The following is a list of notable text editors.
The following editors can either be used with a graphical user interface or a text user interface.
| Name | Description | License | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elvis | A vi/ex clone with additional commands and features. | ||
| Extensible Versatile Editor (EVE) | Default under OpenVMS. | ||
| GNU Emacs[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] /XEmacs[6] [7] | Two long-existing forks of the popular Emacs programmer's editor. Emacs and vi are the dominant text editors on Unix-like operating systems, and have inspired the editor wars. | ||
| Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE) | Programmer's Editor for OpenVMS implemented using TPU. | ||
| Textadept | A modular, cross-platform editor written in C and Lua, using Scintilla.[8] | ||
| vile (vi like Emacs) | A vi work-alike which retains the vi command-set while adding new features: multiple windows and buffers, infinite undo, colorization, scriptable expansion capabilities, etc. | ||
| vim[9] [10] [11] [12] | A clone based on the ideas of the vi editor and designed for use both from a command line interface and in a graphical user interface. |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| Acme | A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike. | |
| Alphatk | ||
| Apache OpenOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of the Apache OpenOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | |
| Arachnophilia | ||
| Atom | A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js. | |
| BBEdit | ||
| BBEdit Lite | ||
| Brackets | A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework. | |
| CodeWright | ||
| Crimson Editor | ||
| CygnusEd (CED) | ||
| E Text Editor | Default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4. | |
| Eddie | An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS. | |
| EmEditor | ||
| Epsilon | ||
| FeatherPad | A lightweight editor based on Qt. | |
| Geany | A fast and lightweight editor – IDE, uses GTK+. | |
| gedit | Former default under GNOME until GNOME 42.[13] | |
| GNOME Text Editor | Default under GNOME from GNOME 42 onwards[14] | |
| GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE) | ||
| HxD | An editor for huge files, working with both binary data and texts. | |
| iA Writer | A multi-platform Markdown text editor with writing focused feature set | |
| jEdit | A free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed. | |
| JOVE | Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs | |
| JuffEd | A lightweight text editor written in Qt4. | |
| Kate | A basic text editor for the KDE desktop. | |
| Kedit | An editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM XEDIT. | |
| Kile | A user friendly TeX/LaTeX editor. | |
| Komodo Edit | ||
| KWrite | A default editor on KDE. | |
| Lapis | An experimental text editor allowing multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection from a few examples provided by the user. | |
| Leafpad | Default under LXDE.[15] and Xfce | |
| Leo | A text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation. | |
| LibreOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of the LibreOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | |
| 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. | |
| mcedit | A text editor provided with Midnight Commander. | |
| Metapad | Windows Notepad replacement, GPL licensed. | |
| MicroEMACS | JASSPA MicroEMACS | |
| Mousepad | The default under Xfce.[16] | |
| Multi-Edit | ||
| NEdit – "Nirvana Editor" | ||
| Notepad | Default under Microsoft Windows. | |
| Notepad++ | A tabbed text editor. | |
| Pe | A text editor for BeOS. | |
| pluma | The default text editor of the MATE desktop environment for Linux. | |
| PolyEdit | Proprietary word processor and text editor. | |
| Programmer's File Editor (PFE) | ||
| PSPad | An editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments. | |
| RJ TextEd | ||
| Sam | ||
| SciTE | Cross-platform, multi-user, multi-codepage, multi-language syntax highlighting, area selector, RE find/replace, and very customisable, allowing different font configurations for each syntactic group, user-defined menus and abbreviation expansion. | |
| SimpleText | Default under Classic Mac OS from version 7.5.[17] | |
| SlickEdit | ||
| Smultron | A macOS text editor. | |
| SubEthaEdit (formerly named Hydra) | ||
| Sublime Text | ||
| TeachText | Default under Classic Mac OS versions prior to 7.5.[18] | |
| TED Notepad | ||
| Tex-Edit Plus | ||
| TextPad and Wildedit | ||
| TeXnicCenter | ||
| TeXShop | TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer.[19] [20] [21] [22] | |
| TextEdit | Default under macOS,[23] NeXTSTEP, and GNUstep. | |
| TextMate | ||
| TextWrangler | Mac-only editor by Bare Bones Software, sunsetted. Final version released 09/20/2016,[24] replaced by free tier of [BBEdit].[25] | |
| The Hessling Editor | ||
| The SemWare Editor (TSE) (formerly named QEdit). | ||
| UltraEdit | Text and source code editor with syntax highlighting, code folding, FTP, etc., handles multi-gigabyte files. | |
| Ulysses | ||
| VEDIT | ||
| Visual Studio Code[26] | An extensible code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running and version control. | |
| WinEdt | ||
| X11 Xedit | ||
| XEDIT | Default under VM/CMS. | |
| Yudit | ||
| Xed | ||
| Name | Description | License | |
|---|---|---|---|
| is the text editor in PC DOS 6, PC DOS 7 and PC DOS 2000. | |||
| 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). | |||
| ED | The default editor on CP/M, MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86. | ||
| 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. | |||
| EDIT | The text editor in 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. | ||
| EDIX | 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. | ||
| EDITOR | The text editor in DR DOS 3.31 through DR DOS 6.0, and the predecessor of EDIT. | ||
| 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. | |||
| ee | Stands for Easy Editor, is part of the base system of FreeBSD, along with vi.[27] | ||
| (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. | |||
| vi[28] | The default for Unix systems and must be included in all POSIX compliant systems[29] – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based on ex. |
| Name | Description | License | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECCE (The Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor) is a text editor designed by Dr Hamish Dewar at Edinburgh University. | |||
| A screen-based editor with an embedded computer language, Emacs Lisp. Early versions were implemented in TECO, see below. | |||
| JED | Multi-mode, multi-window editor with drop-down menus, folding, ctags support, undo, UTF-8, key-macros, autosave, etc. Multi-emulation; default is emacs. Programmable in S-Lang. | ||
| A modern screen-based editor with a sort of enhanced-WordStar style to the interface, but can also emulate Pico. | |||
| LE | |||
| Full featured terminal text editor for Unix-like systems. | |||
| mg | Small and light, uses GNU/Emacs keybindings. Installed by default on OpenBSD. | ||
| Text editor with user-friendly interface, mouse and menu control, and extensive Unicode and CJK support; for Unix/Linux and Windows/DOS. | |||
| A clone of Pico GPL licensed. | |||
| A minimal, modern replacement for vi. | |||
| Pico | |||
| A clone of the editor of Borland's Turbo* IDEs. | |||
| The SemWare Editor | (TSE for DOS) (formerly called QEdit) |
| Name | Description | License | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BusyBox vi[30] | A small vi clone with a minimum of commands and features. | ||
| The first vi clone and the default vi in Minix. | |||
| Or is vi an ex-clone? ex was an extended version of ed. It got a full-screen visual interface, thereby becoming the vi text editor. | |||
| A new implementation and currently the standard vi in BSD distributions. | |||
| STEVIE (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts) for the Atari ST, the starting point for vim and xvi | |||
| 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. | |||
| An extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code. | |||
| Kakoune | A editor inspired by vi that makes use of multi cursor workflows and modal editing.[31] |
| Name | Description | License | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supports text components of macOS. | |||
| Used as the core of several text editors. | |||
| sed (stream editor) | The standard Unix stream editor based on the scripting features in ed. A utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. | ||
| Text Processing Utility (TPU) | Language and runtime package, developed by DEC, used to implement the Language-Sensitive Editor and Extensible Versatile Editor, Eve. |
Editors that are specifically designed for the creation of ASCII and ANSI text art.