About

Strikethrough formatting applies a horizontal line through text glyphs, signaling deletion, completion, or deprecation without removing content from view. The CSS property text-decoration with value line-through renders this at the font's vertical midpoint, typically at 0.5ex above the baseline. This tool manages ordered collections of text items, toggling the struck state per entry and persisting the full list to browser storage. Export options produce Unicode combining long stroke overlay (U+0336), HTML <del> semantic elements, or Markdown ~~tilde~~ syntax. Note: Unicode strikethrough renders inconsistently across fonts. Monospaced typefaces tend to produce cleaner results than proportional ones.

Misapplying strikethrough in documents can create ambiguity. In legal and financial contexts, struck text carries specific meaning under revision-tracking standards. A struck price without a replacement price violates FTC advertising guidelines. This tool lets you validate visual output before pasting into production documents. It approximates rendering only. Final appearance depends on the target application's CSS or rich-text engine.

Formulas

Unicode strikethrough is generated by inserting the combining long stroke overlay character after each original character in the string. The algorithm iterates over every code point:

output = n∑i=0 char_i + U+0336

Where char_i is the i-th character of the input string, n is the total character count, and U+0336 is the Unicode combining long stroke overlay code point (0x0336 = decimal 822). The resulting string renders with a horizontal line through each glyph without modifying the underlying text content.

For HTML export, each struck item is wrapped in a semantic deletion element:

html = <li><del> + text + </del></li>

For Markdown (GitHub Flavored Markdown), the pattern is:

md = ~~ + text + ~~

Non-struck items export without any decoration wrapper, preserving mixed lists where only completed or deprecated entries carry the strikethrough mark.

Reference Data

Format	Syntax / Method	Semantic Meaning	Platform Support
HTML <del>	<del>text</del>	Deleted / removed content	All browsers, screen readers
HTML <s>	<s>text</s>	No longer accurate / relevant	All browsers
CSS line-through	text-decoration: line-through	Visual only, no semantics	All browsers
Markdown (GFM)	~~text~~	Strikethrough	GitHub, Reddit, Discord, Slack
Unicode Combining	U+0336 per character	Visual hack, no semantics	Most platforms, inconsistent rendering
LaTeX	\sout{text} (ulem package)	Struck-out text	LaTeX compilers
Microsoft Word	Font dialog → Strikethrough	Revision / style	Word, LibreOffice
Google Docs	Format → Text → Strikethrough	Style formatting	Google Docs, Sheets
Rich Text (RTF)	\strike control word	Character formatting	RTF-compatible editors
Slack	~text~ (single tilde)	Strikethrough	Slack only
Double Strikethrough (CSS)	text-decoration-style: double	Emphatic deletion	Modern browsers
Wavy Line (CSS)	text-decoration-style: wavy	Error / spelling	Modern browsers
Color Override (CSS)	text-decoration-color: red	Visual emphasis on strike	Modern browsers
Thickness (CSS)	text-decoration-thickness: 3px	Bold strikethrough	Chrome 89+, Firefox 70+
Accessibility (<del>)	Screen readers announce "deletion"	Semantic deletion	NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver
Accessibility (<s>)	Often not announced by readers	Visual only in practice	Limited screen reader support

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The combining long stroke overlay (U+0336) is a Unicode combining character that overlays the preceding glyph. Monospaced fonts like Consolas or Courier New render it most consistently. Proportional fonts, especially on iOS and older Android versions, may show gaps or misaligned strokes. For production documents, use HTML <del> or Markdown ~~text~~ instead. Unicode strikethrough is best suited for platforms that strip HTML, such as plain-text emails or social media bios.

The <del> element represents content that has been deleted from the document. Screen readers like NVDA and JAWS announce it as a deletion. The <s> element indicates content that is no longer accurate or relevant but was not necessarily removed. Most screen readers ignore <s> entirely, making it purely visual. For accessibility compliance under WCAG 2.1, use <del> when the struck status carries meaning, and supplement with aria-label attributes if the context requires explicit announcement.

The internal state array is mutated in real time during drag operations. The export functions iterate over this array in its current order. Whatever sequence you see on screen is the exact sequence that appears in your exported HTML, Markdown, or plain text output. Reordering is persisted to localStorage immediately, so refreshing the page preserves your custom order.

Yes. Choose the Unicode export format. Since it uses combining characters baked into the text string itself, no CSS or HTML tags are needed. The strikethrough renders directly in plain-text contexts. However, some email clients (notably older Outlook versions using Word's rendering engine) may strip combining characters during paste. Test with a draft email before sending to a distribution list.

The CSS text-decoration: line-through specification does not mandate an exact vertical offset. Browsers calculate the stroke position from the font's strikeout metrics embedded in the OS/2 table of the TrueType or OpenType file. If the font lacks these metrics, the browser falls back to a heuristic, typically 0.5ex above the baseline. You can override thickness with text-decoration-thickness (supported in Chrome 89+, Firefox 70+), but vertical position remains non-configurable in CSS as of 2024.

Each item is capped at 500 characters to prevent localStorage overflow and maintain rendering performance. The total list is limited to 500 items. LocalStorage typically allows 5MB per origin. With average item sizes of 50 characters, this budget supports approximately 50,000 items, but the 500-item cap ensures responsive DOM updates without virtual scrolling.