0:
+                    continue
+                ct = cell['text']
+                if x == 0:
+                    ct = ct[1:]
+                if ct:
+                    actual.append(ct)
+            self.ae(expected, list(adapt_cell_text(actual)), f'Test #{i} failed: {test["comment"]}')