List of text editors
The following is a list of text editors. For a list of outliners, see that article's external links.
Graphical and text user interface
The following editors can either be used with a graphical user interface or a text user interface.
Graphical user interface
| Name |
Description |
License |
| EditPad |
The main tool is EditPad Pro, there is also an EditPad Lite by Just Great Software, many features and extensions, strong on Regexes. |
Proprietary |
| E (E.EXE) |
default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4 |
Proprietary |
| gedit |
default under GNOME[2] |
Free software |
| Leafpad |
default under LXDE[3] and Xfce |
Free software |
| Mousepad |
previously the default under Xfce[4] |
Free software |
| Notepad |
default under Microsoft Windows |
Proprietary |
| SimpleText |
default under Classic Mac OS from version 7.5[5] |
Proprietary |
| TeachText |
default under Classic Mac OS versions prior to 7.5[6] |
Proprietary |
| TextEdit |
default under macOS,[7] NeXTSTEP, and GNUstep |
Free software |
| XEDIT |
default under VM/CMS |
Proprietary |
| Acme |
A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike |
Free software |
| AkelPad |
Еditor for plain text. It is designed to be a small and fast. Many plugins. |
Free software |
| Atom |
A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js |
Free software |
| Arachnophilia |
|
Free software |
| Bluefish |
Web development editor |
Free software |
| Brackets |
A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework |
Free software |
| ConTEXT |
|
Free software |
| Crimson Editor |
|
Freeware |
| Geany |
fast and lightweight editor / IDE, uses GTK+ |
Free software |
| Gobby |
a free software collaborative real-time editor available on Windows and Unix-like platforms. |
Free software |
| J |
Text editor written in Java, part of the ArmedBear Common Lisp (ABCL) project |
Free software |
| jEdit |
free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed |
Free software |
| JOVE |
Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs |
Free software |
| JuffEd |
lightweight text editor written in Qt4 |
Free software |
| Kate |
basic text editor for the KDE desktop |
Free software |
| Kile |
User friendly TeX/LaTeX editor |
Free software |
| Kod |
macOS-only, TextMate-like |
Free software |
| KWrite |
default editor on KDE |
Free software |
| Lapis |
an experimental text editor allowing multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection from a few examples provided by the user. |
Free software |
| Leo |
a text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation |
Free software |
| Light Table |
a text editor and IDE with real-time, inline expression evaluation. Intended mainly for dynamic languages such as Clojure, Python and JavaScript, and for web development |
Free software |
| mcedit |
text editor provided with Midnight Commander |
Free software |
| Metapad |
Windows Notepad replacement, GPL licensed |
Free software |
| MicroEMACS |
|
Free software |
| NEdit – "Nirvana Editor" |
|
Free software |
| Notepad++ |
a tabbed text editor |
Free software |
| Notepad2 |
|
Free software |
| Pe |
a text editor for BeOS |
Free software |
| pluma |
default text editor of the MATE desktop environment for Linux |
Free software |
| Programmer's Notepad |
|
Free software |
| RText |
|
Free software |
| Sam |
|
Free software |
| SciTE |
|
Free software |
| TeXnicCenter |
|
Free software |
| TeXShop |
TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer |
Free software |
| TextMate |
|
Free software |
| The Hessling Editor |
|
Free software |
| UniRed |
Windows text editor supporting many encodings |
Free software |
| X11 Xedit |
|
Free software |
| Yudit |
|
Free software |
| BBEdit Lite |
|
Freeware |
| Eddie |
editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS. |
Freeware |
| HxD for huge text files |
|
Freeware |
| Komodo Edit |
|
Free software |
| LEd – LaTeX Editor |
|
Freeware |
| NoteTab Light |
|
Freeware |
| Programmer's File Editor (PFE) |
|
Freeware |
| PSPad |
editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments |
Freeware |
| RJ TextEd |
|
Freeware |
| Q10 |
Full screen text editor (Windows) |
Freeware |
| TED Notepad |
|
Freeware |
| TextWrangler |
|
Freeware |
| HTML Kit |
|
Freeware |
| Alphatk |
|
Proprietary |
| BBEdit |
|
Proprietary |
| CodeWright |
|
Proprietary |
| GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE) |
|
Proprietary |
| CygnusEd (CED) |
|
Proprietary |
| E Text Editor |
|
Proprietary |
| Edit++ |
source code editor with image and HTML previewing capabilities |
Proprietary |
| EditPlus |
editor with syntax highlighting and FTP |
Proprietary |
| EmEditor |
|
Proprietary |
| Epsilon |
|
Proprietary |
| GWD Text Editor |
|
Proprietary |
| iA Writer |
|
Proprietary |
| Inlage LaTeX Editor |
|
Proprietary |
| Kedit |
editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM XEDIT |
Proprietary |
| NoteTab |
|
Proprietary |
| Peppermint |
an editor with a CoffeeScript/JavaScript API |
Proprietary |
| PolyEdit |
|
Proprietary |
| skEdit |
(formerly called skHTML) |
Proprietary |
| SlickEdit |
|
Proprietary |
| Smultron |
a macOS text editor |
Proprietary |
| Source Insight |
|
Proprietary |
| SubEthaEdit (formerly called Hydra) |
|
Proprietary |
| Sublime Text |
|
Proprietary |
| Tex-Edit Plus |
|
Proprietary |
| TextPad and Wildedit |
|
Proprietary |
| The SemWare Editor (TSE) (formerly called QEdit) |
|
Proprietary |
| SynWrite |
A free text and source code editor |
Freeware |
| Tincta / Tincta Pro (macOS) |
|
Proprietary |
| TopStyle |
|
Proprietary |
| UltraEdit |
|
Proprietary |
| Ulysses |
|
Proprietary |
| VEDIT |
