How Does Strikethrough Text Generator Work?
When you type, the generator adds a Unicode combining character after each letter. The main one is U+0336 (COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY) — a horizontal mark that sits on top of whatever character it follows. Since the combining character is part of the text string rather than a CSS property, the strikethrough stays when you paste into Facebook, Discord, or any app that renders Unicode.
Atoolin supports 7 of these: U+0336 (strikethrough), U+0338 (slash), U+0334 (tilde overlay), U+0332 (underline), U+0333 (double underline), U+0323 (dotted below), and U+0330 (wave below). In our testing, all 7 pasted cleanly into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp on iOS and Android. Unicode Standard Annex #15 covers how combining characters interact with base glyphs across fonts.
Why Use Strikethrough Text?
Strikethrough has more use cases than decorating social media posts. Online sellers cross out original prices in Instagram captions to signal discounts — the eye reads a strikethrough number as corrected faster than it reads "was $X." Editors mark corrections in shared notes. Discord users strike through typos for effect without backspacing.
Email marketers reach for tilde or wave overlays in subject lines where bold and italic strip out. In our testing, slash-overlay (U+0338) on numeric text is especially readable at small font sizes — the diagonal mark stays distinct at 12px where a horizontal stroke blurs. Teachers use dotted-below marks for pronunciation hints. The Unicode combining diacritical marks chart (U+0300–U+036F) covers the full set.
Does Strikethrough Text Work on All Social Media Platforms?
For Latin text, yes. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, and Telegram all render Unicode directly, so combining characters survive copy-paste with no extra steps.
Two things to watch: Discord has its own Markdown layer, and ~~text~~ is the native strikethrough syntax there — Unicode combining characters work on Discord but may render differently across client versions. CJK text (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) is trickier: East Asian fonts position combining marks by different metrics than Latin fonts, so strokes can sit misaligned. In our testing across Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on desktop and mobile, all 7 Atoolin styles rendered cleanly on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram for Latin text. The Unicode FAQ on combining marks explains the underlying rendering rules.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I cross out text without using HTML?
- Standard keyboards have no strikethrough key. The approach that works everywhere is Unicode combining characters — Atoolin's Strikethrough Text Generator handles the attachment automatically. Type your text, pick a style, hit copy. The effect holds on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and most apps. No sign-up or extension required.
- What is the difference between HTML strikethrough and Unicode strikethrough?
- HTML uses <s> or <del> tags, which only render where a browser parses HTML. Unicode strikethrough embeds the combining character directly into the text. Copy it into a tweet or WhatsApp message and the line stays. Paste <s>text</s> into the same tweet and you get literal angle brackets.
- Does strikethrough text count toward a platform's character limit?
- Yes — each letter gets an extra Unicode code point, so a 10-letter word becomes 20. Twitter/X counts code points toward its 280-character limit, which means a fully struck-through tweet hits the limit at 140 characters of actual text. Instagram's 2,200-character caption limit makes this less of a concern there.
- Is the Strikethrough Text Generator free?
- Yes. No account, no download, no extension. Atoolin's Strikethrough Text Generator processes text in your browser — nothing is sent to a server. The character counter, CJK compatibility warning, and one-click copy all work on desktop and mobile.