Since, in one of our previous posts, we’ve already introduced you to Discord and how you can create a Discord account to get started with it, let us get straight to the point and give prominence to help you know the Discord “text formatting” commands that will improve your messaging experience.

Before we get started, be aware that Discord encounters glitches from time to time. So, in case, if Discord is not working properly, you can read here about various Discord issues and their fixes to address them effectively!

Now, what you need to know is that on Discord— one of the most advanced messaging apps in the world, you can shape your messaging experience however you wish.

So, if you’ve seen your group members and friends using a variety of text formats, from simple bold, italic, or underline text to different font colours, then guess what! You too can bold, create strikethrough text, or use 22 text formatting commands in Discord once you know “how Discord text formatting works and what are the text formatting options available by Discord!”

Luckily, this will no longer be a mystery to you as we have covered “how Discord text formatting works and what are all the available text formatting options/commands that Discord offers” in this guide.

Not only this, we have also discussed the tips on how to make discord colour text. Technically, Discord doesn’t provide an option for you to colorize a post, but there are still easier ways to create text in certain colours.

So, having said that, let’s begin—

Discord Text Formatting 

Introduction to Discord Markdown: Discord’s Text Formatting Engine

The secret to other people chatting on Discord with formatted text is simply that, Discord uses the “Markdown language for text formatting”, which gives you a wide range of options for text formatting such as bold, underline, italic, etc. 

What is Markdown language in Discord?
Introduced back in 2004 by Aaron Swartz and John Gruber, Markdown is a lightweight markup language commonly used for forum text discussions, formatting Readme files, and converting plain text to rich text in simple text editors.

The language comes with plain text formatting syntax and it was designed to be easy to read and write simple sentences. Native supports only HTML, but Markdown is used in a plain text editor, for example, to create rich (italics, underlined, bold) text for writing messages in online forums. [For more info, read @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language]

It is completely text based and uses simple symbols to bold, italicize, strikethrough, and underline, so serves as a backbone for the text formatting on Discord to help you stand out from what you’re saying.

Now that we’ve explained what’s responsible for text formatting in Discord, it’s time to move on to the how-to part!

How to Format Text in Discord?

There are a total of four different styles that can be used individually or together to transform your plain text into something more prominent and eye-catching. These are Strikethrough text, Bold text, Italics text, and Underline.

So, whether you want to make your sentence stand out or highlight a specific word while texting on Discord, we’ll show you how—

Prerequisite: Open your Discord application and select any text channel on your Discord server.

  1. Strikethrough

The very first Discord chat command suggests a discord strikethrough. If you want to display a text crossed or lined out, you can use strikethrough format. 

In HTML, this would be the <strike> tag.  Here, note that drawing lines on top of text can be difficult in other editors, but it’s easy to do on Discord.

How to Strikethrough Text in Discord?Example
Add two tilde keys ‘~~’at the start and end of your text message to use strikethrough text format.Here’s an example of using the Strikethrough text format for a message in Discord:
To generate ‘~~’press and hold ‘Shift + `’ twice.~~Strikethrough message~~
Note: On standard keyboards, the tilde is on the same key as the backtick (`), i.e., to the left of the number ‘1’ key.
Alternatively, you can also—select text while using Discord on PC and hold down ” to strikethrough text.
Strikethrough text format for a message in Discord
  1. Bold Text

Sometimes, while chatting on Discord, you feel the need to emphasize a particular word or statement. The easiest way to show the importance of a word is to make text bold. It works similar to <strong> and <b> tags in HTML but doing so is really simple on Discord.

How to Bold Text in Discord?Example
To make Discord text bold, you’ll need to add two asterisks (**) to both sides of the text.Here’s an example of using the bold text format for a message in Discord:
You have to press ‘Shift + 8’ to use the bold text format.**bold text message**
[Note: Asterisk symbol is placed at the 8th key on the keyboard.]
Alternatively, you can also— select text while using Discord on PC and hold down ‘Ctrl + B’ (Windows) or ‘Cmd + B’ (Mac) to bold text.
Putting a double asterisk at the beginning and end of a word in a message will make it bold.
Bold text format for a message on Discord
  1. Italicized Text

If you wish, you can also make your text appear italicized (slightly slanted) on Discord chat for emphasizing something especially when quoting or writing dialogue.

In HTML, slanting the characters or you can say using italic text format is similar to <em> and <i> tags. But it is the easiest command to implement on Discord.

