diff --git a/signwriting/tokenizer/signwriting_tokenizer.py b/signwriting/tokenizer/signwriting_tokenizer.py
index 22eabaf..c1511d0 100644
--- a/signwriting/tokenizer/signwriting_tokenizer.py
+++ b/signwriting/tokenizer/signwriting_tokenizer.py
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ def tokenize_symbol(symbol: SignSymbol, box_position=False):
             yield "p" + str(symbol["position"][1])
 
     def text_to_tokens(self, text: str, box_position=False) -> List[str]:
+        text = re.sub(r'([MLBR])', r' \1', text).strip() # add spaces
+        text = re.sub(r' +', r' ', text) # remove consecutive spaces
         signs = [fsw_to_sign(f) for f in text.split(" ")]
         for sign in signs:
             yield from SignWritingTokenizer.tokenize_symbol(sign["box"], box_position=box_position)
diff --git a/signwriting/tokenizer/test_signwriting_tokenizer.py b/signwriting/tokenizer/test_signwriting_tokenizer.py
index 315974b..f818840 100644
--- a/signwriting/tokenizer/test_signwriting_tokenizer.py
+++ b/signwriting/tokenizer/test_signwriting_tokenizer.py
@@ -25,6 +25,16 @@ def test_tokenization_multiple_signs(self):
 
         fsw = 'M123x456S1f720487x492 M124x456S1f210488x493'
         tokens = list(tokenizer.text_to_tokens(fsw, box_position=True))
+        self.assertEqual(tokens, [
+            'M', 'p123', 'p456', 'S1f7', 'c2', 'r0', 'p487', 'p492',
+            'M', 'p124', 'p456', 'S1f2', 'c1', 'r0', 'p488', 'p493'
+        ])
+
+    def test_tokenization_multiple_signs_no_space(self):
+        tokenizer = SignWritingTokenizer()
+
+        fsw = 'M123x456S1f720487x492M124x456S1f210488x493'
+        tokens = list(tokenizer.text_to_tokens(fsw, box_position=True))
         self.assertEqual(tokens, [
             'M', 'p123', 'p456', 'S1f7', 'c2', 'r0', 'p487', 'p492', 'M', 'p124', 'p456', 'S1f2', 'c1', 'r0', 'p488',
             'p493'