Strikethrough Text Generator

Strikethrough text is created by appending Unicode combining characters to each letter. The Unicode Standard includes several combining overlay characters that modify the appearance of the character they follow, including: Combining Long Stroke Overlay (U+0336), which draws a long horizontal line through each character, and Combining Short Stroke Overlay (U+0335).



A combining character is a zero-width character that visually modifies the preceding character rather than occupying its own horizontal space. When U+0336 follows the letter 'h', the renderer draws the letter 'h' with a horizontal stroke through its middle, creating the strikethrough effect without using any markup or formatting tags.



This approach works in plain text contexts (social media, chat applications) where HTML formatting (~~strikethrough~~ or strikethrough) isn't available. The resulting text contains twice as many Unicode code points as the original text (one letter + one combining character per visible character), but displays as single characters with strikethrough styling.

1. Social Media Text Styling
Adding s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ text to tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram captions creates visual emphasis and irony without platform formatting support. Crossing out text is often used humorously to show "corrections" or "revised" thoughts in a social media context.



2. Chat Applications
In chat apps without native strikethrough support, Unicode combining strikethrough creates the visual effect of editing or canceling text within messages. It's commonly used to show humorous self-corrections ("I was totally wrong about that") in casual conversation.



3. Educational Content Demonstrating Edits
Educational content showing revisions, corrections to misconceptions, or the process of editing uses strikethrough text to make the change visible. When HTML isn't available (plain text course materials), Unicode strikethrough provides the visual marker.



4. Creative Typography
Designers and writers creating text art, memes, or experimental typography use strikethrough effects as a stylistic choice. The combination of visible but "crossed out" text creates cognitive interest and draws attention.



5. Document Annotations in Plain Text
When annotating plain text documents where HTML or rich text isn't available, Unicode strikethrough indicates deprecated or removed content while keeping the original text visible for context—similar to track changes in Word documents.

• Rendering varies by font and platform: Unicode combining strikethrough works on most platforms but may render differently in some fonts. The line position and weight varies. Test on your target platform before relying on it for critical content.



• Screen reader consideration: Screen readers typically read combining strikethrough text as normal text, ignoring the visual strike. The struck-through content is still communicated audibly, which may or may not be your intent.



• Legibility decreases with complex characters: Strikethrough renders cleanly on simple characters but can be hard to read over letters with ascenders (h, l, t) or descenders (g, p, y). Use short struck-through words for best legibility.



• Double strikethrough: Using two consecutive combining stroke characters (U+0336 U+0336) creates a double strikethrough effect that is even more visually prominent.