---
name: "HTML::FormatText::Html2text"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libhtml-formatexternal-perl"
version: "26-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/HTML::FormatText::Html2text"
---

# HTML::FormatText::Html2text(3pm)

format HTML as plain text using html2text

## NAME

HTML::FormatText::Html2text - format HTML as plain text using html2text

## SYNOPSIS

```
 use HTML::FormatText::Html2text;
 $text = HTML::FormatText::Html2text->format_file ($filename);
 $text = HTML::FormatText::Html2text->format_string ($html_string);
 $formatter = HTML::FormatText::Html2text->new;
 $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new_from_file ($filename);
 $text = $formatter->format ($tree);
```

## DESCRIPTION

`"HTML::FormatText::Html2text"` turns HTML into plain text using the `"html2text"` program.

\<http://www.mbayer.de/html2text/\>

The module interface is compatible with formatters like `"HTML::FormatText"`, but all parsing etc is done by html2text.

See `"HTML::FormatExternal"` for the formatting functions and options, with the following caveats,

- "input\_charset"

  Currently this option has no effect.  Input generally has to be latin-1 only, though the Debian extended `"html2ext"` interprets a `"<meta>"` charset directive in the HTML header.

  Various `"&"` style named or numbered entities are recognised and result in suitable output.  The suggestion would be entitized input for maximum portability among `"html2text"` versions.

- "output\_charset"

  If set to "ascii" or "ANSI\_X3.4-1968" (both case-insensitive) the `"html2text -ascii"` option is used, when available (`"html2text"` 1.3.2 from Jan 2004).

  If set to "UTF-8" then Debian extension `"-utf8"` option is used (circa 2009).

  Apart from this there's no control over the output charset.

## SEE ALSO

HTML::FormatExternal, [**html2text**(1)](/html2text/1.md)

## HOME PAGE

\<http://user42.tuxfamily.org/html-formatexternal/index.html\>

## LICENSE

Copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015 Kevin Ryde

HTML-FormatExternal is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

HTML-FormatExternal is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with HTML-FormatExternal.  If not, see \<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/\>.