About Hard Wrap

Re-wrap prose to a fixed column width. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Text / String collection.

Use Cases

• Wrapping commit messages to the conventional 72-column width
• Formatting email text to comply with RFC line length limits
• Reformatting documentation to a consistent column width
• Preparing plain text content for terminal-based email clients

Tips

• Set the column width to 72 for email-friendly formatting
• Use 80 columns for code comments and commit messages
• Preview the wrapped output before copying to your editor

Fun Facts

• The 80-column standard dates back to IBM's 80-column punch card introduced in 1928, which remained the standard card format for over 50 years.
• RFC 2822 recommends email lines be no longer than 78 characters (with a hard limit of 998), which is why 72-column wrapping is common for commit messages.
• Git commit messages conventionally wrap at 72 columns because git log indents by 4 spaces, and 72 + 4 + 4 = 80 — fitting the traditional terminal width.

FAQ

What's the default column width?

80 columns — the traditional terminal width and readability sweet spot for prose. Configurable 40–200.

How does it handle long words?

Words longer than the target width stay on their own line. The tool doesn't hyphenate (hyphenation is language-dependent and prone to errors).

Does it preserve existing line breaks?

Optional. 'Preserve paragraphs' keeps blank-line-separated blocks as units; 'reflow everything' treats all text as one paragraph. For Markdown, preserve is usually what you want.

What about code blocks?

Preserves them if delimited by backticks (Markdown style). Otherwise code lines get wrapped, which usually breaks them — wrap prose, not code.