Keeping standard text formatting

I 开发者_运维技巧have a site that is using a textbox like the one I entered the text in here, I would like to keep the standard text formatting. For instance the spacing, the line breaks, but not extra formatting like Bold or Italic formatting. What would be the best way to do this using xhtml and PHP?

Use the <pre></pre> tags to keep normal formatting, as in, it will preserve any linebreaks (\n) and whitespace entered in the textarea.

Use a <pre> element around the text. This will maintain the existing formatting.