I built a clipboard tool to strip/keep specific formatting like Italics
Hello HN, I’m Joseph, a solo developer. I built CustomPaste because I was frustrated by the binary choice standard clipboard tools give us: either keep all the messy formatting (background colors, huge fonts) or strip everything down to plain text. We all know Ctrl+Shift+V (paste as plain text), but that is often too destructive, it kills hyperlinks, bolding, and lists when I usually just want to normalize the font family (e.g., force Arial 11pt) or remove background colors. I wanted a tool that let me "strip exactly what I want, and keep exactly what I want." The Solution: Instead of a…
In plain words
CustomPaste is a clipboard tool that lets users selectively strip or preserve specific text formatting when pasting. Rather than choosing between keeping all formatting or converting to plain text, it allows creation of reusable recipes that define exactly which formatting elements to remove or keep—such as normalizing fonts, removing background colors, or preserving hyperlinks and bold text. The tool intercepts clipboard content, processes it locally, and transforms it based on user-defined rules, offering granular control over formatting choices for writers, developers, and anyone frustrated with standard paste limitations.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hello HN, I’m Joseph, a solo developer. I built CustomPaste because I was frustrated by the binary choice standard clipboard tools give us: either keep all the messy formatting (background colors, huge fonts) or strip everything down to plain text. We all know Ctrl+Shift+V (paste as plain text), but that is often too destructive, it kills hyperlinks, bolding, and lists when I usually just want to normalize the font family (e.g., force Arial 11pt) or remove background colors. I wanted a tool that let me "strip exactly what I want, and keep exactly what I want." The Solution: Instead of a single "paste" behavior, the app lets you create reusable "Recipes" to define exactly how your text should land in your editor. It intercepts the clipboard, processes the structure locally, and transforms it based on your rules. It offers granular control over: Smart Preservation: You can strip or set specific font families and sizes but specifically preserve bold, italics, and hyperlinks. Structure: You can preserve tables while stripping the images inside them. Data Cleanup: It can instantly purge duplicate lines, sort lists alphabetically, or flatten extra blank lines. Text Fixes: It cleans up AI-generated artifacts (like "smart quotes" or em-dashes) and enforces casing (Title Case, Sentence Case). Privacy & Pricing: The app runs 100% locally on your machine, no cloud processing and no data harvesting. It is a one-time purchase (lifetime license), not a subscription. There is a free trial (first 100 pastes) so you can test if it fits your workflow. I’d love to hear your feedback on the "Recipe" approach or any other edge cases you struggle with when pasting text!
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