How to Italicize Text in Discord?Example
Simply putting the single asterisk ‘*’ at the beginning and end of the text messages or any particular word will convert the same into italic text format.Here’s an example of using the italic text format for a message in Discord:
You have to press and hold ‘Shift + 8’ once at the beginning and end of the desired text to italicize.*italic message* 
Alternatively, you can also—select text while using Discord on PC and hold down ‘Ctrl + I’ (Windows) or ‘Cmd + I’ (Mac) to italicize.
italic text format for a message in Discord
  1. Underline

Last but not least, a great way to draw attention to a specific detail is to underline text. The underline text format on Discord highlights a message or text (for example, the date or time of an event that you don’t want your friends to forget) by drawing a line beneath it. It is similar to the <u> tag in HTML.

How to Underline Text in Discord?Example
At the beginning and ending of your message, you can type two underscores, “__” for underlining the text.Here’s an example of using the underline text format for a message in Discord:
To underline text, you have to press and hold ‘Shift + _’ twice.__underline message__
[Note: The underscore symbol ‘_’ is on the same key as the hyphen ‘-’.]
Alternatively, you can also— select text and hold down ‘Ctrl + U’ (Windows) or ‘Cmd + U’ (Mac) to underline text when using Discord on PC.
Underline text format for a message in Discord

Discord Chat Formatting with Mixed Format

It’s worth noting that Discord also lets you combine two or more types of formatting together. Wonder how? Well, you just need to add symbols for each type before and after the selected text. 

How to Combine Two or More Text Formatting in Discord?

As said above, you can add more than one format to the same text message or part of it. So, in order to understand this in detail, continue reading these combination of Discord’s text formats—

  1. Combine Bold + Strikethrough

How To Make Your Text Both Bold And Strikethrough At The Same Time?

Bold and strikethrough text formats can be used together in any text by placing two asterisks ‘*’ as well as two tildes ‘~’ at the start and end of the selected text.

Example: Here’s an example of using the bold as well as strikethrough text format for a message in Discord; **~~bold strikethrough message~~**

Bold and Strikethrough text format for a message in Discord
  1. Combine Bold + Italics

How To Make Your Text Both Bold And Italic At The Same Time?

If you want to combine both effects, you need to add three asterisks ‘*’ at the beginning and end of the text you wish to be bold and italic at the same time. 

Example: Here’s an example of using the bold as well as italics text format for a message in Discord; ***bold italics message *** 

Bold and Italicized text format for a message in Discord
  1. Combine Bold + Underline

How To Make Your Text Both Bold And Underline At The Same Time?

To send bold as well as underlined text at the same time, you must add two underscores, ‘_’ and two asterisks ‘*’ at the beginning and end of that specific text message or part of it.

Example: Here’s an example of using the bold as well as underline text format for a message in Discord; __**underline bold text message**__

Bold and Underline text format for a message in Discord
  1. Combine Bold + Italics + Strikethrough + Underline

How To Make Your Text Bold, Italic, Strikethrough and Underline At The Same Time?

For applying bold, strikethrough, italic as well as underline at the same time, you just need to put all applicable symbols at the beginning and end of your desired text. 

Note: Here, you have to make sure that the symbols at the beginning should be in the same position at the end of the text.

Example: Here’s an example of using the bold, strikethrough, italic and underline text format for a message in Discord; ***~~__bold italic strikethrough underline text message __~~*** 

Bold, Strikethrough, Italic and Underline text format for a message in Discord

Tip: In the same way discussed above, you can play around with different symbols to use different text formats together on Discord. For example; underline & italic text formats, italic & strikethrough formats, strikethrough & underline formats, underline bold & italic text formats, etc.

To be specific, below is a list of special characters that you are recommended to add before and after the target content.

  • Bold strikethrough: **~~for example~~**
  • Italics underline: *__for example__* or ___for example___ (three underscores before and after text)
  • Bold italics: ***for example*** or **_for example_**
  • Bold underline: **__for example__**
  • Underline strikethrough: __~~for example~~__
  • Italics strikethrough: *~~for example~~* or _~~for example~~_
  • Bold underline strikethrough: **__~~for example~~__**
  • Italics underline strikethrough: *__~~for example~~__* or ___~~for example~~___
  • Bold italics underline strikethrough: ***__~~for example~~__*** or **___~~for example~~___**
  • Bold italics underline: ***__for example__*** or **___for example___**
  • Bold italics strikethrough: ***~~for example~~*** or **_~~for example~~_**

Now, in addition to learning the basic Discord text formatting which requires only a few special characters like an asterisk, backslash, underscore, and tilde to bold, italicize, strikethrough, and underline your text— your next step will be to use colors to make the text formatting look even cooler.

