The following is a list of notabletext editors.
The following editors can either be used with agraphical user interface or atext user interface.
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| Elvis | A vi/ex clone with additional commands and features. | ClArtistic |
| Extensible Versatile Editor (EVE) | Default underOpenVMS. | ? |
| GNU Emacs[1][2][3][4][5]/XEmacs[6][7] | Two long-existing forks of the popularEmacs programmer's editor. Emacs andvi are the dominant text editors onUnix-likeoperating systems, and have inspired theeditor wars. | GPL-3.0-or-later /GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE) | Programmer's Editor forOpenVMS implemented usingTPU. | ? |
| Textadept | A modular, cross-platform editor written inC andLua, usingScintilla.[8] | MIT |
| 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. | GPL-2.0-only |
| vim[9][10][11][12] | A clone based on the ideas of thevi editor and designed for use both from acommand line interface and in agraphical user interface. | Vim |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| Acme | A User Interface for Programmers byRob Pike. | MIT |
| Alphatk | Proprietary | |
| Apache OpenOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of theApache OpenOffice Suite, based onStarOffice's suite. | Apache-2.0 |
| Arachnophilia | Asource code editor which is successor to another HTML editor, WebThing. | Free software |
| Atom | A modular, general-purpose editor built usingHTML,CSS andJavaScript on top ofChromium andNode.js. | MIT |
| BBEdit | Aproprietarytext editor originally developed forMacintoshSystem Software 6 | Proprietary |
| Bluefish | A source code editor with web development features. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Brackets | A modular, web-oriented editor built usingHTML,CSS andJavaScript on top of theChromium Embedded Framework. | MIT |
| CodeWright | An editing system or source code editor which can be configured to work with otherintegrated development environment (IDE) systems. | Proprietary |
| Crimson Editor | Atext editor which is typically used as asource code editor andHTML editor. | Freeware |
| CygnusEd (CED) | Proprietary | |
| E Text Editor | Default underIBMOS/2 versions 2-4[citation needed]. | Proprietary |
| Eddie | An editor originally made forBeOS and later ported toLinux andmacOS. | Freeware |
| EmEditor | extensiblecommercialtext editor which supportsUnicode,syntax highlighting and vertical selection editing, editing of large files (up to 248 GB or 2.1 billionlines) | Proprietary |
| Epsilon | Aprogrammer'stext editor modelled afterEmacs. | Proprietary |
| FeatherPad | A lightweight editor based onQt. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Geany | A fast and lightweight editor –IDE, usesGTK+. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| gedit | Former default underGNOME until GNOME 42.[13] | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| GNOME Text Editor | Default underGNOME from GNOME 42 onwards[14] | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| GoldED (text editor ofCubic IDE) | Proprietary | |
| HxD | An editor for huge files, working with both binary data and texts. | Freeware |
| iA Writer | A multi-platformMarkdown text editor with writing focused feature set | Proprietary |
| jEdit | A free cross-platform programmer's editor written inJava,GPL licensed. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| JOVE | Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs | JOVE |
| Kate | A basic text editor for theKDE desktop. | LGPL,GPL |
| Kedit | An editor with commands andRexx macros similar to IBMXEDIT. | Proprietary |
| Kile | A user friendlyTeX/LaTeX editor. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Komodo Edit | MPL-1.1 | |
| KWrite | A default editor onKDE. | LGPL |
| Lapis | An experimentaltext editor allowingmultiple simultaneous edits of text in a multipleselection from a fewexamples provided by the user. | GPL-2.0 |
| Leafpad | Default underLXDE.[15] | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Leo | A text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation. | MIT |
| LibreOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of theLibreOffice Suite, based onStarOffice's suite. | MPL-2.0 |
| Light Table | A text editor andIDE with real-time, inline expression evaluation. Intended mainly for dynamic languages such asClojure,Python andJavaScript, and for web development. | MIT /GPL-3.0-only |
| mcedit | A text editor provided withMidnight Commander. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Metapad | Windows Notepad replacement,GPL licensed. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| MicroEMACS | JASSPA MicroEMACS | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Mousepad | The default underXfce.[16] | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Multi-Edit | Proprietary | |
| NEdit – "Nirvana Editor" | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Notepad | Default underMicrosoft Windows. | Proprietary |
| Notepad++ | A tabbed text editor. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Pe | A text editor for BeOS. | MIT |
| pluma | The default text editor of theMATE desktop environment for Linux. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| PolyEdit | Proprietary word processor and text editor. | Proprietary |
| Programmer's File Editor (PFE) | Freeware | |
| PSPad | An editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments. | Freeware |
| RJ TextEd | Freeware | |
| Sam | MIT | |
| 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. | HPND |
| SimpleText | Default underClassic Mac OS from version 7.5.[17] | Proprietary |
| SlickEdit | Proprietary | |
| Smultron | A macOS text editor. | Proprietary |
| SubEthaEdit (formerly named Hydra) | Proprietary | |
