Overline text generator — put a bar over letters and digits

How to use the overline text generator

1. Type the character or text you want barred into Your text.
2. Keep Also mark spaces ticked for one continuous bar, or untick it to bar each word separately.
3. Press Copy under Styled text and paste it into your note or message.

What it does and when to use it

The overline is mostly a notation mark. Statistics students write x̅ for a sample mean. Logic and electronics use A̅ for “not A”. Repeating decimals put a bar over the digits that repeat. Physics and engineering use it for averages and complex conjugates (z̅). In plain text, there is no easy way to type any of these, so this tool builds them for you.

It also works as decoration: a line above a name in a profile or a title in a chat. For a line under the text, use the underline text generator or the stronger double underline. For small raised characters such as exponents, the superscript generator is the right tool.

How it works

The tool splits your text into visible characters and appends U+0305 COMBINING OVERLINE, from the Combining Diacritical Marks block, after each one. Combining marks take no space; the font draws the bar above the character before it, and bars on neighbouring characters touch. Spaces are marked only while Also mark spaces is ticked. Line breaks are never marked.

Worked examples

From the tool’s own function:

• x → x̅, the sample-mean symbol.
• NOT A with Also mark spaces unticked → N̅O̅T̅ A̅, two separate bars.
• AB + CD with the default settings → A̅B̅ ̅+̅ ̅C̅D̅. The bar runs over the whole expression, which in logic means NOT(AB + CD). To bar only one term, convert it on its own and paste it in.

Limits and tips

• Height varies. Over capitals and tall letters such as d, the bar can collide with the letter or float at a different height than over x or a, depending on the font.
• Accessibility. A screen reader often reads x̅ as just “x”, losing the meaning, or as “x combining overline”. Search will not find barred words. In anything people must understand, write “x-bar” or “the mean” in words too.
• Limits fill faster, since every bar is a character.
• Your text is processed in the browser; nothing is uploaded.