Get readable text only from clipboard

import java.awt.HeadlessException;
import java.awt.Toolkit;
import java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
import java.awt.datatransfer.UnsupportedFlavorException;
import java.io.IOException;

String data = (String) Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit()
                .getSystemClipboard().getData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor); 

with the getData() Method and the stringFlavor you should get plain text from the clipboard.

If there are weird text in the clipboard, I think, this should be a problem of the program which puts the data in the clipboard.

You can use following method getting clipboard text in Java:

public String getClipBoard(){
    try {
        return (String)Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemClipboard().getData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
    } catch (HeadlessException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();            
    } catch (UnsupportedFlavorException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();            
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return "";
}