Discord Text Formatter
Type your message, tick the styles, and copy text that Discord will format: bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, spoilers, headings, subtext, lists, quotes, masked links and code blocks. A separate tab builds colored text with ANSI codes. A preview shows roughly how it will look. Free, no sign-up; nothing is sent to Discord.
Text styles
Headings, subtext, lists and quotes only work at the start of a line, and the text after the marker needs a space.
An approximation of Discord’s dark theme. Colours and spacing in the real app differ, and spoilers reveal when clicked.
50 characters
Masked link
The reader sees only the link text and goes to the address when they click it. Use it for links you trust readers to expect.
Your formatted text will appear here.
Code
Formatting does not work inside code, and a spoiler around it is ignored. A code block that is not in a recognised language shows without colours.
Your formatted text will appear here.
Coloured text in a code block
ANSI colours are not part of the Markdown in Discord’s own help article. They show in the desktop and web apps, but the phone apps have not shown them reliably, so test on your own devices before relying on them.
Colour your message
An approximation of Discord’s dark theme. Colours and spacing in the real app differ, and spoilers reveal when clicked.
51 characters
The ␛ symbol stands for the invisible escape character. The copy button includes the real character.
How to Use the Discord Text Formatter
- 1. Choose what to make. Text styles covers bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, spoilers, headings, subtext, lists and quotes. Masked link hides a web address behind text. Code makes inline code or a code block. Coloured text builds ANSI colors.
- 2. Type your text and tick the styles. Each line is formatted on its own, so a list or a set of headings takes one line per item.
- 3. Check the preview. It approximates Discord’s dark theme. Click a spoiler to reveal it.
- 4. Copy and paste. Paste into the Discord message box on desktop, web or mobile and send. The character count warns you if the message is too long.
Discord Markdown at a Glance
Discord uses a small version of Markdown, a plain-text way of marking up formatting. The syntax below is the set described in Discord’s Markdown Text 101 help article, plus spoilers.
| Format | What you type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Italics | *italics* or _italics_ | |
| Bold | **bold** | |
| Bold italics | ***bold italics*** | |
| Underline | __underline__ | Combines with the others: __**underline bold**__ |
| Strikethrough | ~~strikethrough~~ | |
| Spoiler | ||spoiler|| | Hidden until clicked. A code block cancels it. |
| Heading | # Big, ## Smaller, ### Smallest | At the start of a line, with a space after the hashes |
| Subtext | -# small text | At the start of a line, with a space after the hash |
| Masked link | [text](https://example.com) | The address needs the https:// start |
| Bulleted list | - item or * item | Indent with two spaces for a nested item |
| Block quote | > quote | >>> quote quotes every line after it |
| Inline code | `code` | |
| Code block | ```code``` | Wrap several lines in three backticks |
If you want a formatting symbol to appear as typed, put a backslash in front of it. The text styles tab has a switch that does this for every formatting character in your text, so a message about 2*3 stays as written.
Combined formatting
# **Game night** → a large bold heading
-# Doors open at 7 → small grey subtext
||The answer is 42|| → a spoiler
- bring snacks and - bring a friend → a bulleted list
Coloured Text with ANSI Codes
Discord has no Markdown for text colour. The workaround is a code block marked as ansi, which understands a few terminal colour codes. ANSI colours do not appear in Discord’s own Markdown help article, so treat them as an unofficial feature that Discord could change. They display in the desktop and web apps; the phone apps have not shown them reliably, so test on the devices your readers use.
Each coloured piece starts with the invisible escape character (ESC, character 27), then [, the codes separated by semicolons, and m. A reset, ESC[0m, ends it. The tool writes these for you, and the copy button includes the real escape character that you cannot see or type. Codes can combine: 1;4;31 is bold, underlined red.
| Code | Text colour | Code | Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Gray | 40 | Dark blue |
| 31 | Red | 41 | Orange |
| 32 | Green | 42 | Blue-gray |
| 33 | Yellow | 43 | Turquoise |
| 34 | Blue | 44 | Gray |
| 35 | Pink | 45 | Indigo |
| 36 | Cyan | 46 | Light gray |
| 37 | White | 47 | White |
Discord does not name these colours the way terminals do, so the names here describe how they look. They also depend on the theme: light mode and dark mode show them differently, and the preview is only an approximation.
Before You Send
- Message length. Most Discord accounts can send 2,000 characters per message. Formatting characters count, so a long heavily formatted post may need splitting.
- Masked links. Hidden addresses are easy to abuse, and Discord may show a warning before opening one. Use them for links your readers expect, and say what the link is.
- Accessibility. Screen readers read formatting characters unevenly. Keep key information in the plain words, not only in colour or a spoiler.
- Where it works. Markdown works in messages. Some places, such as a user’s name or a server name, do not format text at all.
To make a timestamp that shows in each reader’s own time zone, use the Discord Timestamp Generator. For styled letters that work without any Markdown, such as bold or small text, use the Bold Text Generator.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I make text bold or italic in Discord?
- Put two asterisks around text for bold, like
**bold**, and one asterisk or underscore for italics, like*italics*. Use three asterisks for both. This tool adds the markers for you and shows a preview. - How do I hide text as a spoiler on Discord?
- Put two vertical bars on each side of the text, like
||spoiler||. Readers click it to reveal it. A spoiler inside a code block does not work, because code blocks cancel formatting. - How do I make a heading or small text in Discord?
- Start a line with
#,##or###and a space for large to smaller headings, or with-#and a space for small subtext. The marker has to be at the very start of the line. - How do I get coloured text in Discord?
- Use a code block marked
ansiwith colour codes in it. The Coloured text tab builds this: choose the pieces of text and their colours, copy, and paste. Discord does not document this feature, and it has been inconsistent on phones. - How do I hide a link behind text?
- Write the text in square brackets and the address in round brackets right after it, like
[my site](https://example.com). The Masked link tab does it for you and encodes parentheses in the address so they cannot end the link early. - Why isn’t my formatting working?
- Common causes are a missing space after
#,-#,-or>, a marker that is not at the start of the line, spaces just inside the markers, or the text being inside a code block. Use the preview to check, and the escape switch if a symbol should appear as typed. - Does this tool send anything to Discord?
- No. It builds text in your browser, and nothing you type is sent or stored. You paste the result into Discord yourself.