Text Truncator Tool
Shorten text by characters, words, or lines with smart options
Statistics
Truncate By
Configuration
Continue with Related Tools
What is a Text Truncator Tool?
A Text Truncator Tool automatically shortens long text to a specific length limit, measured by characters, words, or lines. It's essential for creating previews, excerpts, meta descriptions, social media posts, and any content that needs to fit within strict length constraints.
Unlike traditional cutting, this format ensures readability. If you need to extract specific parts of text (like substrings or lines), try our Text Slicer Tool. For splitting text into multiple equal parts, use the Split Text Tool.
Unlike manual cutting, this tool offers smart truncation that preserves word boundaries, adds custom suffixes (like ellipsis), and provides multiple truncation positions. Perfect for SEO, social media optimization, and content management.
Features
Character Truncation
Limit text to exact character count with word preservation.
Word Truncation
Limit by word count for clean, readable excerpts.
Line Truncation
Show only first N lines of multi-line content.
Multiple Positions
Truncate from start, middle, or end of text.
File Upload & Download
Process text files and save truncated results.
100% Private
All processing happens locally. No data uploaded.
Common Use Cases
SEO Meta Descriptions
Create SEO-friendly meta descriptions under 155 characters. Preserve word boundaries to avoid awkward cuts in search results. Perfect for blog posts and product pages.
Blog Previews
Generate 30-50 word excerpts for article previews, blog cards, or newsletter teasers. Add "Read more..." suffix to encourage clicks while maintaining readability.
Social Media Posts
Fit content within Twitter's 280 characters, LinkedIn's preview limits, or Instagram captions. Smart truncation ensures your message stays coherent.
Content Cards
Create consistent-length descriptions for product cards, user profiles, or search results. Maintain uniform UI layouts while showing relevant content.
Example: Create Meta Description
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I truncate text to a specific character limit?
Select 'Characters' mode and enter your desired character limit (e.g., 160 for meta descriptions, 280 for tweets). The tool automatically shortens your text and adds ellipsis (...). Enable 'Preserve full words' to avoid cutting words mid-way for cleaner results.
What does 'Preserve full words' do?
When enabled, the tool truncates at the nearest space before your character limit, ensuring no words are cut in half. For example, if your limit is 50 characters and would end mid-word, it backs up to the last complete word. This creates more readable excerpts.
Can I truncate from the start or middle instead of the end?
Yes! In character mode, choose from three positions: End (default, keeps beginning), Start (keeps ending), or Middle (keeps both ends, adds ellipsis in middle). This is useful when the important information is at the end or when you need context from both sides.
How do I create previews for blog posts?
Paste your full blog post content, select 'Words' mode, and set the limit to around 30-50 words for a typical preview. The tool creates a clean excerpt that ends with your custom suffix (e.g., '... Read more'). Perfect for blog cards, search results, or email newsletters.
What's the ideal character limit for meta descriptions?
Google typically displays 150-160 characters for meta descriptions on desktop and about 120 characters on mobile. Set your limit to 155 characters with 'Preserve full words' enabled to create SEO-friendly meta descriptions that won't get cut off in search results.
Can I customize the ellipsis?
Yes! The 'Suffix' field lets you customize what appears after truncated text. Use ... (default), [...], ā, ... More, (continued), or any custom text. This is appended automatically when text is shortened.
How does truncate by lines work?
Lines mode keeps only the first N lines of your text. Enter '3' to show only the first 3 lines, perfect for code snippets, poetry previews, or showing the beginning of multi-paragraph content. Your suffix is added on a new line after the truncation.
Is my text data safe and private?
Yes, 100% safe. This tool runs entirely in your web browser using client-side JavaScript. Nothing you type or paste is ever sent to our servers or stored anywhere. It works completely offline after the page loads, making it secure for confidential content like articles, reports, or customer data.
Can I upload files to truncate?
Yes! Click the 'Upload' button to load text files (.txt, .md, .csv, .log, .json) directly. Set your truncation parameters, then download the shortened version. Useful for batch processing multiple documents or creating excerpts from long files.
How can I see before and after side-by-side?
Click the 'Compare' button in the output area to enable comparison mode. This displays your original full text on the left and the truncated version on the right, showing exactly what was removed. The character counts are displayed in each panel header.