---
id: textile
version: "4.0.4"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# textile — Textile processing for python.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 608.0K/mo

## What it is and what it does

textile is a Python implementation of Textile, a lightweight markup language designed to be readable in plain text while converting cleanly to HTML. It processes text with simple syntax rules—underscores for emphasis, asterisks for strong, quoted text with colons for links, and dash-prefixed lines for lists—and outputs valid HTML. The package depends on nh3 for HTML sanitization and regex for pattern matching, making it suitable for any workflow that needs to accept user-friendly text input and produce safe HTML output.

The library is stable and actively maintained, with support for Python 3.8 through 3.14. It carries no known security vulnerabilities and installs with minimal friction. The optional Pillow dependency can be added if image size checking is needed, but the core functionality requires only the two base runtime dependencies.

Use it for:

- Convert user-submitted blog posts or comments from Textile markup to HTML in a web application.
- Process documentation or README files written in Textile format into HTML for publishing.
- Build a content management system that accepts human-friendly text input and renders it as safe HTML.
- Transform plain-text notes with simple formatting into structured HTML for display or export.
- Sanitize and convert user-generated markup in forums or discussion boards.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Converts Textile markup (a human-friendly text format) into HTML, handling formatting, lists, links, and other common web text structures.

Yes. textile is a stable, actively maintained library with no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and a permissive license. It solves a specific, well-defined problem—converting Textile markup to HTML—with minimal dependencies. Install it if you need to accept or process Textile-formatted text in your application.

## Install

pip install textile
uv add textile
poetry add textile

## Installing textile

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two runtime dependencies (nh3 and regex). Actively maintained with a recent release 96 days ago and ongoing repository activity.

License in practice: BSD permissive license allows use in most projects without significant restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install textile

import textile
html = textile.textile('_This_ is a *test.*')
print(html)

Requires Python 3.8 or later; regex package is not installed on PyPy and may need manual uninstallation if upgrading from an older PyPy install.

Verify before relying:

- Whether regex dependency causes measurable performance or compatibility issues on CPython (PyPy users should avoid it per docs).
- Whether optional Pillow dependency for image size checking is commonly needed or rarely used.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 608.0K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

textile to html converter, markup language processor, text formatting to html, textile parser, humane markup generator, lightweight text markup, web text formatter, markup-language, html-generation, text-processing

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/textile) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/textile/)