diff --git a/src/server/serversession.py b/src/server/serversession.py
index 825ef2c574..913f6f9b14 100644
--- a/src/server/serversession.py
+++ b/src/server/serversession.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ from django.conf import settings
 #from src.scripts.models import ScriptDB
 from src.comms.models import ChannelDB
 from src.utils import logger, utils
+from src.utils.inlinefunc import parse_inlinefunc
 from src.utils.utils import make_iter
 from src.commands.cmdhandler import cmdhandler
 from src.commands.cmdsethandler import CmdSetHandler
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ _OOB_HANDLER = None
 # load optional out-of-band function module (this acts as a verification)
 OOB_PLUGIN_MODULES = [utils.mod_import(mod)
                       for mod in make_iter(settings.OOB_PLUGIN_MODULES) if mod]
+INLINEFUNC_ENABLED = settings.INLINEFUNC_ENABLED
 
 # i18n
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
@@ -234,6 +236,8 @@ class ServerSession(Session):
         Send Evennia -> User
         """
         text = text if text else ""
+        if INLINEFUNC_ENABLED and not "raw" in kwargs:
+            text = parse_inlinefunc(text, strip="strip_inlinefunc" in kwargs)
         self.sessionhandler.data_out(self, text=text, **kwargs)
 
     def __eq__(self, other):
diff --git a/src/settings_default.py b/src/settings_default.py
index 7759e89953..e882dd04d5 100644
--- a/src/settings_default.py
+++ b/src/settings_default.py
@@ -347,6 +347,19 @@ TIME_DAY_PER_WEEK = 7
 TIME_WEEK_PER_MONTH = 4
 TIME_MONTH_PER_YEAR = 12
 
