Text, Text, Text - The past, present and future of writing (and publishing).
A collection of awesome .TXT formats, tools & services, tips & tricks and more.
Note
As a new policy starting in 2026 - please add "generic" .TXT tools & services to the Awesome .TXT (More Tools & Services) page. thank you for your understanding.
ps: bonus - please, do NOT forget to add a link to your code / source on github / gitlab / codeberg or whatnot.
Journal.TXT - single-text file journals - the human multi-document format for writers
---
day: Wed 19
---
Let's reinvent push-button publishing on the internets!
Use a single-file for your journal / diary / blog. That's it.
---
day: Thu 20
---
Crazy idea? Let's put up a website and a example blog auto-generated from journal.txt.
---
day: Fri 21
---
Did you know? The single-file format works great for advent calendars
or beer-of-the-day calendars.
jrnl - collect your thoughts and notes without leaving the command line
[2025 Sep 04 09:00] Called in sick.
Used the time to clean, and spent 4h on writing my book.
[2025 Sep 06 15:41] Had a wonderful day at the @beach with @Tom and @Anna.
[2025 Sep 07 03:28] I just met Steve Buscemi in a bar!
What a nice guy.
Todo.TXT by Gina Trapani et al -- future-proof task tracking in a file you control; if you want to get it done, first write it down.
(A) Call Mom @Phone +Family
(A) Schedule annual checkup +Health
(B) Outline chapter 5 +Novel @Computer
(C) Add cover sheets @Office +TPSReports
Plan backyard herb garden @Home
Pick up milk @GroceryStore
Research self-publishing services +Novel @Computer
x Download Todo.txt mobile app @Phone
Calendar.txt - Versionable, supports all operating systems and easily syncs with Android mobile phone.
2021-02-15 w07 Architecture week
2021-02-15 w07 Mon 9-12 project groups. 17 jogging.
2021-02-16 w07 Tue 9-11 John 12-16 architecture meeting
2021-02-17 w07 Wed 8-14 +lp. 14:15-16 +mp
2021-02-18 w07 Thu write out architecture
2021-02-19 w07 Fri 12-13 board
2021-02-20 w07 Sat
2021-02-21 w07 Sun 10 ski with N
2021-04 Grand rollout
2022 The year of foobar
Feed.TXT - free web feeds format in (plain) text w/ structured meta data
|>>>
title: My Example Feed
home_page_url: https://example.org/
feed_url: https://example.org/feed.txt
</>
id: 2
url: https://example.org/second-item
---
This is a second item.
</>
id: 1
url: https://example.org/initial-post
---
Hello, world!
<<<|
Manuscripts - free book format - write books in (plain) text
---
title: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
year: 1886
author:
name: Robert Louis Stevenson
---
=Story of the Door=
Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was
never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in
discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and
yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to
his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye;
something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which
spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but
more often and loudly in the acts of his life...
Bib.TXT - free bibliographies in text (unicode) format - BibTeX for the 21st century - books, articles, & more
[Fau86]
author: J.W. Goethe
title: Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil
publisher: Reclam
year: 1986
address: Stuttgart
Ledger / hledger - double-entry bookkeeping / accounting in (plain) text; follow your money
2016/1/1 set opening balance
assets:checking $500.00
equity:opening balances
2016/1/5 farmer's market
expenses:groceries $50.00
assets:checking
BeanCount - A double-entry bookkeeping computer language that lets you define financial transaction records in a text file, read them in memory, generate a variety of reports from them, and provides a web interface.
2014-02-03 open Assets:US:BofA:Checking
2014-02-03 * "Initial deposit"
Assets:US:BofA:Checking 100 USD
Assets:Cash -100 USD
; I paid and left the taxi, forgot to take change, it was cold.
2015-01-01 * "Taxi home from concert in Brooklyn"
Assets:Cash -20 USD ; inline comment
Expenses:Taxi
mkjog - Manage your running in a text file.
# DATE DIST TIME PACE COMMENT
2019-05-27 4.43 37:07 08:22 ; Chased by dog
2019-05-30 5.03 39:19 07:49
2019-06-02 5.05 42:03 08:20
2019-06-16 3.46 29:26 08:30 # Ran the big hill
Football.TXT - (future-proof & evergreen) structured text format for football (soccer) match schedules (incl. fixtures & results, line-ups, and more).
▪ Final
Sun Dec 18 18:00 UTC+3 @ Lusail Stadium, Al Daayen, Att: 88966
Argentina v France 3-3 a.e.t., 4-2 pen.
(Lionel MESSI 23'(p), 108', Angel DI MARIA 36';
Kylian MBAPPE 80'(p), 81', 118'(p))
Penalties: 0-1 Kylian MBAPPE, 1-1 Lionel MESSI,
Kingsley COMAN (missed), 2-1 Paulo DYBALA,
Aurelien TCHOUAMENI (missed), 3-1 Leandro PAREDES,
3-2 Randal KOLO MUANI, 4-2 Gonzalo MONTIEL
Argentina: Emiliano MARTINEZ [Y 125'] - Nicolas TAGLIAFICO (120+1' Paulo DYBALA),
Cristian ROMERO, Nicolas OTAMENDI, Nahuel MOLINA (91' Gonzalo MONTIEL [Y 116']) -
Rodrigo DE PAUL (102' Leandro PAREDES [Y 114']), Alexis MAC ALLISTER (116' German PEZZELLA),
Enzo FERNANDEZ [Y 45+7'] - Julian ALVAREZ (102' Lautaro MARTINEZ), Lionel MESSI [c],
Angel DI MARIA (64' Marcos ACUNA [Y 90+8'])
France: Hugo LLORIS [c] - Raphael VARANE (113' Ibrahima KONATE), Jules KOUNDE (120+1' Axel DISASI),
Dayot UPAMECANO, Theo HERNANDEZ (71' Eduardo CAMAVINGA) - Antoine GRIEZMANN (71' Kingsley COMAN),
Aurelien TCHOUAMENI, Adrien RABIOT [Y 55'] (96' Youssouf Fofana) -
Olivier GIROUD [Y 90+5'] (41' Marcus THURAM [Y 87']), Kylian MBAPPE,
Ousmane DEMBELE (41' Randal KOLO MUANI)
Refs: Szymon MARCINIAK (POL), Pawel SOKOLNICKI (POL), Tomasz LISTKIEWICZ (POL)
Structured documents in text with formatting conventions
Markdown -- see Awesome Markdown
- Kramdown -- see Awesome Kramdown
Wikipedia Markup / Wiki Text
DokuWiki Markup
Text with Instruction (.texti) - structured documents in text with formatting conventions; the best of markdown, wikipedia markup, latex & Friends - all together now
AsciiDoc by Stuart Rackham et al
Rimu Markup by Stuart Rackham et al
reStructured Text (.rst)
Org /Org mode (Ecmacs) -- your life in (plain) text; keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and writing documents in fast and effective (plain) text
Values, records, hierarchies (trees), types & more
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) -- see Awesome CSV
YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) -- see Awesome YAML
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) -- see Awesome JSON (What's Next?)
TOML (Tom's Obvious, Minimal Language) by Tom Preston-Werner et al
Markdown Configuration (.mdconf) by TJ Holowaychuk et al
Plain Text Project by Scott Nesbitt et al
Plain Text Accounting by Simon Michael et al
Mundi Mark - all about markup & markdown
License
The awesome list is dedicated to the public domain. Use as you please with no restrictions whatsoever.