How it works
This cursed text generator shows whatever you type in 40 ready-made looks at once. At one end, Faint static adds a dot here and there. At the other, The void answers piles up to 30 marks on a single letter. Every look is built from Unicode combining marks, so the result is plain text that you copy and paste. The recipe for each look is printed further down the page.
Read the full guide
Type once, compare every look
Type or paste a line and all 40 looks redraw with your words, so you judge real results and not names. The chips narrow the list to one family: Quiet, Tidy, Rising, Dripping, Crossed out, Shaped, Heavy, or Rings and boxes. Every row has a Copy button and a character count. Looks that involve chance also get Glitch it again, which keeps the recipe and rolls new marks.
Pick a look that fits the space
Every mark counts as a character. Ten letters in Properly cursed come to about 125 characters, and the same ten in Dust come to 20. For a name or a bio with a limit, type the limit into Check it fits, under More options, and every row over it says so. Start in Quiet or Tidy, or try Bookends, which only curses the first and last letter of each word. Rising looks leave the line below clean and Dripping looks leave the line above clean, which matters when your message sits between other people's.
Share the exact result
Share makes a link that holds your text, the look and the exact roll, so a friend opens the same mess you made. Nothing you type is kept in this browser. Look of the day shows one look, the same for everyone. For more control, the zalgo text generator lets you set direction and strength, and lists all 106 marks in the block these looks draw on.
- Curse one word, not the sentence. A single Haunted word in a plain line reads as a joke. A whole Haunted paragraph reads as a fault.
- Check the count on the row before you copy. A field that allows 30 characters fits about five letters of Roots and two of Properly cursed.
- Paste the result where it is going before you commit. Some apps strip combining marks, some clip the pile, and a font without the ring marks shows an empty box.
- Tidy looks have no chance in them. Use Lid, Hum or Cross-stitch when a name has to look identical every time you make it.
- Screen readers handle piled-up marks badly. Treat cursed text as decoration, and keep anything a person has to read in plain letters as well.
Questions and answers
How does a cursed text generator work?
It adds combining marks to your letters. A combining mark is a Unicode character with no width: it is drawn on the letter before it, the way é can be stored as a plain e plus a separate acute accent. Unicode does not forbid long runs of marks, and marks above a letter stack outward, so a generator adds them until the pile spills over the lines around it. The result is still plain text, so it copies.
Is cursed text the same as zalgo text?
Yes. Cursed text, glitch text and zalgo text are three names for one trick. The zalgo name goes back to a forum joke from 2004, in which cartoon strips were edited so that the characters came out distorted, and the broken lettering in those images kept the name. This page gives you finished looks. The zalgo text generator gives you direction chips and a strength slider.
Why does my cursed text look different after I paste it?
Because the app you paste into draws the marks with its own font and rules. Some apps clip anything that leaves the line, so a tall pile gets cut flat. Some reduce the marks or remove them altogether. A mark that no font on the device covers shows as an empty box. The five ring and box marks sit outside the basic accent block, so check those first.
How many characters does cursed text use?
One for each letter plus one for each mark. The list below gives the figure for every look: Redacted adds 1 mark per letter, Roots about 5, Properly cursed about 12 and The void answers about 26. Marks in the basic block take two bytes each in UTF-8, so a site that counts bytes runs out sooner.
Can I turn cursed text back into normal text?
Yes. The letters underneath are never changed, only decorated, so removing the marks gives back the original. This page has no cleaner, so the quick way is to type the line again. Whatever strips combining marks also takes real accents, such as the one on é, so check names and foreign words after cleaning.