[Note: Although, the Discord text formatting logic is quite straightforward, you need to be more careful with understanding colours than with other markup commands.]

Discord Colour Text Formatting

Advanced Text Formatting: Introduction to Code Blocks 

Let’s tell you that on Discord, you can also use “code blocks” for sending your text.  

A code block is a collection of lines of code which are enclosed in a text box. 

Code blocks are used in order to share snippets of code with friends and/or team members. 

It is beneficial in the manner that the text contained in the code block is sent without any kind of formatting and is displayed as is.

Why Is It Important To Create A Code Block?

Since you are not a developer, you may think that you will not need code blocks. But that’s not true. If you want to create coloured text on Discord, you’ll need to learn code block structure.

So, before finally moving on to the different syntax and how that changes the colour with Discords text, let’s understand code blocks and how to add code blocks in Discord. 

While this is technically classed as ‘advanced discord text formatting,’ it’s quite simple to create and use.

How to Create Code Block Commands on Discord?

By using the Backticks (“) sign, you can create both “Single and Multiple” code blocks on Discord that you can trade in seconds.

Note: On standard English keyboards, the backtick (`) and the tilde (~) are on the same key i.e., to the left of ‘1’.

  1. Single Line Code Blocks

If you want to create a single-line code block for sending your text, you need to only use one backtick before and after the text. It will just highlight the text and leave the surrounding space empty.

Single-line code block on Discord using 3 backticks
  1. Multiple Line Code Blocks

You can also write your text beautifully by creating multi-line code blocks. For this, you require using 3 backticks before and after the text.

Multi-line code block on Discord using 3 backticks

Formatting Coloured Text in Discord

Although Markdown provides many text formatting, it is limited to non-coloured text formats.

Embedding markup in Discord cannot add a coloured-text formatting option. In fact, there is no built-in Discord functionality for standard messaging in coloured text. So, the question arises, how can coloured text format be used in Discord? Well, the simple answer is that Discord uses a package called “highlight.js” to display code block commands with colours.

To be precise, when you use a code with some specific syntax, the entered text with the specified colour will be displayed on Discord. As a result, you can use the “highlight.js” code to demonstrate the ability to send coloured text discord messages.

What is Highlight.js?
Highlight.js is a library used by Discord to add colour to text since Discord doesn’t have true full-text highlighting. Therefore, you cannot add a symbol directly to either side of the text you want to colour. Instead, you must create a code block in highlight.js, point it to a specific syntax highlighting profile, and then wrap the text in the appropriate symbols.

How to Create Coloured Text in Discord?

Note: In order to get any kind of coloured text, you need to enclose the text in multi-line code blocks using three backticks because in multi-line code blocks only, different types of syntax highlighting languages are utilized for colouring your text. And, when using a syntax highlighting language, you must specify its name at the beginning of the code block.

  1. Red Colored Text: How to Color Text Red in Discord?

You must specify the syntax highlighting as ‘diff’ in the first line of the code block to format the text in red. Then, you need to add a dash ‘-’ to the beginning of the message you want to turn red.

Color Text Red in Discord
  1. Yellow Colored Text: How to Color Text Yellow in Discord?

Just with the syntax highlighting language ‘fix’ you can change everything you write in yellow color (by default). Here, no other code is required.

Color Text Yellow in Discord
  1. Blue Colored Text: How to Color Text Blue in Discord?

Using ‘ini’ syntax highlighting, you can turn your text message blue. With ini syntax, you need to add square brackets [ ] around i.e., before and after the text.

Color Text Blue in Discord
  1. Green Colored Text: How to Color Text Green in Discord?

You can highlight text green in Discord using the ‘diff’ syntax. Along with this, you have to put a plus sign (+) before the text you want to make green.

Color Text Green in Discord
  1. Orange Colored Text: How to Color Text Orange in Discord?

To make Discord text orange, you need to use the ‘css’ syntax and with that, you also need to use square brackets [ ] on both sides of the text.

Color Text Orange in Discord
  1. Cyan Colored Text: How to Color Text Cyan in Discord?

To make Discord text cyan, you need to use ‘json’ syntax and with this, you also have to use quotation marks ‘””’ on both sides of the text.

