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

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

format HTML as plain text using lynx

## NAME

HTML::FormatText::Lynx - format HTML as plain text using lynx

## SYNOPSIS

```
 use HTML::FormatText::Lynx;
 $text = HTML::FormatText::Lynx->format_file ($filename);
 $text = HTML::FormatText::Lynx->format_string ($html_string);
 $formatter = HTML::FormatText::Lynx->new (rightmargin => 60);
 $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new_from_file ($filename);
 $text = $formatter->format ($tree);
```

## DESCRIPTION

`"HTML::FormatText::Lynx"` turns HTML into plain text using the `"lynx"` program.

\<http://lynx.isc.org/\>

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

See `"HTML::FormatExternal"` for the formatting functions and options, all of which are supported by `"HTML::FormatText::Lynx"`, with the following caveats

- "leftmargin", "rightmargin"

  Prior to the `"-nomargins"` option of Lynx 2.8.6dev.12 (June 2005) an additional 3 space margin is always applied within the requested left and right positions.

- "input\_charset", "output\_charset"

  Note that "latin-1" etc is not accepted, it must be "iso-8859-1" etc.

  `"output_charset"` becomes the `"-display_charset"` option and can't be used on very old `"lynx"` which doesn't have that option (eg. lynx circa 2.8.1). Perhaps in the future `"output_charset"` could be dropped if it's already what will be output, or throw a Perl error when unsupported.

### Extra Options

- "justify" (boolean)

  If true then `"-justify"` is passed to lynx to have all lines in the paragraph padded out with extra spaces to the given `"rightmargin"` (or default right margin).

- "unique\_links" (boolean)

  If true then `"-unique_urls"` is passed to have lynx give its link footnotes just once for each distinct URL, re-used when the same URL occurs more than once in the document.  This module option is per HTML::FormatText::WithLinks.

## SEE ALSO

HTML::FormatExternal, [**lynx**(1)](/lynx/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/\>.