diff --git a/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.test.ts b/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.test.ts
index 2c46d8cc..03f41784 100644
--- a/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.test.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.test.ts
@@ -23,11 +23,10 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
   });
 
   describe('createRow', () => {
-    it('should create an element for every character in the row', () => {
+    it('should not create anything for an empty row', () => {
       const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
       assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-        '<span> </span>' +
-        '<span> </span>'
+        ''
       );
     });
 
@@ -45,8 +44,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
       for (const style of ['block', 'bar', 'underline']) {
         const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, true, style, 0, 5, 20);
         assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-          `<span class="xterm-cursor xterm-cursor-${style}"> </span>` +
-          '<span> </span>'
+          `<span class="xterm-cursor xterm-cursor-${style}"> </span>`
         );
       }
     });
@@ -65,8 +63,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
         lineData.set(0, [DEFAULT_ATTR | (FLAGS.BOLD << 18), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
         const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
         assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-          '<span class="xterm-bold">a</span>' +
-          '<span> </span>'
+          '<span class="xterm-bold">a</span>'
         );
       });
 
@@ -74,8 +71,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
         lineData.set(0, [DEFAULT_ATTR | (FLAGS.ITALIC << 18), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
         const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
         assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-          '<span class="xterm-italic">a</span>' +
-          '<span> </span>'
+          '<span class="xterm-italic">a</span>'
         );
       });
 
@@ -85,8 +81,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
           lineData.set(0, [defaultAttrNoFgColor | (i << 9), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
           const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
           assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-            `<span class="xterm-fg-${i}">a</span>` +
-            '<span> </span>'
+            `<span class="xterm-fg-${i}">a</span>`
           );
         }
       });
@@ -97,8 +92,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
           lineData.set(0, [defaultAttrNoBgColor | (i << 0), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
           const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
           assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-            `<span class="xterm-bg-${i}">a</span>` +
-            '<span> </span>'
+            `<span class="xterm-bg-${i}">a</span>`
           );
         }
       });
@@ -107,8 +101,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
         lineData.set(0, [(FLAGS.INVERSE << 18) | (2 << 9) | (1 << 0), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
         const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
         assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-          '<span class="xterm-fg-1 xterm-bg-2">a</span>' +
-          '<span> </span>'
+          '<span class="xterm-fg-1 xterm-bg-2">a</span>'
         );
       });
 
@@ -116,8 +109,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
         lineData.set(0, [(FLAGS.INVERSE << 18) | (257 << 9) | (1 << 0), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
         const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
         assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-          '<span class="xterm-fg-1 xterm-bg-15">a</span>' +
-          '<span> </span>'
+          '<span class="xterm-fg-1 xterm-bg-15">a</span>'
         );
       });
 
@@ -125,8 +117,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
         lineData.set(0, [(FLAGS.INVERSE << 18) | (1 << 9) | (256 << 0), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
         const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
         assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-          '<span class="xterm-fg-0 xterm-bg-1">a</span>' +
-          '<span> </span>'
+          '<span class="xterm-fg-0 xterm-bg-1">a</span>'
         );
       });
 
@@ -135,8 +126,7 @@ describe('DomRendererRowFactory', () => {
           lineData.set(0, [(FLAGS.BOLD << 18) | (i << 9) | (256 << 0), 'a', 1, 'a'.charCodeAt(0)]);
           const fragment = rowFactory.createRow(lineData, false, undefined, 0, 5, 20);
           assert.equal(getFragmentHtml(fragment),
-            `<span class="xterm-bold xterm-fg-${i + 8}">a</span>` +
-            '<span> </span>'
+            `<span class="xterm-bold xterm-fg-${i + 8}">a</span>`
           );
         }
       });
diff --git a/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.ts b/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.ts
index bcb0cc48..5f6b49fc 100644
--- a/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.ts
+++ b/src/renderer/dom/DomRendererRowFactory.ts
@@ -22,26 +22,29 @@ export class DomRendererRowFactory {
 
   public createRow(lineData: IBufferLine, isCursorRow: boolean, cursorStyle: string | undefined, cursorX: number, cellWidth: number, cols: number): DocumentFragment {
     const fragment = this._document.createDocumentFragment();
-    let colCount = 0;
-    let nonNullCellFound = false;
 
-    for (let x = lineData.length - 1; x >= 0; x--) {
+    // Find the line length first, this prevents the need to output a bunch of
+    // empty cells at the end. This cannot easily be integrated into the main
+    // loop below because of the colCount feature (which can be removed after we
+    // properly support reflow and disallow data to go beyond the right-side of
+    // the viewport).
+    let lineLength = 0;
+    for (let x = 0; x < lineData.length; x++) {
+      const charData = lineData.get(x);
+      const code = charData[CHAR_DATA_CODE_INDEX];
+      if (code !== NULL_CELL_CODE || (isCursorRow && x === cursorX)) {
+        lineLength = x + 1;
+      }
+    }
+
+    let colCount = 0;
+    for (let x = 0; x < lineLength; x++) {
       // Don't allow any buffer to the right to be displayed
       if (colCount >= cols) {
         continue;
       }
 
       const charData = lineData.get(x);
-
-      if (!nonNullCellFound) {
-        const code = charData[CHAR_DATA_CODE_INDEX];
-        if (code === NULL_CELL_CODE && !(isCursorRow && x === cursorX)) {
-          continue;
-        } else {
-          nonNullCellFound = true;
-        }
-      }
-
       const char = charData[CHAR_DATA_CHAR_INDEX];
       const attr = charData[CHAR_DATA_ATTR_INDEX];
       const width = charData[CHAR_DATA_WIDTH_INDEX];
@@ -108,11 +111,7 @@ export class DomRendererRowFactory {
       if (bg !== 256) {
         charElement.classList.add(`xterm-bg-${bg}`);
       }
-      if (fragment.childNodes.length === 0) {
-        fragment.appendChild(charElement);
-      } else {
-        fragment.insertBefore(charElement, fragment.firstChild);
-      }
+      fragment.appendChild(charElement);
       colCount += width;
     }
     return fragment;