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How do you do this and is there a name for it?

subzero22

Acolyte
I've seen something like this in three separate web novels. At first, I thought it was just a picture but then I noticed I was able to copy and paste it as text. So exactly how is this done? It seems to be using normal like text mixed with special characters on top of the normal text to make it unreadable. Although in this case, it's doing a little of both from the copy where I got this example from.

€̛͟͡п҉̀͟͢E҉̵͘N̴̷͝͏̀4̢̀́́ ̧̕Д҉̸͘͠ф̧̛͜͠*̡̢͝͠͠&̸̧̡͟͞1̕5̢͠҉̨m̕͟M̵҉m҉̧͢Ǵ̀͢͡͡u͏́͏̷͝^̸̛͏@́͞ ̢̕͏Я̀́R̴̴̨͡ ̸̨K̢̡͠b̧̨̛̛̀<̶̢̡̛̛4̵͢͜=̢̛͝͡3̵1̷̷̧̡͞X̴̵̡͘͝-̵̢͡͏G͜͞͝U͞P҉͟
̢̛͞͡F̕͜͢h̷̢́͝3͏Ń͠f̵̡̀͡͝/̸̀G͢į̧̢͜͝ŕ̡͠҉3̨҉̷̨H̶̴́
̢͜҉͜2̴6̷̡̛͡O̴̷͜͢$͟͝$̨͝͝|̸͡͠͡͡Q̀͠Г̶̸̀͝҉∞҉̴̸Т̵͏̀͘҉4̢̢̕͝҉2̶̶̧͜
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
It even pasted into the URL bar, so it has to be special characters, not formatting. I haven't seen most of those before though, and some of them seem pretty elaborate.
 
Ȩ̵̜̖̭̥̩̗̱͎̏͌͌̎̈́͘̚x̵̱̱̲̼̖͖͖̻̀ä̶̡̢̛̲̬̩̝̳̰́̾̓͝͝m̷̨̼̱̱̩̳͙̔̿̑̀͒̎̍̈́̀͋p̵̡̢͎̞̭̹̩̩̟̱͝l̸̪͙̮̖̾̂̅̓͑̇́͘e̸̢̧̩̲̼͖̖̹͑͗̍͘ ̴̡̧͙͖̪̱̻̠̩̟̀̓̍̅̂ǫ̴̡̜͇͎̦̍̅̉́̇͑͛̒̚͜ͅf̸̛̲̘͍͐̑́͑̕̕̚ ̵̤͙̰̘͙̩̜̽ͅw̴̧̨̡̹͇̺͗̓͑͜h̸͉̗̗͉͈̑̽̃̇́̄̓a̷̗̹̟͙̒͌̃t̵̨̯͎̫̬̪̯̘̀̈͜'̵̳͈̟̝͚͙̬̺̌̎̕s̵͙̣͖̤͚͒̌̐͒͐̎ ̵̨͈͍͉͕͚̂b̵̼̰͍̺͎̠͗̈́̄̈́͑̊͝ë̸̛̳̦̙̆͝é̷͉̞̝̫͛̚n̴̡̯̳̗̱̆̂͜ ̷̜̯̓̅̄́̄̕͠d̷̘͋̅o̸̧̮̲̝̹̟̹͎͋͗͑́̑͝ṇ̵̝̬͒̈́̽͂͑̄̋̑͝͝e̵͉̭̩͓͔͒͊͆̇̒̈́́͋̈́.̸̡͚͖̅͊̀̓̋̓̉̚͠

˙ǝuop uǝǝq s,ʇɐɥʍ ɟo ǝldɯɐxƎ

______________

Okay, so I found this site after a quick search: Weird Text Generator ― LingoJam

There was even an example that came out similar to yours, but when I copy-pasted into this box, it didn't look the same...Hmm.
 

Vaporo

Inkling
It's called Unicode.
Bascially, Unicode allows the creation of "weird" characters by putting modifier characters after a character. For example, "ў" is created by combining the letters "у" with the character "˘". This sort of "Weird Text" is the result of many, many diacritic characters applied to a single base character. If you take "ў" and read it as ASCII, it becomes "&#1118;" You can use this site to get the ASCII values of Unicode characters: ASCII Value Tool - Get ASCII Value of Any String
 

subzero22

Acolyte
It's called Unicode.
Bascially, Unicode allows the creation of "weird" characters by putting modifier characters after a character. For example, "ў" is created by combining the letters "у" with the character "˘". This sort of "Weird Text" is the result of many, many diacritic characters applied to a single base character. If you take "ў" and read it as ASCII, it becomes "&#1118;" You can use this site to get the ASCII values of Unicode characters: ASCII Value Tool - Get ASCII Value of Any String

Ya, I thought the same at first but this isn't unicode. Take just a small portion of my example. Let's say F̕͜͢h̷̢́͝3͏Ń͠f̵̡̀͡͝/̸̀G͢į̧̢͜͝ŕ̡͠҉3̨҉̷̨H̶̴́
Now copy and paste it somewhere. Now then start hitting the delete button. Don't hold delete down but individually tap it. You will see that each character or piece of text is somehow covering another piece of text. But what's even more confusing is when you use the text cursor to move around it with the arrow keys it moves between the actual letters/numbers that are being covered up. When trying to delete them it deletes the covered text first. Much like the example, FifthView posted although in his case it looks different. With your example, the "ў" is just one single character and only takes one single tap of delete to delete it. But with this 3̨҉̷̨ you have to tap delete 5 times before the "3" that's covered in the mess gets deleted while the arrow keys will move over the "3" as if the rest of the stuff isn't there.
 

Vaporo

Inkling
Try the delete trick again with this one: "y̆"
I copied and pasted my original example. Seems "y̆" is a unicode character in and of itself as well as being formable from a diacritic character, and the example I copied and pasted from used that instead of the diacritic representation. You can add Unicode characters in Microsoft Word by typing the code, then alt+x. The code for a Breve is 0306. Here are some more examples: T̆ v̆ m̆ y̆̃̃̆̆

EDIT: Huh. In the post editor "y̆" looks like "ў". Something goes funny with how the site renders actual posts, I guess.
 

subzero22

Acolyte
Try the delete trick again with this one: "y̆"
I copied and pasted my original example. Seems "y̆" is a unicode character in and of itself as well as being formable from a diacritic character, and the example I copied and pasted from used that instead of the diacritic representation. You can add Unicode characters in Microsoft Word by typing the code, then alt+x. The code for a Breve is 0306. Here are some more examples: T̆ v̆ m̆ y̆̃̃̆̆

EDIT: Huh. In the post editor "y̆" looks like "ў". Something goes funny with how the site renders actual posts, I guess.

So can this only be done in Microsoft word then? I don't have that program and use LibreOffice for my writing. Whenever I hold alt+x as soon as I hit x it gives me the unicode of the character before it so I'm only able to hold alt down to put the code in. The code you gave me makes it type the number 2. Yet when I copied what you gave me and hit alt+x to bring the unicode up it gave me what you told me to type 0306. This is so confusing for me lol. I'm still not even sure how it all works yet either but at least I'm understanding more of it.

Edit: Hey found a website that can do what I want. I tried to post the link for those interested but the spam thing won't let me. I just googled "how to use unicode to overlap text" and found it that way. Thanks again for all your help :)
 
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Vaporo

Inkling
No, you don't hold alt-x. You type the code (such as 0306), then hit alt-x. I used Word to make the character, but nearly any document editing suite should have the ability to create unicode characters like this.

Here's a YouTube video showing how to do it. Note though that you don't have to have a space like the video says.
 
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