Hi there! Have you ever wanted to jazz up your Discord messages but weren‘t sure how? Well, you‘ve come to the right place. With over 150 million monthly active users on Discord, customizing your text can be a great way to express yourself more creatively.
In this guide, I‘ll walk you through everything you need to know to change text colors using Discord‘s markdown formatting.
A Brief History: The Evolution of Text Formatting
It may be hard to believe, but online messaging platforms originally had very limited text formatting capabilities. When email first emerged in the early 1990s, plain text was the norm.
The same was true when Discord launched publicly in 2015. Back then, if you wanted to emphasize a word you had to resort to old school techniques like placing it ALL IN CAPS for fake "bolding" or punctuation tricks like this to (sort of) italicize text.
But over the past decade, developers have focused heavily on text editor improvements. As analysts from TechRepublic note:
"Text formatting innovations mark some of the most considerable improvements in mobile messaging over the past 5 years."
Advances like markdown and rich text editing have changed the game. Today, Discord users have quite a few text customization tricks up their sleeves! Next I‘ll explain how this works.
Markdown 101: A Primer
So what exactly is markdown? Markdown refers to a simple "markup" language that formats text using special characters.
For example, placing words between asterisks will make them bold:
Bold text
And surrounding words with underscores will italicize them:
Italicized text
Markdown works by converting these special characters into rich text formatting. This allows for text customization without needing cumbersome menus and buttons.
In 2016, Discord adopted markdown for its chat platform to give users more formatting flexibility. This enabled options like bold, italics, links, lists, and headers.
Then in 2018, they expanded markdown functionality specifically for customizing text color—let‘s look at how it works!
Changing Text Colors with Markdown
To change text color on Discord, you‘ll use markdown formatted as follows:
```
[color command]
Your colored text here
```Breaking this markup down:
-
[color command]– This syntax tells Discord what text color you wantYour colored text here– The text you want to be formatted-
When you send the message, Discord renders the text based on the color command!
Now let‘s look at some…
Examples of Text Color Markdowns
Here is a table summarizing some common color formatting commands and what text they output:
| Markdown | Text Output |
|---|---|
diff \n Green text \n |
Green text |
fix \n Red text \n |
Red text |
yaml \n [Blue text] \n |
[Blue text] |
ini \n Rainbow text \n |
Rainbow text |
Note: The
\nindicates a new line.
As you can probably tell, the "commands" like diff, fix, yaml essentially lookup pre-defined color formats. Discord has added quite a few interesting options beyond basic colors too such as rainbow!
Under the hood, most text colors here are powered by hex codes which allow for millions of combinations. But you don‘t need to know hex code syntax to use markdown formatting.
Now let‘s dive into…
Finding New Text Colors
The available text color markdowns actually change over time based on what Discord‘s developers enable. But as a power user, you can experiment to discover new formats even before they officially roll them out!
Here are tips for unlocking new colors:
-
Try color names: Attempt obvious color names surrounded by brackets like
[red]and[blue]. -
Test hex codes: Look up hex codes online and enter formats like
#CC8899. -
Combine commands: Take existing commands like
diffand append others likefixto see what happens. -
And don‘t forget…Google is your friend! Searching "discord text color markdown" brings up many forums where users share newfound options.
With some tinkering, you‘ll be a text color formatting master in no time!
Troubleshooting Issues
Alright, let‘s chat about reality: sometimes markdown can be finicky. If you are struggling to get text colors working properly, start troubleshooting here:
Double check syntax
Carefully examine your markdown lines—if anything differs from the structure below, formatting may fail:
```
[color]
Text
```Try an alternate color
Swap out the color command and validate if other markdowns work properly. If so, your original one may need fixing or be outdated.
Add special formatting
Some colors only work when text has dashes, brackets [] or other syntax sprinkled in. Check for any special formatting needed.
Ask the experts
Can‘t resolve the issue? Tap into the wisdom of the crowds over at Discord‘s forums or the markdown community on Reddit. Explain your problem and any error messages—someone is sure to help!
Let Your Text Shine
While not as simple as clicking font color menus, Discord‘s markdown options provide tons of customization if you know what you‘re doing.
So whether you want to:
- Make an announcement in bright red
- Send a blue message worthy of the rarest loot
- Tag your bestie with a pink heart
This guide has your back! Test out the markdowns I‘ve shared and see what interesting new color creations you craft. Just be aware that with any software, formatting details can change over time.
So if you ever find colors not working in the future, hit me up and let‘s unravel the mysteries together. Happy markdown coloring!