+######################################################################
+# Inlinefunc
+######################################################################
+# Evennia supports inline function preprocessing. This allows
+# users to supply {func() ... {/func in text, performing dynamic
+# text formatting and manipulation on the fly. If disabled, such
+# inline functions will not be parsed.
+INLINEFUNC_ENABLED = True
+# Only functions defined globally (and not starting with '_') in
+# these modules will be considered valid inlinefuncs. The list
+# is loaded from left-to-right, same-named functions will overload
+INLINEFUNC_MODULES = ["src.utils.inlinefunc"]
+
 ######################################################################
 # Default Player setup and access
 ######################################################################
diff --git a/src/utils/inlinefunc.py b/src/utils/inlinefunc.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..38d4298b9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/inlinefunc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+"""
+Inlinefunc
+
+This is a simple inline text language for use to custom-format text
+in Evennia. It is applied BEFORE ANSI/MUX parsing is applied.
+
+The format is straightforward:
+
+
+{funcname([arg1,arg2,...]) text {/funcname
+
+
+Example:
+    "This is {pad(50,c,-) a center-padded text{/pad of width 50."
+    ->
+    "This is -------------- a center-padded text--------------- of width 50."
+
+This can be inserted in any text, operated on by the parse_inlinefunc
+function.  funcname() (no space is allowed between the name and the
+argument tuple) is picked from a selection of valid functions from
+settings.INLINETEXT_FUNC_MODULES.
+
+Commands can be nested, and will applied inside-out. For correct
+parsing their end-tags must match the starting tags in reverse order.
+
+Example:
+    "The time is {pad(30){time(){/time{/padright now."
+    ->
+    "The time is         Oct 25, 11:09         right now."
+
+An inline function should have the following call signature:
+
+    def funcname(text, *args)
+
+where the text is always the part between {funcname(args) and
+{/funcname and the *args are taken from the appropriate part of the
+call. It is important that the inline function properly clean the
+incoming args, checking their type and replacing them with sane
+defaults if needed. If impossible to resolve, the unmodified text
+should be returned. The inlinefunc should never cause a traceback.
+
+"""
+
+import re
+from django.conf import settings
+from src.utils import utils
+
+
+# inline functions
+
+def pad(text, *args):
+    "Pad to width. pad(text, width=78, align='c', fillchar=' ')"
+    width = 78
+    align = 'c'
+    fillchar = ' '
+    for iarg, arg in enumerate(args):
+        if iarg == 0:
+            width = int(arg) if arg.isdigit() else width
+        elif iarg == 1:
+            align = arg if arg in ('c', 'l', 'r') else align
+        elif iarg == 2:
+            fillchar = arg[0]
+        else:
+            break
+    return utils.pad(text, width=width, align=align, fillchar=fillchar)
+
+def crop(text, *args):
+    "Crop to width. crop(text, width=78, suffix='[...]')"
+    width = 78
+    suffix = "[...]"
+    for iarg, arg in enumerate(args):
+        if iarg == 0:
+            width = int(arg) if arg.isdigit() else width
+        elif iarg == 1:
+            suffix = arg
+        else:
+            break
+    return utils.crop(text, width=width, suffix=suffix)
+
+def wrap(text, *args):
+    "Wrap/Fill text to width. fill(text, width=78, indent=0)"
+    width = 78
+    indent = 0
+    for iarg, arg in enumerate(args):
+        if iarg == 0:
+            width = int(arg) if arg.isdigit() else width
+        elif iarg == 1:
+            indent = int(arg) if arg.isdigit() else indent
+    return utils.wrap(text, width=width, indent=indent)
+
+def time(text, *args):
+    "Inserts current time"
+    import time
+    strformat = "%h %d, %H:%M"
+    if args and args[0]:
+        strformat = str(args[0])
+    return time.strftime(strformat)
+
+# load functions from module (including this one, if using default settings)
+_INLINE_FUNCS = {}
+for module in utils.make_iter(settings.INLINEFUNC_MODULES):
+    _INLINE_FUNCS.update(utils.all_from_module(module))
+_INLINE_FUNCS.pop("inline_func_parse", None)
+
+# dynamically build regexes for found functions
+_RE_FUNCFULL = r"\{%s\((.*?)\)(.*?){/%s"
+_RE_FUNCSTART = r"\{((?:%s))"
+_RE_FUNCEND = r"\{/((?:%s))"
+_RE_FUNCSPLIT = r"(\{/*(?:%s)(?:\(.*?\))*)"
+_RE_FUNCCLEAN = r"\{%s\(.*?\)|\{/%s"
+
+_INLINE_FUNCS = dict((key, (func, re.compile(_RE_FUNCFULL % (key, key), re.DOTALL &  re.MULTILINE)))
+                          for key, func in _INLINE_FUNCS.items() if callable(func))
+_FUNCSPLIT_REGEX = re.compile(_RE_FUNCSPLIT % r"|".join([key for key in _INLINE_FUNCS]), re.DOTALL & re.MULTILINE)
+_FUNCSTART_REGEX = re.compile(_RE_FUNCSTART % r"|".join([key for key in _INLINE_FUNCS]), re.DOTALL & re.MULTILINE)
+_FUNCEND_REGEX = re.compile(_RE_FUNCEND % r"|".join([key for key in _INLINE_FUNCS]), re.DOTALL & re.MULTILINE)
+_FUNCCLEAN_REGEX = re.compile("|".join([_RE_FUNCCLEAN % (key, key) for key in _INLINE_FUNCS]), re.DOTALL & re.MULTILINE)
+
+
+# inline parser functions
+
+def _execute_inline_function(funcname, text):
+    """
+    Get the enclosed text between {funcname(...) and {/funcname
+    and execute the inline function to replace the whole block
+    with the result.
+    Note that this lookup is "dumb" - we just grab the first end
+    tag we find. So to work correctly this function must be called
+    "inside out" on a nested function tree, so each call only works
+    on a "flat" tag.
+    """
+    def subfunc(match):
+        "replace the entire block with the result of the function call"
+        args = [part.strip() for part in match.group(1).split(",")]
+        intext = match.group(2)
+        return _INLINE_FUNCS[funcname][0](intext, *args)
+    return _INLINE_FUNCS[funcname][1].sub(subfunc, text)
+
+
+def parse_inlinefunc(text, strip=False):
+    """
+    Parse inline function-replacement.
+
+    Default is to ignore such functions,
+    use strip=False to leave them in.
+    """
+
+    if strip:
+        return _FUNCCLEAN_REGEX.sub("", text)
+
+    stack = []
+    for part in _FUNCSPLIT_REGEX.split(text):
+        endtag = _FUNCEND_REGEX.match(part)
+        if endtag:
+            # an end tag
+            endname = endtag.group(1)
+            while stack:
+                new_part = stack.pop()
+                part = new_part + part  # add backwards -> fowards
+                starttag = _FUNCSTART_REGEX.match(new_part)
+                if starttag:
+                    startname = starttag.group(1)
+                    if startname == endname:
+                        part = _execute_inline_function(startname, part)
+                        break
+        stack.append(part)
+    return "".join(stack)
+
+def _test():
+    # this should pad everything
+    s = "This is a {crop()text at {time(){/time with a{pad(78,r,-)text {pad(5)of{/pad {pad(8)nice{/pad size{/pad inside {pad(4,l)it{/pad.{/crop"
+    print " intext:", s
+    t = parse_inlinefunc(s)
+    print "outtext:", t
diff --git a/src/utils/utils.py b/src/utils/utils.py
index 0b690a784a..1930b65e5c 100644
--- a/src/utils/utils.py
+++ b/src/utils/utils.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def make_iter(obj):
     return not hasattr(obj, '__iter__') and [obj] or obj
 
 
-def fill(text, width=78, indent=0):
+def wrap(text, width=78, indent=0):
     """
     Safely wrap text to a certain number of characters.
 
@@ -67,7 +67,22 @@ def fill(text, width=78, indent=0):
     text = to_unicode(text)
     indent = " " * indent
     return to_str(textwrap.fill(text, width, subsequent_indent=indent))
+# alias - fill
+fill = wrap
 
+def pad(text, width=78, align="c", fillchar=" "):
+    """
+    Pads to a given width, align is one of c,l,r
+    and fillchar defaults to the empty string
+    """
+    align = align if align in ('c', 'l', 'r') else 'c'
+    fillchar = fillchar[0] if fillchar else " "
+    if align == 'l':
+        return text.ljust(width, fillchar)
+    elif align == 'r':
+        return text.rjust(width, fillchar)
+    else:
+        return text.center(width, fillchar)
 
 def crop(text, width=78, suffix="[...]"):
     """