Plain Text Converter

Plain text is text without any formatting, styling, or embedded code. It contains the raw text characters themselves, including Unicode characters such as emoji, but no font information, colors, markup, or layout instructions. Common plain text file formats include .txt and .csv. Plain text is universally compatible because every text editor, form field, and application can read it without needing to interpret hidden markup or styles.

The converter strips all rich text formatting carried in the clipboard when content is copied from rendered documents, web pages, or email. This includes font families, font sizes, bold and italic styles, text colors, background colors, hyperlinks, images, and tables. What remains is the raw text content with line breaks, numbered list sequences, bullet characters, and tab indentation preserved. For removing other types of formatting such as emojis or extra whitespace, the Remove Text Formatting tool offers additional options.

Converting to plain text is useful when pasting content into online forms, CMS editors, or email templates that do not handle rich text well. It also helps when preparing text for code editors, command-line tools, ChatGPT prompts, or any context where hidden formatting causes display problems or unexpected behavior. Developers frequently use plain text conversion to clean up content copied from web pages before processing it further.

Most applications support a keyboard shortcut for pasting without formatting. On Windows and Chrome OS, use Ctrl+Shift+V. On macOS, use Cmd+Shift+V in most browsers and apps, or Cmd+Option+Shift+V in Microsoft Word. Google Docs also supports Ctrl+Shift+V (or Cmd+Shift+V on Mac). These shortcuts paste clipboard content as plain text, stripping all formatting. However, they also remove list numbering and indentation, which is where this converter is more useful since it preserves that structure.

Rich text contains embedded formatting instructions that control how the text looks: fonts, sizes, colors, bold, italic, hyperlinks, and layout information. Formats like .docx, .rtf, and HTML are rich text formats. Plain text contains only the characters themselves with no styling information. When copying from a Word document, email, or web page, the clipboard typically carries rich text data. Pasting that into a different application can introduce unwanted formatting, which is the problem this converter solves. For converting styled Unicode characters (such as bold or italic text from social media) back to normal letters, use the Unicode to Text Converter.