In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text and to "binary files" in which some portions must be interpreted as binary objects (encoded integers, real numbers, images, etc.).
The encoding has traditionally been either ASCII, one of its many derivatives such as ISO/IEC 646 etc., or sometimes EBCDIC. Unicode-based encodings such as UTF-8 and UTF-16 are gradually replacing the older ASCII derivatives limited to 7 or 8 bit codes.
Read more about Plain Text: Plain Text and Rich Text, Plain Text, The Unicode Definition, Usage
Famous quotes containing the words plain and/or text:
“One would appear ridiculous who would say, that it is only probable the sun will rise to-morrow, or that all men must die; though it is plain we have no further assurance of these facts than what experience affords us.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“Literature is not exhaustible, for the sufficient and simple reason that a single book is not. A book is not an isolated entity: it is a narration, an axis of innumerable narrations. One literature differs from another, either before or after it, not so much because of the text as for the manner in which it is read.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)