What Is Discord Text Formatting?
Discord uses a lightweight markup language called markdown. You type a few symbols around your words and Discord turns them into bold, italic, underlined, crossed-out or hidden text when the message is sent. Markdown is built into Discord, so it works the same for everyone, but it only applies inside messages and a few profile fields like your About Me. It has no effect on usernames, display names or server names.
Discord Markdown Cheat Sheet
| Style | Type this | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | **text** | Emphasis, keywords |
| Italic | *text* or _text_ | Tone, titles |
| Bold italic | ***text*** | Strong emphasis |
| Underline | __text__ | Highlights (combine with others, e.g. __**text**__) |
| Strikethrough | ~~text~~ | Corrections and jokes |
| Spoiler | ||text|| | Hiding plot points or answers until clicked |
| Inline code | `text` | Commands, short code |
| Code block | ```text``` | Multi-line code, ASCII art, monospace text |
| Quote | > text | Quoting one line |
| Multi-line quote | >>> text | Quoting everything after it |
| Headers | # / ## / ### text | Big, medium and small titles |
| Subtext | -# text | Small gray footnotes |
| List | - item or 1. item | Bulleted and numbered lists |
| Masked link | [label](https://example.com) | Clickable text links |
Headers and Subtext
Start a line with #, ## or ### followed by a space to create a large, medium or small header. Headers are perfect for rules channels, announcements and event posts. For the opposite effect, start a line with -# and a space to make small, muted subtext, useful for footnotes, credits or “edited for clarity” notes. Both only work at the very start of a line.
How to Make Colored Text in Discord
Discord has no color option for normal messages, but code blocks that use the ansi language support terminal color codes. The tool above builds these for you: pick a text color, an optional background, bold or underline, then copy the result. Behind the scenes it creates a block like this, where each color code starts with an invisible escape character:
```ansi [ESC][0;34mYour blue text[ESC][0m ```
Colors display on the Discord desktop app and in the browser. The mobile apps currently show the text inside a plain code block without color, so don’t rely on color alone to convey meaning.
Code Blocks and Syntax Highlighting
Wrap text in three backticks for a code block. Add a language name right after the opening backticks, such as ```js, ```py or ```css, and Discord adds syntax highlighting. Code blocks also keep spacing exactly as typed, which makes them handy for tables and text art.
Combining and Escaping Formatting
Most styles can be stacked. __***text***__ gives bold, italic and underlined text at once, and ||**text**|| hides bold text behind a spoiler. If you want to show the symbols themselves instead of formatting, put a backslash in front: \*not italic\*. Wrapping text in single backticks also displays symbols literally.
Markdown vs. Unicode Discord Fonts
Markdown changes how Discord displays ordinary text, while Unicode fonts change the characters themselves. That is why markdown is best for readable formatting in messages, and Unicode styles are the only way to get bold, cursive or gothic lettering in a display name or channel name. Try both with the Discord Fonts generator or jump to a specific look like bold or cursive.
Tips for Readable Formatting
- Use headers to structure long posts instead of making everything bold.
- Always put spoiler tags around plot points, puzzle answers and anything sensitive.
- Keep color for emphasis and decoration, since mobile users won’t see it.
- Screen readers handle markdown well, so it is more accessible than fancy Unicode text.