diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2fed1f4..9d3d322 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -61,3 +61,6 @@ target/
 
 # Jupyter checkpoints
 *.ipynb_checkpoints/
+
+# Misc
+*.c
diff --git a/preimage/kernels/generic_string.py b/preimage/kernels/generic_string.py
index 1ec4319..eecaf9e 100644
--- a/preimage/kernels/generic_string.py
+++ b/preimage/kernels/generic_string.py
@@ -369,7 +369,7 @@ def set_gram_matrix_from_file(self, filename, delim="\t", lower_triangle=True):
             gram_matrix = np.eye(n_lines)
             with open(filename) as fin:
                 for row, line in enumerate(fin):
-                    line = map(float, line.split(delim))
+                    line = map(float, line.strip().split(delim))
                     for col, val in enumerate(line):
                         if row != col:
                             gram_matrix[row, col] = val