Discord Text Formatting: Bold, Italic, Fonts & Colors

Discord gives you two completely different ways to style text, and knowing which is which saves a lot of frustration. Markdown formats the words inside a message - bold, italic, code, spoilers. Unicode fonts change the actual letters themselves, which is the only way to style places markdown ignores, like your username or "About Me" bio. This guide covers both, with copy-ready examples.

Native Discord markdown

Markdown is built into every Discord client. You type a few symbols around your text and Discord renders the style when you hit send. Nothing to install.

• Bold: wrap text in double asterisks - **like this**.
• Italic: single asterisks or underscores - *like this* or _like this_.
• Bold italic: three asterisks - ***like this***.
• Underline: double underscores - __like this__.
• Strikethrough: double tildes - ~~like this~~.
• Spoiler: double bars - ||hidden text||. The text stays blurred until someone clicks it.

You can stack these. __***Important***__ renders as underlined bold italic. The order of the symbols doesn't matter as long as each pair opens and closes around the same text.

Code blocks and quotes

Wrap a word in single backticks for inline code. Use triple backticks for a multi-line block. Add a language name right after the opening backticks - ```js - to get syntax highlighting. For quoting, start a line with > for a single-line quote or >>> for a block quote that continues until the end of the message.

Headers and lists

Discord also supports message headers and lists, which are handy for announcements. Start a line with # for a big header, ## for medium and ### for small - the space after the hashes is required. For lists, start lines with - or * to get bullets, and indent with two spaces to nest them. A subtle but useful one is the masked link: [click here](https://example.com) turns into a tidy clickable word instead of a raw URL, though it only works in embeds and certain fields, not plain chat.

Escaping markdown

Sometimes you actually want the asterisks to show. Put a backslash before a symbol to stop Discord formatting it: \*not italic\* displays the asterisks literally. This is the cleanest way to type a math expression or a file path without Discord turning half of it into italics.

Coloring text with code blocks

Discord has no real "color picker," but you can fake colored text using a syntax-highlighted code block. Open a block with ```ansi and use ANSI escape codes, or use simpler language hints that color tokens automatically. The diff language is the easiest: a line starting with + turns green and a line starting with - turns red.

• Green: start the line with + Your text inside a diff block.
• Red: start the line with - Your text inside a diff block.
• Full color: use an ansi block with escape codes for yellow, cyan, blue and more.

One catch: colored code blocks only render on desktop and the web app. Mobile shows the text without color, so use this for emphasis rather than something readers must see.

Unicode fonts for names and bios

Markdown is invisible in places that aren't message bodies. Your display name, server nickname, channel topics and bio all strip it out. To style those, you need Unicode fonts - real alternate letterforms (𝓬𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓲𝓿𝓮, 𝔤𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔠, ѕмall caps) that look like a special font but are just characters you can paste anywhere.

Generate them with our Discord font and name tools, then copy and paste. Popular picks for a Discord identity:

• Cursive and script for a soft, elegant display name.
• Gothic / fraktur for a dark, blackletter look that suits gaming servers.
• Small caps for a clean, understated tweak that stays readable.
• Aesthetic styles with spacing and accents for a vaporwave vibe.

Because these are real Unicode characters, they survive the copy-paste into Discord untouched. Pair them with a few aesthetic symbols as bookends - ꒰ ꒱ or ✦ - to frame your name.

What can break

Unicode fonts are display characters, so they don't count as searchable letters. A friend can't reliably @-mention you by typing a fancy name, and some screen readers read the characters out oddly. Discord also blocks certain decorative ranges in usernames (the new unique @handles) while still allowing them in display names. If a style won't save, switch to your display name field, which is far more permissive.

Mobile vs desktop differences

Most markdown works identically across desktop, web and mobile, but a few things don't. Colored code blocks render only on desktop and web. The newest features sometimes reach mobile a release or two later. And on mobile you'll often type the symbols manually rather than using a formatting toolbar, so it's worth memorizing the common pairs - double asterisks for bold, double tildes for strikethrough, double bars for spoilers. Unicode fonts, on the other hand, look the same everywhere because they're characters, not rendering rules, which is part of why they're the most reliable way to style a profile.

Putting it together

A clean setup is a styled display name from a font generator, a bio that mixes a cursive line with plain readable text, and messages where you reserve bold for genuine emphasis. Restraint reads as polished; ten styles in one sentence reads as noise. A good rule of thumb: use markdown to guide the reader's eye through a message, and use a Unicode font only on the one or two identity fields where it sets the tone. Browse the full font library to test styles side by side before you commit, and keep a couple of aesthetic symbols on hand to frame your name cleanly.