Why Formatting Matters More Than You Think
You could hand someone the most interesting article ever written, and if it's set in 10px Courier New with no headings and no line spacing, they probably won't read past the first paragraph. Presentation isn't separate from content. It is part of the content. How text looks directly affects whether people read it, how quickly they absorb it, and how much they retain.
That's true whether you're formatting a business proposal, a university essay, a blog post, or a personal journal entry. The right template, font, and layout turn a wall of text into something you actually want to read.
The 26 Templates: Organised by Purpose
Rather than listing all 26 templates alphabetically, let's group them by what they're actually useful for. Every template is available in both light and dark mode, and all of them work with Bionic Reading.
Professional and business
Academic and educational
Creative and editorial
Lifestyle and thematic
Decorative and period styles
Accessibility and comparison
You can switch templates after transforming
Already processed your text? Change the template and the content reformats instantly. You don't need to re-upload or re-paste anything. Try a few templates to see which one suits your document best.
113+ Fonts With Heading and Body Independence
Most text formatting tools give you one font dropdown and call it a day. Type Shifter gives you two: one for headings and one for body text. This means you can pair a bold display font for titles with a clean readable font for paragraphs, the same way professional designers do.
The font library includes over 113 Google Fonts, split across four categories:
- Sans-Serif (58 fonts): Clean, modern fonts like Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Montserrat, Nunito, Poppins, and many more. These are the workhorses of digital reading.
- Serif (31 fonts): Traditional fonts with fine strokes like Merriweather, Playfair Display, Lora, Crimson Text, and EB Garamond. Great for literary and formal documents.
- Display and Script (14 fonts): Decorative fonts like Abril Fatface, Bebas Neue, Caveat, Cinzel, and Pacifico. Best used for headings rather than body text.
- Monospace (10 fonts): Fixed-width fonts like Fira Code, JetBrains Mono, Source Code Pro, and IBM Plex Mono. Perfect for technical documentation.
The font controls are found in the "Customize Sizes & Colours" section of the app. Pick your heading font, pick your body font, and the preview updates immediately.
A note about OpenDyslexic
When OpenDyslexic mode is active, it takes priority over custom font selections. This is intentional: OpenDyslexic is an accessibility feature, and mixing it with other fonts would defeat the purpose. If you want custom fonts, make sure OpenDyslexic is toggled off.
The Import/Export Pipeline
Type Shifter accepts seven input formats and outputs four. That gives you a straightforward pipeline: bring text in from wherever it lives, format it the way you want, and send it back out in whatever format you need.
Seven import formats
- TXT: Plain text. No formatting, no complications. The simplest way to get text into the app.
- RTF: Rich Text Format. Preserves basic formatting from older word processors.
- DOCX: Microsoft Word documents. Type Shifter extracts the text while preserving paragraph structure.
- PDF: Extracts text content from PDF files. Works best with text-based PDFs rather than scanned images.
- Markdown (MD): Popular with developers and writers. Headings, lists, and emphasis are converted automatically.
- EPUB: E-book format. Import from Kindle exports, Kobo, Apple Books, and other e-reader libraries.
- HTML: Web pages. Paste a saved web page and reformat it in any template.
Maximum file size is 10MB. You can also skip the file upload entirely and just paste text directly into the input area.
Four export formats
- HTML: Opens in any web browser. Preserves all formatting including dark mode, fonts, and Bionic Reading. Smallest file size. Best for sharing online or reading on any device.
- DOCX: Opens in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice. Allows further editing. Choose this when someone else needs to modify the document.
- EPUB: For e-readers like Kobo, Apple Books, and others. Can be converted to Kindle format. Choose this for long reading sessions on dedicated devices.
- PDF: Looks the same on every device. Best for printing, archiving, and sharing when you want the formatting locked down.
All export formats preserve your template styling, font choices, Bionic Reading formatting, and dark mode settings. What you see in the preview is what you get in the export.
Dark mode in exports
If dark mode output is turned on, your exported files will have a dark background with light text. This is preserved in HTML and EPUB exports. For PDF exports, keep in mind that dark backgrounds use more ink if you print them.
How It All Fits Together
Here's a typical workflow to show how the pieces connect:
- You've got a DOCX report from a colleague. Upload it to Type Shifter.
- Pick the Clean Business template for a professional look.
- Set the heading font to Montserrat and body font to Inter for a modern pairing.
- Turn on Bionic Reading at 25% to speed through the content faster.
- Click "SHIFT MY TEXT" to process.
- Export as PDF for a polished, shareable document.
The entire process takes less than a minute. And if you realise you'd rather read it on your Kobo, just switch the export format to EPUB and download again. The formatting is already done.
What You Get for the Price
Type Shifter costs £29 for a lifetime license. No subscription, no recurring fees, no upsells. That one payment gets you all 51 templates, all 1,900+ fonts, all import and export formats, Bionic Reading at all intensity levels, OpenDyslexic support, light and dark mode, and every future update.
There's a 14-day free trial that includes every feature with no restrictions. You don't need a credit card to start it, and there are no feature limits during the trial period. Try every template, test every export format, and find your ideal Bionic Reading intensity before you spend a penny.
The desktop app works completely offline after installation, and all processing happens locally on your device. Your documents are never uploaded anywhere.
Try Type Shifter free for 14 days
26 templates, 113+ fonts, 7 import formats, 4 export formats, Bionic Reading, and dark mode. All yours, no limits.