> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://itsfoss.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Text Pieces: A Rust-based Open Source App to Help Devs With Text Transformations
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/text-pieces/
- Published: 2025-01-19T17:51:53.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-19T17:51:53.000Z
- Description: A handy little scratchpad app for developers.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: App of the Week, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

Tools like code editors, IDEs, debuggers, and version control systems such as Git make the lives of developers so much easier, while playing a crucial role in making software development more efficient and manageable.

Such tools **allow developers to focus on solving problems and building functionality** without getting bogged down by menial tasks and debugging snafus.

For this App Of The Week, we will be checking out a powerful [scratchpad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratchpad?ref=itsfoss.com) app that has been specifically tailored for developers.

## Text Pieces: A Scratchpad For Developers

![a screenshot of text pieces about dialog open](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_a.png)

Mostly a one-man show led by [Gleb Smirnov](https://gitlab.com/liferooter?ref=itsfoss.com), Text Pieces is **a Rust-based scratchpad app** that markets itself to be the Swiss knife of text processing (*its logo shows that too*). It is actively developed, with new releases adding useful improvements.

### ⭐ Key Features

As for what Text Pieces can do for you, it can carry out [Base64](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64?ref=itsfoss.com) encoding/decoding, convert JSON to YAML, sort/reverse sort lines, and can be extended via third-party scripts and custom tools.

Some of its highlights include:

- **Escape/Unescape Strings**
- **Counting Words/Symbols**
- **Computing MD5 Checksum**

### 💻 User Experience

On my [Fedora 41](https://itsfoss.com/fedora-41/)\-equipped laptop, Text Pieces ran without any issues, allowing me to get started right away at app launch. For my testing, I only focused on a few specific tasks, but Text Pieces offers much more than that.

First, I tried **converting a JSON file into YAML** by uploading a file by using the “*Load File…*” option from the hamburger menu and selecting the appropriate operation in the “*Select action*” menu.

It worked well, providing me with an appropriate output, which I could easily copy by clicking the dedicated copy button on the top-left of the app.

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_b.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_c.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_d.png)

Text Pieces converting JSON to YAML.

Next up, I tried **encoding a piece of plain text using Base64**, and the process was the same as before: Add your content, choose the action, then get the result. For this, I just added an interesting story of Borfy the dog and let Test Pieces handle the rest.

As you can see below, even decoding the same piece of text worked as expected. 👇

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_e.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_f.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_g.png)

Text Pieces encoding (**center*) and decoding (**right*) a piece of Base64 text.

Then I tried **minifying a JSON file**, and, no surprises here, it worked. I could also run an operation where I could **count the number of lines** a text had, allowing for quick overviews of long pieces of code.

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_h.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_i.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_j.png)

![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2025/01/Text_Pieces_k.png)

Text Pieces minifying a JSON file and counting the number of lines in an entered piece of Rust code.

Concluding my testing, I found out that **Text Pieces is a no-nonsense app that does exactly what it promises**. It’s straightforward, efficient, and free from unnecessary distractions. If you need a reliable tool to handle text operations without extra bells and whistles (*read bloat*), this app delivers perfectly.

## ⚙️ Installing Text Pieces

You can usually find the latest release on [Flathub](https://flathub.org/apps/io.gitlab.liferooter.TextPieces?ref=itsfoss.com), with the [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/liferooter/textpieces?ref=itsfoss.com) repo being the next best place to source it.

[Text Pieces](https://flathub.org/apps/io.gitlab.liferooter.TextPieces?ref=itsfoss.com)

**Suggested Read** 📖

[Zed: A Next-Gen Rust-Based Open Source Code Editor With AIFrom the creators of the now defunct Atom, we have Zed editor with interesting capabilities.![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/08/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/zed-editor-aotw.png)](https://itsfoss.com/zed-editor/)