Discord Fonts & Text Formatting: The Ultimate Guide

Discord is where millions of gamers, communities, and teams communicate daily. While the platform uses a single default font (a variant of Whitney), there are multiple ways to make your text stand out — from built-in Markdown formatting to Unicode fonts that you can paste directly into chat.

This guide covers everything: basic formatting, advanced tricks, colored text, and how to use external font generators to level up your Discord presence.

Discord's Built-in Text Formatting (Markdown)

Discord uses Markdown, a lightweight formatting system. Here are the essentials you need to know:

Basic Emphasis

Bold: Wrap text in double asterisks — **bold text** renders as bold text. Use this to highlight important information in announcements or to emphasize key words.

Italic: Single asterisk or underscore — *italic* or _italic_. Italic is great for titles, emphasis, or conveying tone in a message.

Underline: Double underscore — __underline__. Useful for headings within longer messages.

Strikethrough: Double tilde — ~~crossed out~~. Perfect for corrections, humor, or crossing items off a list. You can also generate stylish strikethrough with the Strikethrough Generator.

Combining Styles

You can stack formatting: ***bold italic*** gives you bold italic text. __**underline bold**__ creates underlined bold. You can even combine all three: __***underline bold italic***__.

Headers

Discord supports three header sizes using hash symbols at the start of a new line. One hash (# Big Header) creates the largest heading. Two hashes (## Medium) and three hashes (### Small) create progressively smaller ones. These are perfect for organizing announcements and long-form messages in your server.

Code Blocks: The Hidden Formatting Powerhouse

One of Discord's most versatile formatting features is the code block. There are two types:

Inline code: Single backtick — `like this`. The text appears in a monospace font with a subtle background. Great for highlighting commands, file names, or technical terms.

Multi-line code blocks: Triple backticks create a box that preserves formatting and can even enable syntax highlighting. This is the foundation for colored text on Discord (more on that below).

How to Get Colored Text on Discord

Discord doesn't officially support text colors, but you can exploit syntax highlighting in code blocks to achieve colored text. The trick is to specify a programming language after the opening triple backticks, then structure your text so the syntax highlighter applies color to it.

For example, using diff syntax: lines starting with + appear green, and lines starting with - appear red. Using css syntax can produce orange and blue text depending on the structure.

The easiest way to generate colored Discord text is with Fontlix's Discord Color Text Generator, which gives you ready-to-paste color-formatted code blocks without needing to understand the syntax yourself.

Unicode Fonts for Discord

Beyond Markdown, you can paste Unicode characters directly into Discord chat. These are special characters from the Unicode standard that look like different fonts — bold, cursive, gothic, bubble text, and many more.

Unlike Markdown formatting (which only works within Discord), Unicode characters persist across platforms. If someone copies your message, the fancy text comes with it.

Here's how to use them:

1. Open the Discord Fonts Generator on Fontlix.
2. Type your message in the input field.
3. Choose from 7+ font styles optimized for Discord readability.
4. Click "Copy" and paste into your Discord chat, server name, nickname, or role names.

Best Unicode Fonts for Discord

𝔒𝔩𝔡 𝔈𝔫𝔤𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔥 (Fraktur): Dramatic and medieval-looking. Popular for RPG servers, fantasy communities, and channel titles. Try the Old English Generator for both regular and bold fraktur.

𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕖 (Double-Struck): Clean and distinctive. Works well for server rules, announcements, and bot commands where you want text to stand out without being too flashy.

𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆: Adds personality to messages. Good for roleplay channels, welcome messages, and server descriptions.

ꜱᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘꜱ: Subtle and professional. Perfect for server category names and channel topics where you want a refined look.

Server Customization with Fancy Text

Unicode fonts aren't just for chat messages. Here are creative places to use them in your server:

Server Name: Give your server an instantly recognizable identity with a styled name.

Channel Names: While Discord limits channel names to lowercase, you can use certain Unicode characters in channel topics and category names.

Role Names: Styled role names make your server hierarchy more visually interesting. Members will notice their fancy role name in the sidebar.

Bot Embeds: If you're building bots, Unicode characters in embed titles and descriptions add visual polish without images.

Spoiler Tags, Quotes, and Lists

Spoiler tags: Wrap text in double pipes — ||hidden text||. The content is blurred until clicked. Essential for discussion servers where spoilers are a concern.

Block quotes: Start a line with > followed by a space. The text appears with a vertical bar on the left, visually separating it from the rest of the message. Use this for quoting other users or highlighting important notes.

Lists: Start lines with - for bullet points. Discord will format them with indentation and dot markers.

Tips for Effective Text Formatting

Don't overdo it. If everything in your message is bold, underlined, and in a fancy font, nothing stands out. Use formatting strategically to draw attention to what matters.

Consider readability. Some Unicode fonts look amazing in short phrases but become hard to read in full paragraphs. Use fancy fonts for titles and emphasis, and keep body text in regular characters.

Test on mobile. Discord's mobile app renders some Unicode characters differently than desktop. Before committing to a server name or channel topic in a fancy font, check how it looks on both platforms.

Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

**bold** → bold | *italic* → italic | __underline__ → underline | ~~strike~~ → strikethrough | `code` → inline code | ||spoiler|| → hidden text | # Header → heading | > quote → block quote

For everything beyond basic Markdown, head to Fontlix's Discord Fonts page and start generating unique text styles that'll make your server stand out.