TL;DR
CustomPaste is a clipboard manager that applies user-defined "recipes" to pasted content, letting users preserve selected formatting or convert everything to plain text. It includes quick on-demand actions, automated cleanup for common formatting issues, and tools for organizing pasted lists and data.
What happened
CustomPaste, presented on its website, is a clipboard utility that gives users granular control over what formatting survives a paste. Users can build reusable "recipes" that selectively preserve elements such as bold text and hyperlinks or enforce a plain-text result. A Quick Menu, accessible from any application via hotkey or mouse, runs saved recipes on demand without opening the main interface. The tool also offers automated cleanup routines: it converts typographic quirks like smart quotes and em-dashes, removes emojis, collapses extra blank lines, and fixes irregular whitespace. For list and data tasks, CustomPaste can deduplicate lines, sort entries, and change capitalization (UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence Case, Title Case). It also claims to handle complex web content, with options to keep or remove images and to maintain HTML table structure. The site positions the product toward academics, analysts, writers, and developers.
Why it matters
- Saves time by removing the manual reformatting that often follows copying from diverse sources.
- Helps maintain document consistency by enforcing font and style rules at paste time.
- Reduces technical friction for developers and analysts by fixing common paste-related errors (e.g., smart quotes, extra whitespace).
- Makes it easier to paste complex web content without breaking tables or unintentionally embedding media.
Key facts
- CustomPaste is presented on custompaste.com and described as a clipboard control tool.
- Users create "recipes" to keep or strip specific formatting elements when pasting.
- A Quick Menu can be opened from any app via a hotkey or mouse to apply saved recipes on the fly.
- The tool includes a Force Plain Text option to remove all formatting for a paste.
- Automated cleanup features address smart quotes, em-dashes, emojis, blank lines, and odd whitespace.
- Data-oriented tools can remove duplicate lines, sort lists alphabetically, and convert capitalization (UPPERCASE, lowercase, Sentence Case, Title Case).
- The product advertises the ability to preserve or strip images and to keep HTML tables structured when pasting.
- The site highlights use cases for academics, data analysts, writers, and developers.
What to watch next
- Quick Menu operation: confirmed to be triggered from any app by hotkey or mouse.
- Recipe handling for images and HTML tables: confirmed ability to preserve or strip them.
- Platform availability (macOS, Windows, Linux, mobile): not confirmed in the source
- Pricing and licensing model: not confirmed in the source
Quick glossary
- Clipboard: A temporary storage area used by an operating system to hold data copied or cut by the user until it is pasted elsewhere.
- Plain text: Text that contains no formatting, fonts, images, or embedded objects — just the characters themselves.
- Hotkey: A keyboard shortcut that invokes a function or command without navigating menus.
- HTML table: A structured representation of tabular data in HTML, using rows and cells to organize information for display or export.
- Smart quotes: Typographically curved quotation marks and apostrophes that differ from straight ASCII quotes and can cause issues when pasted into code.
Reader FAQ
How do I apply a saved recipe while working in another app?
The site says a Quick Menu can be invoked from any application using a hotkey or the mouse to run saved recipes.
Can CustomPaste preserve images and keep HTML tables intact when pasting?
Yes — the source states you can create recipes that preserve or strip images and maintain HTML table structure.
Which operating systems does CustomPaste support?
not confirmed in the source
What is the pricing or licensing model for CustomPaste?
not confirmed in the source
Your Clipboard, Finally Under Control From simple text to complex data, CustomPaste gives you superpowers to make every paste perfect. THE #1 FRUSTRATION, SOLVED Paste with Perfect Consistency Be a…
Sources
- Show HN: I built a clipboard tool to strip/keep specific formatting like Italics
- CustomPaste – Download and install on Windows
- I built a clipboard tool to strip/keep specific formatting like …
- CustomPaste Pro – Free download and install on Windows
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