Zalgo Text Generator

Zalgo text is created by stacking Unicode combining characters - diacritical marks like accents, tildes, and dots - above and below standard letters. Unicode allows multiple combining characters to be attached to a single base character, and by adding many at once, the text appears to "glitch" or break out of its normal line height. The result is purely text-based, not an image, so it can be copied and pasted anywhere Unicode is supported.

Glitch text is a looser name: it usually means zalgo text, but some tools use it for any text made to look corrupted, such as mixed symbols or look-alike letters. Cursed text is broader again, covering zalgo along with creepy styles that replace letters rather than adding marks to them, like fraktur, crossed or upside-down letters. The Cursed Text Generator shows all of those styles at once.

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Zalgo started as a meme on the Something Awful forums in 2004, when a forum member known as Shmorky posted edited versions of the Nancy and Archie comic strips in which the characters became distorted and the name "Zalgo" appeared. The idea of Zalgo as an unseen force that corrupts whatever it touches spread through forums and image boards, along with the catchphrase "He comes". The name was later given to text stacked with combining marks, which looks as if Zalgo is corrupting the words themselves, and that is what most people mean by Zalgo today.

Choose the Remove Zalgo tab above the text box and paste the zalgo text in. The combining marks are removed and the plain text appears in the output, ready to copy. Ordinary accents are left alone, so French, Spanish or Vietnamese text without zalgo comes back unchanged. On a letter that was glitched, any accent is removed along with the zalgo marks, since the two cannot be told apart. To turn other styled letters, such as bold, fraktur or bubble text, back into plain text, use the Unicode to Text Converter.

Glitch text works on most platforms that support Unicode, including Discord, Twitter/X, Instagram bios, Facebook posts, Reddit, Tumblr, and many online games. Some platforms may strip or limit combining characters, so the effect can vary. It is commonly used for creepypasta-style posts, horror-themed content, gaming usernames, and anywhere you want text that looks corrupted or distorted. For text that is completely hidden rather than visually distorted, see the invisible text generator.

Yes, you can adjust the glitch intensity using the Intensity slider in the settings. Moving it to the left produces a subtle distortion with fewer combining characters per letter, while moving it to the right stacks more characters for a heavier, more chaotic effect. A lower setting works well for readable text with a slight glitch aesthetic, while a higher setting creates the full Zalgo look where characters extend well above and below the line.

The Marks above, Marks through and Marks below switches choose where the combining characters go. Turn off Marks above and Marks below for a strikethrough-like glitch that stays within the line, or keep only Marks below for text that drips downward without covering the line above it.

Yes. Because glitch text contains dozens of invisible combining characters layered onto each letter, search engines and text search functions will not match it against normal keywords. Screen readers may also struggle to interpret the text. Use glitch text for decorative purposes like social media posts, usernames, and creative projects rather than for content that needs to be searchable, indexable, or accessible.