TLDR Web Dev · ARTICLES & TUTORIALS

THE WEB'S CLIPBOARD, AND HOW IT STORES DATA OF DIFFERENT TYPES

alexharri.com20 min read

Summary from the TLDR Web Dev newsletter

The Clipboard API restricts the data types that can be written to the clipboard. While the Clipboard Events API allows for arbitrary data types, it can only be used in user-triggered events. This article goes into the creative solutions employed by web applications like Google Docs and Figma to overcome these limitations, such as by using custom data types and base64 encoding for transmitting information.