Discord fonts

Last checked November 1, 2026 by the TextEditor.com team

Discord text formatting cheat sheet, checked November 2026

Discord turns a few typed symbols into real formatting. This list follows Discord's Markdown Text 101 help article, which we checked in November 2026. The timestamp codes come from Discord's developer docs.

Headings and subtext only work at the very start of a line, with a space after the # signs. Put two spaces before a dash to make a sub item in a list.

Fancy letters or markdown: which one to use

Markdown is real formatting. The words stay normal letters, so search, copy and screen readers all work. Fancy letters are symbols that only look styled. Use them where markdown does nothing, like your display name or a server nickname.

Code blocks with color

Put three backticks on a line, your code below, and three backticks after it. Nothing inside a code block gets formatted, so it is also a safe way to show symbols as they are.

Write a language name right after the first three backticks, like ```py, and the desktop app colors the code. The help article does not list this, and phones may show it without color. Our preview uses its own colors for the languages in the list.

def greet(name):
    # Say hi to a new member
    return f"Welcome, {name}!"

Timestamps that show in every reader's time zone

A timestamp looks like <t:1618953630:f>. The number is Unix time: the seconds since January 1, 1970, in UTC. The letter at the end picks the style. Discord shows the time in each reader's own time zone, so "8 PM" never means the wrong hour.

There are nine styles, from a short time to "in 2 hours". The timestamp builder in the tool above makes the code for any date. Pick it there, then copy a style.

Usernames and display names: what Discord allows

Every account has a username and can have a display name. The username is unique and must follow strict rules. The display name is what most people see in chat, and it takes almost any character. We checked Discord's username help article in November 2026.

Nitro members can also pick a font for their display name with Discord's Display Name Styles. That changes how the name looks, not its letters, so search and screen readers keep working. Discord's own help page says some symbols fall back to the default font, so fancy letters and a name style do not mix.

Fancy fonts that look bad on Discord

Many people use Discord with the dark theme. Thin letters lose the most on a dark screen, and tiny raised letters are hard to read at chat size. Glitch text puts marks above and below each letter, and they spill into the lines next to it.

Some servers run bots that rename members whose names start with symbols or use glitch marks, so a fancy name can be changed for you. Bold sans and bold script are the safest picks.

Fancy text and screen readers

A screen reader may read each fancy letter by its Unicode name, or skip it. A fancy display name then shows up in every message as a string of symbol names. Markdown bold and italic do not have this problem, because the letters stay normal.

Use markdown for messages. If you want a fancy name, keep a plain word in it, or set a plain server nickname where people need to find you.

Making a bio for Instagram too? The Instagram fonts page checks your bio against its 150 character limit.