Zalgo, glitch, corrupted
Bury your text under stacked combining marks at five intensities, then copy it as plain text. Nothing here is a font — the letters underneath are unchanged, which is why it pastes into bios and captions, and why the marks can be stripped straight back out.
Your cursed text
c̸̦̹̤̈̑ͥ̈ư̯̈̍̊͒ͮ̍ͮ̌͢r͖̱̔̀̀̿͊̆ͮ͊̊̇͛s̶͙̤̍̑͛͋ͣ̌̈̽ͦ͊̂ͥ͡e͇͎ͤ̈d̦̫̩̗͐ͩͬ̾̂͋͠ t̗̦̝̝̩̂̒̈́ͣ͛ͥͭe͇̜̖͙̰͍̭͙͂͋ͥͮ̓ͨx͖̜̣͍͕̣̟ͣ͛ẗ́͊ͯ̈́̿ͤͩ̑͛͌
Compare
Length is the practical constraint rather than legibility. Each step roughly doubles the character count, which is what decides whether it fits in a bio or a username.
One mark either side. Still completely readable, and short enough to survive a character limit.
cü̦rs̈e̤ͮdͯ tͪe̝x͊ṯ̋
A visible fringe without losing the word underneath. The usual choice for a username or a bio line.
c̟̮̈ȕ̧̟̥̏r͢šͭͯeͪ̔d̲̠͊ ţë̲͈́ͭ̍ẍ̲̘t̤̟ͣͫ̿
Marks start colliding with the lines above and below. Readable, but it will disturb the layout around it.
c̢̳̦̈̑u̢̠͌̌rͮ̍ͮ̌͢s̖̖͠ȩ͊̆ͮd͇̲̋̌ͬ̈́ͭ ť͈͕̮̟̈̽ͦ͊e̹͓̍̈ͤ̈́̋͠x̩̗̾̂͋̾ͩ̒ṭ̯̗̦̝̂̒̈́ͣ͟
The classic corrupted look. Roughly twelve times the original length, so it will not fit most fields.
c̸̦̹̤̈̑ͥ̈ư̯̈̍̊͒ͮ̍ͮ̌͢r͖̱̔̀̀̿͊̆ͮ͊̊̇͛s̶͙̤̍̑͛͋ͣ̌̈̽ͦ͊̂ͥ͡e͇͎ͤ̈d̦̫̩̗͐ͩͬ̾̂͋͠ t̗̦̝̝̩̂̒̈́ͣ͛ͥͭe͇̜̖͙̰͍̭͙͂͋ͥͮ̓ͨx͖̜̣͍͕̣̟ͣ͛ẗ́͊ͯ̈́̿ͤͩ̑͛͌
Barely legible and deliberately excessive. Many platforms strip or reject text this dense.
ç̥̠̻͚̈̑ͥ̈̿͋̏̏͝u̵̲̝͙̲̠̝̼̣̤͖̱ͮ̌ͭͯ̂̅͂̕̕r͖̮̗̳̮͓̫̦̫̩̗̲̗̪̱͈̼͉͖̍̑͛͋ͣ̌̈̽ͦ͊̂ͥͣͫ̿̉ͭ̍̈ͤ̈́̋͛ͨ͜s̷͉͙̫͎̠͉͇̜̖͙̰͍̭͂̂̏̆̇̐ėͣ͛́͐ͬ̅̋ͦͫ̋̈ͧ̈́͊ͯ̈́̿ͤͩ̑͛͌̀̀ͧ͝d͚̘̗͉̣̥̤̭̖͖͖̟̖̘͒ͤ̓̃ͧͨ́ͪ̋̃̅̾ͯͪͦ̑̅ ṫ̴̛̟̟̩̺͙͉̻̰͓͇́̈́̄e̵̙̤͕̺͊̕͜x͕̱̩͚ͮͤͬ͑̋ť̛̺͍̼̙̞̂ͣͩͯͫ͜͞
Reverse it
The marks are additions, not replacements, so removing them is lossless — the original letters are still underneath. Paste anything cursed here to strip every combining mark back out.
Clean text out
Nothing to clean yet.
How it works
A combining mark has no width of its own. It renders onto the character before it, so a letter followed by thirty marks is still one letter — with thirty things drawn over it. That is why the text stays selectable and searchable underneath.
Unicode splits the marks by where they sit. U+0300–U+0314 and U+0363–U+036F stack upward, U+0316–U+035A downward, and a handful in between are drawn through the letter. The direction toggles above pick between those three groups.
Each mark is a character. Heavy runs about eleven times the original length and Maximum over twenty, so a short phrase can exceed a 150-character bio limit before it stops being readable.
Marks are never applied to spaces here. On a space they render as a detached smear and interfere with where the browser is willing to break a line, so the words stay separable.
Before you use it
This is the one that matters. A screen reader will either announce every mark by name or skip the word entirely, so cursed text is effectively unreadable to anyone using one. Never put a name, a link or anything load-bearing in it.
Many platforms normalise input, which strips combining marks silently. A username field is the most likely place for cursed text to be rejected outright or saved looking ordinary.
Every mark counts. Heavy is roughly eleven characters for each one you typed, so a bio capped at 150 holds about thirteen cursed characters.
The marks overflow into the lines above and below wherever it is pasted. In a shared space such as a chat channel that means covering other people’s messages, which is worth thinking about before posting at Maximum.
Questions
Ordinary letters with combining diacritical marks stacked on top of them. A combining mark attaches to the character before it rather than taking its own space, so piling dozens onto one letter makes it spill above and below the line. It is also called Zalgo text, glitch text or corrupted text. The letters underneath never change — c is still c, just buried.
No. Nothing here changes the font, and there is nothing to install. Every mark is a real Unicode character sitting in the text itself, which is why it survives being pasted into a bio or a username where actual formatting would be stripped. It also means the effect is permanent once pasted — you cannot turn it off later, only remove the marks.
Strip every character in the range U+0300 to U+036F, which is the Combining Diacritical Marks block, and the original letters are left behind untouched. There is a box on this page that does exactly that. Because the marks are additions rather than replacements, removal is lossless — you always get the original text back.
Combining marks are drawn outside the line box they belong to, so a browser lays the line out at its normal height and then paints the marks over whatever is above and below. That is not a bug you can avoid; it is how the effect works. The preview on this page is clipped for that reason, and anywhere you paste it will behave the same way.
Usually, with limits. Discord renders it in messages, though heavy text may be cropped by the message box. Instagram and TikTok accept it in captions and bios but often reject it in usernames, where combining marks are filtered. Anywhere with a character limit will run out quickly, since Heavy is roughly eleven times the original length.
Yes, badly. A screen reader announces each combining mark or gives up on the word entirely, so a cursed sentence can be read out as a stream of diacritic names or skipped. Search stops matching it, and so does copy-paste comparison. Keep it to decoration, and never put a name, a link or anything that has to be read in it.
Fonts differ in how far they let marks stack before overlapping, and some platforms cap the number they will render. The characters are identical everywhere; the drawing is not. Very dense text is also silently truncated by some apps, which is why Maximum is worth testing before you rely on it.
Keep exploring
𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓬𝔂
Bold, script, fraktur and 16 more Unicode styles that swap letters rather than stack marks on them.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Emoticons, kaomoji and Lenny — including the other face on this site built from combining marks.
␣
Characters that take up space without showing anything — the opposite problem to this one.