Function for better truncating text in WordPress. Great for custom excerpts.

functions.php

/**
* Takes a string and returns a truncated version. Also strips out shortcodes
*
* @param  string  $text   String to truncate
* @param  integer $length Character count limit for truncation
* @param  string  $append Appended to the end of the string if character count exceeds limit
* @return string          Truncated string
*/
function truncate_text( $text='', $length = 50, $append = '...') {
    $new_text = preg_replace(" ([.*?])",'',$text);
    $new_text = strip_shortcodes($new_text);
    $new_text = strip_tags($new_text);
    $new_text = substr($new_text, 0, $length);
    if ( strlen($new_text) == $length ) {
        $new_text = substr($new_text, 0, strripos($new_text, " "));
        $new_text = $new_text . $append;
    }

    return $new_text;
}