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. | ClArtistic |
| 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. | GPL-3.0-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later |
| 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] | 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 the vi editor and designed for use both from a command line interface and in a graphical user interface. | Vim |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| Acme | A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike. | MIT |
| AkelPad | Еditor for plain text. It is designed to be a small and fast. Many plugins. | BSD-2-Clause |
| Alphatk | Proprietary | |
| Apache OpenOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of the Apache OpenOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | Apache-2.0 |
| Arachnophilia | Free software | |
| Atom | A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js. | MIT |
| BBEdit | Proprietary | |
| BBEdit Lite | Freeware | |
| Bluefish | A web development editor. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Brackets | A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework. | MIT |
| CodeWright | Proprietary | |
| Crimson Editor | Freeware | |
| CudaText | Written in Object Pascal on Lazarus (IDE), thus cross platform native GUI. | MPL-2.0 |
| CygnusEd (CED) | Proprietary | |
| E Text Editor | Default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4[citation needed]. | Proprietary |
| Eddie | An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS. | Freeware |
| EmEditor | Proprietary | |
| Epsilon | Proprietary | |
| FeatherPad | A lightweight editor based on Qt. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Geany | A fast and lightweight editor – IDE, uses GTK+. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| gedit | Former default under GNOME until GNOME 42.[13] | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| GNOME Text Editor | Default under GNOME from GNOME 42 onwards[14] | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE) | Proprietary | |
| HTML Kit | Freeware | |
| HxD | An editor for huge files, working with both binary data and texts. | Freeware |
| iA Writer | A multi-platform Markdown text editor with writing focused feature set | Proprietary |
| jEdit | A free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| JOVE | Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs | JOVE |
| JuffEd | A lightweight text editor written in Qt4. | GPL-2.0-only |
| Kate | A basic text editor for the KDE desktop. | LGPL, GPL |
| Kedit | An editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM XEDIT. | Proprietary |
| Kile | A user friendly TeX/LaTeX editor. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Komodo Edit | MPL-1.1 | |
| KWrite | A default editor on KDE. | LGPL |
| Lapis | An experimental text editor allowing multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection from a few examples provided by the user. | GPL-2.0 |
| Leafpad | Default under LXDE.[15] and Xfce[citation needed] | 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 the LibreOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | MPL-2.0 |
| 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. | MIT / GPL-3.0-only |
| mcedit | A text editor provided with Midnight 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 under Xfce.[16] | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Multi-Edit | Proprietary | |
| NEdit – "Nirvana Editor" | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Notepad | Default under Microsoft Windows. | Proprietary |
| Notepad++ | A tabbed text editor. | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Pe | A text editor for BeOS. | MIT |
| PimNote | A Windows text editor for faster recent file access, quick find, and smooth remote working. | Freeware |
| pluma | The default text editor of the MATE 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 under Classic Mac OS from version 7.5.[17] | Proprietary |
| SlickEdit | Proprietary | |
| Smultron | A macOS text editor. | Proprietary |
| Source Insight | 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 and Wildedit | Proprietary | |
| TeXnicCenter | GPL | |
| TeXShop | TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer.[19][20][21][22] | GPL-2.0 |
| TextEdit | Default under macOS,[23] NeXTSTEP[citation needed], and GNUstep.[citation needed] | BSD-3-Clause |
| TextMate | GPL-3.0-or-later | |
| TextWrangler | Mac-only editor by Bare 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 with syntax 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 under VM/CMS. | Proprietary |
| Yudit | GPL-2.0-only |
| Name | Description | License |
|---|---|---|
| E | is the text editor in PC DOS 6, PC DOS 7 and PC DOS 2000. | Proprietary |
| ed | 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 | The default editor on CP/M, MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86. | Free software |
| EDIT | 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 | 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. | Proprietary |
| 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. | Proprietary |
| EDITOR | The text editor in DR DOS 3.31 through DR DOS 6.0, and the predecessor of EDIT. | Proprietary |
| EDLIN | 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.[27] | 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. | BSD-3-Clause |
| vi[9][10][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. | BSD-4-Clause or CDDL |
| 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 in S-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 Pico GPL 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 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. | Free software |
| 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 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. | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| GNOME GtkSourceView | GtkSourceView is a GNOME library that provides source code editing features. | GNU LGPL 2.1 or later |
| Cocoa text system | Supports text components of macOS. | Proprietary |
| Scintilla (software) | Used as the core of several text editors. | HPND |
| 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. | Free software |
| Text Processing Utility (TPU) | Language and runtime package, developed by DEC, used to implement the Language-Sensitive Editor and Extensible Versatile Editor, Eve. | Proprietary |
Editors that are specifically designed for the creation of ASCII and ANSI text art.