Color Text Cyan in Discord

Multiple-Color Combinations to Color Text in Discord

Above we’ve explained how to highlight the entire text in a single colour. Now, let’s see how you can use multiple colour combinations to colour text in Discord.

  • Yellow and Cyan: How to Color Text Yellow and Cyan in Discord?

You’ve to first add three backticks, then enter the name of the syntax language i.e., ‘fix’ and on the next line start typing your text (this will be in Yellow). Following that, enter an equal sign ‘=’ and continue typing your text (this will be in Cyan).

Color Text Yellow and Cyan in Discord
  • Light Green and Red Text: How to Color Text Light Green and Red in Discord?

Add the three backticks and type ‘diff’ syntax to make a line red. After that, start that line with the hyphen or minus ‘-’ symbol. In addition, to make a line light green, start it with the plus symbol ‘+’ and close with the three backticks.

Color Text Light Green and Red in Discord
  • Orange-Red and Blue Text: How to Color Text Orange-Red and Blue in Discord?

Going as pee the same rule, add the syntax name after the backtick. You need to use ‘css’ syntax to combine orange-red and blue text. Then, type the text on the next lines. Now, in order to make the text orange-red, type it between square brackets [] and to make it blue, type after a ‘dot/full-stop/period,’ with no spaces and, simply close the sentence with three backticks.

Color Text Orange-Red and Blue in Discord
  • White, Green, Yellow, Orange and Cyan Colors in a Text: How to Color Text White, Green, Yellow, Orange and Cyan Colors in Discord?

The ‘elixir’ syntax can be entered after adding three backticks for multiple modifications. Here, you need to note that—

  • Normal text will appear white.
  • Few keywords, like ‘do’, ‘while’, ‘if’, ‘then’, ‘for’, ‘in’ and ‘and’ will appear green.
  • Numbers will all be cyan.
  • The hash (#) will make the text appear gray or faded.
  • Any word beginning with a dollar sign ($) will make the word appear yellow, unless it is followed by a hash (#).
Color Text White, Green, Yellow, Orange and Cyan Colors in Discord

Bonus: How To Highlight Text With Color?

If you want to highlight text differently in block code, you should use “tex syntax”. With this syntax, you can easily format text like we’ve explained above but here you have to add a dollar sign ‘$’ at the beginning.

You can download the complete Discord cheat sheets PDF from here-
DISCORD TEXT FORMATTING CHEAT SHEET [Basic + Code blocks]
DISCORD TEXT FORMATTING CHEAT SHEET [Advanced – Colours]

How to Cancel Out Text Formatting [Strikethrough, Bold, Italic, and Underline] in Discord?

If you don’t wish to apply text formatting, and instead want/need to send symbols around text without formatting, you can simply circumvent text formatting.

Here, it is to be mentioned that you have to use backslash ‘\’ to escape markdown formatting. Also, keep in mind that each formatting style has to be cancelled individually.

Bottom Line

Since, formatting text is a great way one can use to enhance the appearance of text sent or shared on Discord; if you want to do the same, this write-up has provided a complete guide on formatting Discord text. 

Here, we’ve explained and demonstrated how you can apply various commands to format text, from how to bold, Italicize, strikethrough and underline to apply colour options to it. To be specific, on the one hand, you can use the Markdown language to use basic text formats like bold, italic, strikethrough, underline. On the other hand, the highlight.js package is an advanced option to use for making your text colorful. 

Overall, both of these options are used to emphasize text in the Discord Server channel to enhance your texting-game.

FAQs

Ans: Yes, you can format text in discord! While you contribute to discussions and chats with friends on Discord, there is a powerful system working in the background that is capable of formatting all the text, and it is known as “Markdown”.

Ans: Below you can see the different positions of ‘*’ on different keyboards around the world—

  • Belgium (French): Shift+$ (key to the right of ^¨)
  • France (French): * (key to the right of ù%)
  • Germany (German): Shift+ [+] (key to the right of Ü)
  • Italy (Italian): Shift+ [+] (key to the right of èé)
  • (Latin America)): Shift+ [+] ((key to the right of ´¨) 
  • Spain (Spanish): Shift+ [+] (key to the right of `^)
  • Sweden (Swedish): Shift+’ (key to the right of Ä)
  • Switzerland (French): Shift+3

Ans: Along with simple text formatting, you can also use spoiler text formatting to make your text look really cool as if there’s a hidden message in it. You need to put two vertical bars ‘|’ on both sides of the text you want to add spoiler formatting to.  To learn more, read the next Discord spoiler text formatting post on Onlinegeeks.net.

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