TextToolboxTextToolbox
Home/Text Cleaners & Modifiers/Word Wrap Tool

Word Wrap Tool

Wrap long lines of text at a specified character width with soft, hard, paragraph, or code wrap modes and indentation control.

Wrapping Mode

Options

Input Text

|

Wrapped Output

Recommended Tools

Pad Text to LengthJustify TextCenter TextChange Case ToolSort Lines ToolFind and Replace ToolFlip List ToolCompare Text - Highlight Difference

What Is the Word Wrap Tool?

The Word Wrap Tool automatically breaks long lines of text to fit within a specified character width. Four modes — Soft, Hard, Paragraph, and Code — handle different wrapping needs, while options for indentation handling and long-word strategy give you precise control. Ideal for formatting text for terminals, documentation, emails, and code reviews. All processing runs instantly in your browser.

How to Wrap Long Lines of Text

  1. Paste your text — works with prose, code, or any multi-line content with long lines.
  2. Choose a wrapping mode — Soft Wrap is the standard choice; Code Wrap is best for source code with indentation.
  3. Set the line width — 80 is the classic terminal width; 72 is standard for plain-text email.
  4. Configure indentation and long-word handling as needed.
  5. Copy or Download the wrapped output.

Where Can You Use Word Wrap?

Terminal Output

Wrap to 80 chars so text fits cleanly in standard terminal windows without horizontal scrolling.

Email Formatting

Wrap to 72 chars — the RFC 5322 recommended maximum for plain-text email body lines.

Code Review

Wrap long comments or string literals before pasting into tickets, Jira, or documentation.

Documentation

Ensure Markdown and text files follow line-length conventions (e.g., 100 chars for GitHub readability).

Wrapping Modes Available

  • Soft Wrap — Breaks lines at whitespace, keeping words intact. Long words are handled per the Long Word setting. Best for prose and natural text.
  • Hard Wrap — Breaks lines exactly at the specified width, even if it splits a word mid-character. Use for strict column-width requirements.
  • Paragraph Wrap — Processes each paragraph (separated by blank lines) independently, preserving double-line-break separators. Best for multi-paragraph documents.
  • Code Wrap — Detects and preserves leading indentation when breaking long lines. Continuation lines carry the same indent as the original.

Best Practices and Limitations

Use 80 chars for terminal and code contexts, 72 chars for plain-text email, and 100–120 chars for modern GitHub-rendered Markdown. Always use Soft Wrap for prose — Hard Wrap can split words awkwardly mid-character.

Limitations: Soft Wrap splits on ASCII spaces only — it does not handle non-breaking spaces, zero-width spaces, or CJK text where line breaks can occur after any character. For CJK text, Hard Wrap produces correct line lengths. The Code Wrap mode detects indentation by leading whitespace characters only — mixed tabs-and-spaces indentation may not be detected correctly.

Share This Tool

Share this free word wrap tool with developers and writers!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Word Wrap Tool?+

It breaks long lines of text at a specified character width so they fit within terminal windows, email clients, documentation, or any fixed-width environment. Four modes handle prose, hard-break, paragraph, and code wrapping.

What is the difference between Soft Wrap and Hard Wrap?+

Soft Wrap breaks lines at word boundaries — never splitting a word in the middle. Hard Wrap breaks lines exactly at the specified width, even mid-word, which guarantees no line ever exceeds the target length.

What does Paragraph Wrap do?+

Paragraph Wrap treats each paragraph (separated by a blank line) as an independent unit, wrapping it while preserving the double-line paragraph separators. This is ideal for multi-paragraph documents.

Why would I use Code Wrap?+

Code Wrap detects the leading indentation of each line and keeps it on continuation lines. This means indented code blocks wrap naturally without losing their formatting or indentation structure.

What width should I use for email or terminal?+

For terminal output, 80 characters is the classic standard. For plain-text email, 72 characters is the RFC 5322 recommendation. For GitHub documentation, 100 characters is a common convention.