| Sublime Text | Proprietary | |
| TeachText | Default under Classic Mac OS versions prior to 7.5.[18] | Proprietary |
| TED Notepad | Freeware | |
| Tex-Edit Plus | Proprietary | |
| TextPad | Proprietary | |
| TeXnicCenter | GPL | |
| TeXShop | TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer.[19][20][21][22] | GPL-2.0 |
| TextEdit | Default undermacOS,[23]NeXTSTEP[citation needed], andGNUstep.[citation needed] | BSD-3-Clause |
| TextMate | GPL-3.0-or-later | |
| TextWrangler | Mac-only editor byBare Bones Software, sunsetted. Final version released 09/20/2016,[24] replaced by free tier of [BBEdit].[25] | Freeware |
| The Hessling Editor | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| The SemWare Editor (TSE) (formerly named QEdit). | Freeware | |
| UltraEdit | Text and source code editor withsyntax highlighting, code folding, FTP, etc., handles multi-gigabyte files. | Proprietary |
| Ulysses | Proprietary | |
| VEDIT | Proprietary | |
| Visual Studio Code[26] | An extensible code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running and version control. | MIT |
| WinEdt | Proprietary | |
| X11 Xedit | MIT | |
| XEDIT | Default underVM/CMS. | Proprietary |
| Yudit | GPL-2.0-only | |
| Xed | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| E | is the text editor in PC DOS 6,PC DOS 7 andPC DOS 2000. | Proprietary |
| ed | The defaultline editor onUnix 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 | The default editor onCP/M,MP/M,Concurrent CP/M,CP/M-86,MP/M-86,Concurrent CP/M-86. | Free software |
| EDIT | The default onMS-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 includingMS-DOS 6.22, it only supported files up to 64 KB. | Proprietary |
| EDIT | The text editor inNovell 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 | The text editor inConcurrent DOS,Concurrent DOS XM,Concurrent PC DOS,Concurrent DOS 386,FlexOS 286,FlexOS 386,4680 OS,4690 OS,S5-DOS/MT. | Proprietary |
| EDITOR | The text editor inDR DOS 3.31 throughDR DOS 6.0, and the predecessor ofEDIT. | Proprietary |
| EDLIN | A command-line based line editor introduced with86-DOS, and the default onMS-DOS prior to version 5 and is also available on MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows NT. | Proprietary |
| ee | Stands forEasy Editor, is part of the base system ofFreeBSD, along with vi.[27] | Free software |
| nvi | (Installed as vi by default in BSD operating systems and someLinux distributions) – A free replacement for the original vi which maintains compatibility while adding some new features. | BSD-3-Clause |
| vi[9][10][28] | The default forUnix systems and must be included in allPOSIX compliant systems[29] – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based onex. | BSD-4-Clause orCDDL |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| ECCE | ECCE (The Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor) is a text editor designed by Dr Hamish Dewar at Edinburgh University. | Free software |
| Emacs | A screen-based editor with an embedded computer language,Emacs Lisp. Early versions were implemented in TECO, see below. | Free software |
| 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 inS-Lang. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| JOE | A modern screen-based editor with a sort of enhanced-WordStar style to the interface, but can also emulate Pico. | Free software |
| LE | GPL-3.0-or-later | |
| mcedit | Full featured terminal text editor for Unix-like systems. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| mg | Small and light, uses GNU/Emacs keybindings. Installed by default on OpenBSD. | Public domain |
| MinEd | Text editor with user-friendly interface, mouse and menu control, and extensive Unicode and CJK support; for Unix/Linux and Windows/DOS. | GPL |
| GNU nano | A clone of PicoGPL licensed. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| ne | A minimal, modern replacement for vi. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Pico | Apache-2.0 | |
| SETEDIT | A clone of the editor of Borland's Turbo* IDEs. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| The SemWare Editor | (TSE for DOS) (formerly called QEdit) | Proprietary |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| BusyBox vi[30] | A small vi clone with a minimum of commands and features. | GPL-2.0-only |
| Elvis | The first vi clone and the default vi in Minix. | ClArtistic |
| ex | Or isvi anex-clone?ex was anextended version ofed. It got a full-screen visual interface, thereby becoming thevi text editor. | Free software |
| Kakoune | An editor inspired by vi that makes use of multi cursor workflows and modal editing.[31] | Unlicense |
| nvi | A new implementation and currently the standard vi in BSD distributions. | BSD-3-Clause |
| Stevie | STEVIE (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts) for the Atari ST, the starting point for vim and xvi | Public domain |
| vile | Derived from an early version ofMicroemacs in an attempt to bring theEmacs 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. | GPL-2.0-only |
| vim[12] | An extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code. | Vim |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| Cocoa text system | Supports text components ofmacOS. | Proprietary |
| Scintilla (software) | Used as the core of several text editors. | HPND |
| sed (stream editor) | The standardUnixstreameditor based on the scripting features ined. A utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. | Free software |
| Text Processing Utility (TPU) | Language and runtime package, developed byDEC, used to implement theLanguage-Sensitive Editor andExtensible Versatile Editor, Eve. | Proprietary |
Editors that are specifically designed for the creation ofASCII andANSI text art.