# Read
## `read`
Reads plain text or data from a file.
By default, the file will be read as UTF-8 and returned as a [string]($str).
If you specify `{encoding: none}`, this returns raw [bytes] instead.
# Example
```example
An example for a HTML file: \
#let text = read("example.html")
#raw(text, lang: "html")
Raw bytes:
#read("tiger.jpg", encoding: none)
```
## Parameters
### path *(required)*
Path to a file.
For more details, see the [Paths section]($syntax/#paths).
### encoding
The encoding to read the file with.
If set to `{none}`, this function returns raw bytes.
## Returns
- str, bytes