Plain Text

Plain text files are a simple, sustainable format to store your project data.

You might see the term plaintext, plain-text, or plain text sprinkled about in static web ecosystems. At the heart of Lib-Static projects is “source code”, the raw material that will transformed into published outputs and preserved for future reuse–and the core of that source will be plaintext files. Plain text based workflows and outputs enable version control, data transformation, access, and preservation

The exact meaning of “plain text” is loose, but the most important concept in this context is the distinction between plain text files vs. binary files.

Text vs. Binary

All computer files are a collection of stored digital data. At a fundamental level they are made up of bits (a binary digit, i.e. 0 or 1) grouped into bytes (8 bits that are used together). Historically a byte was just the right amount of data to encode a text character.

Generally, there is a distinction between two broad types of computer files: text or binary.

Plain text files contain a series of digital codes intended to represent text characters organized in lines (e.g. a, B, space, tab, line breaks, etc.). The Unicode standard defines “plain text” as “a pure sequence of character codes”, i.e. all the bytes that are part of the file represent characters (following some encoding standard). Text files can opened with a text editor (such as Notepad++, Atom, or VS Code) to view the characters.

Keep in mind the characters contained in the file might represent anything–from a poem to Python code! Common plain text files include .txt (really plain text), Markup languages (such as Markdown .md, HTML .html, or XML .xml), and programming languages (such as Python .py, Ruby .rb, or JavaScript .js). The contents of the files will follow the syntax and conventions of the format/language, but all content is ultimately made up of only text characters.

Binary files contain bits that are NOT character codes. The bits represent data that is meant to be interpreted as something other than characters. Binary files require software (other than a text editor) that can correctly interpret the contents to be useable.

For example, a JPG image requires an image viewer, MP3 sound file an audio player, PDF a viewer, or a ZIP compressed folder an unzip utility. Some binary formats are openly licensed standards. However, others are proprietary formats linked to a specific software ecosystem or vendor, which can present challenges for equitable access and long term preservation.

Why Should You Care?

Plain text is a simple, sustainable format to store your project data. Plain text based workflows enable:

contrast between a CSV and XLSX.

contributor: Evan Peter Williamson (University of Idaho Library)
last update: 2021-08-04