|
Proprietary |
| WinEdt |
|
Proprietary |
| Zed |
Designed to reduce cognitive load using a minimal UI and advanced file handling. Built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and available as either an addon to Chrome or a standalone Node.js-based program[8] |
Free software |
Text user interface
System default
| Command |
Description |
License |
| E |
is the text editor in PC DOS 7 and PC DOS 2000. |
Proprietary |
| ed |
is the default line editor on Unix since the birth of Unix. Either ed or a compatible editor is available on all systems labeled as Unix (not by default on every one) |
Free software |
| ED |
is the default editor on CP/M, MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86. |
Free software |
| EDIT |
is the default on MS-DOS 5.0 and higher and is included with all 32-bit versions of Windows that do not rely on a separate copy of DOS. Up to including MS-DOS 6.22, it only supported files up to 64 KB. |
Proprietary |
| EDIT |
is the text editor in DR DOS 6.0, Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, DR-DOS 7.02 and higher. Supports large files for as long as swap space is available. Version 7 and higher optionally supports a pseudo-graphics user interface named NewUI. |
Proprietary |
| EDIX |
is the text editor in Concurrent DOS, Concurrent DOS XM, Concurrent PC DOS, Concurrent DOS 386, FlexOS 286, FlexOS 386, 4680 OS, 4690 OS, S5-DOS/MT. |
Proprietary |
| EDITOR |
is the text editor in DR DOS 3.31 through DR DOS 5.0, and the predecessor of EDIT. |
Proprietary |
| EDLIN |
is a command-line based line editor introduced with 86-DOS, and the default on MS-DOS prior to version 5 and is also available on MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows NT. |
Proprietary |
| ee |
stands for Easy Editor, is part of the base system of FreeBSD, along with vi.[9] |
Free software |
| nvi |
(installed as vi by default in BSD operating systems and some Linux distributions) – A free replacement for the original vi which maintains compatibility while adding some new features. |
Free software |
| vi |
is the default for Unix systems and must be included in all POSIX compliant systems[10] – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based on ex. |
Free software |
Others
vi clones
| busybox vi |
The smallest in code size of the vi clones, with a minimum of commands and features |
Free software |
| Elvis |
The first vi clone and the default vi in Minix. |
Free software |
| nvi |
A new implementation and currently the standard vi in BSD distributions. |
Free software |
| STEVIE |
STEVIE (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts) for the Atari ST, the starting point for vim and xvi. |
Free software |
| vile |
derived from an early version of Microemacs in an attempt to bring the Emacs multi-window/multi-buffer editing paradigm to vi users. First published 1991 with infinite undo, UTF-8 compatibility, multi-window/multi-buffer operation, a macro expansion language, syntax highlighting, file read and write hooks, and more. |
Free software |
| vim |
an extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code |
Free software |
No user interface (editor libraries/toolkits)
ASCII and ANSI art
Editors that are specifically designed for the creation of ASCII and ANSI text art.
- ACiDDraw – Designed for editing ASCII text art. Supports ANSI color (ANSI X3.64).
- JavE – ASCII editor, portable to any platform running a Java GUI.
- PabloDraw – ANSI/ASCII editor allowing multiple users to edit via TCP/IP network connections.
- TheDraw – ANSI/ASCII text editor for DOS and PCBoard file format support.
ASCII font editors
- FIGlet – For creating ASCII art text.
- TheDraw – ANSI/ASCII text editor with built-in editor and manager of ASCII fonts.
Historical
Visual and full-screen editors
- Brief – A very popular programmer's editor for DOS and OS/2.
- Edit application – A programmer's editor for Classic Mac OS.
- EDIT – A menu-based editor introduced to supersede EDLIN in MS-DOS version 5.0 and up and available in most Microsoft Windows
- EDT – A character based editor used on DEC PDP-11s and VAXen.
- O26 – written for the operator console of the CDC 6000 series machines in the mid-1960s
- Red – A VAX/VMS editor, written in Forth variant STOIC.
- se – An early screen-based editor for Unix.
- SED – Cross-platform editor from the 1980s, ran on TOPS-10, TOPS-20 and VMS.
- STET (the 'STructured Editing Tool') – may have been the first folding editor; its first version was written in 1977.
- TeachText
- TECO – One of the most advanced character-based editors, which included a programming language. While usually described as a line editor, it included screen editing capabilities at least as early as 1965.
Line editors
- Colossal Typewriter – An early editor thought to be written for the PDP-1
- ed – (1) Unix's early line editor, (2) CP/M's line editor.
- EDLIN – A line editor delivered with MS-DOS.
- EDT (Univac) - a line editor for Unisys VS/9 and e Fujitsu BS2000 systems.
- ex – An EXtended version of Unix's ed, later evolved into the visual editor vi.
- fred - sed-like line editor used on the CDC7600 at Los Alamos.
- GEDIT (aka George 3 EDITor) is a TECO-like editor including a programming language for the GEC 4000 series computers. GEDIT was originally written by David Toll of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and then adopted by GEC Computers for OS4000.
- sed – A non-interactive programmable stream editor available in Unix.
- TECO – One of the most advanced character-based editors, which included a programming language.
- TEDIT – GEC 4000 series editor based on the Cambridge Titan EDIT
- QED
Notes
See also