List of text editors

Template:Short description The following is a list of notable text editors.

Graphical and text user interface

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.	Template:Open source
Extensible Versatile Editor (EVE)	Default under OpenVMS.	Template:Dunno
GNU Emacs<ref>Cameron, D., Rosenblatt, B., Raymond, E., & Raymond, E. S. (1996). Learning GNU Emacs. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".</ref><ref>Glickstein, B. (1997). Writing GNU Emacs Extensions: Editor Customizations and Creations with Lisp. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".</ref><ref>Halme, H., & Heinänen, J. (1988). GNU Emacs as a dynamically extensible programming environment. Software: Practice and Experience, 18(10), 999-1009.</ref><ref>Schoonover, M. A., & Schoonover, S. (1991). GNU Emacs: UNIX text editing and programming. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc.</ref><ref>Cameron, D., Elliott, J., Loy, M., Raymond, E. S., & Rosenblatt, B. (2005). Learning GNU Emacs. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".</ref>/XEmacs<ref>Stallman, R., & Goyal, R. (1994). Getting Started With XEmacs. One of a complete set of manuals for XEmacs, all available at {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}.</ref><ref>Ayers, L. (1997). A Comparison of Xemacs and GNU emacs. Linux Journal, 1997, 4.</ref>	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.	Template:Open source
Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE)	Programmer's Editor for OpenVMS implemented using TPU.	Template:Dunno
Textadept	A modular, cross-platform editor written in C and Lua, using Scintilla.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
vim<ref name="vi1">Robbins, A., Hannah, E., & Lamb, L. (2008). Learning the vi and Vim Editors. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".</ref><ref name="vi2">Robbins, A. (2011). Vi and Vim Editors Pocket Reference. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".</ref><ref>Schulz, K. (2007). Hacking Vim: a cookbook to get the most out of the latest Vim editor. Packt Publishing Ltd.</ref><ref name="vim">Neil, D. (2015). Practical Vim: Edit Text at the Speed of Thought. Pragmatic Bookshelf.</ref>	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.	Template:Open source

Graphical user interface

Name	Description	License
Acme	A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike.	Template:Open source
Alphatk		Template:Proprietary
Apache OpenOffice Writer	Word processor and text editor of the Apache OpenOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite.	Template:Open source
Arachnophilia	A source code editor which is successor to another HTML editor, WebThing.	Template:Open source
Atom	A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js.	Template:Open source
BBEdit	A proprietary text editor originally developed for Macintosh System Software 6	Template:Proprietary
Bluefish	A source code editor with web development features.	Template:Open source
Brackets	A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework.	Template:Open source
CodeWright	An editing system or source code editor which can be configured to work with other integrated development environment (IDE) systems.	Template:Proprietary
Crimson Editor	A text editor which is typically used as a source code editor and HTML editor.	Template:Free
CygnusEd (CED)		Template:Proprietary
E Text Editor	Default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4Template:Citation needed.	Template:Proprietary
Eddie	An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS.	Template:Free
EmEditor	extensible commercial text editor which supports Unicode, syntax highlighting and vertical selection editing, editing of large files (up to 248 GB or 2.1 billion lines)	Template:Proprietary
Epsilon	A programmer's text editor modelled after Emacs.	Template:Proprietary
FeatherPad	A lightweight editor based on Qt.	Template:Open source
Geany	A fast and lightweight editor – IDE, uses GTK+.	Template:Open source
gedit	Former default under GNOME until GNOME 42.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Open source
GNOME Text Editor	Default under GNOME from GNOME 42 onwards<ref name="42release">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Open source
GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE)		Template:Proprietary
HxD	An editor for huge files, working with both binary data and texts.	Template:Free
iA Writer	A multi-platform Markdown text editor with writing focused feature set	Template:Proprietary
jEdit	A free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed.	Template:Open source
JOVE	Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs	Template:Open source
Kate	A basic text editor for the KDE desktop.	Template:Open source
Kedit	An editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM XEDIT.	Template:Proprietary
Kile	A user friendly TeX/LaTeX editor.	Template:Open source
Komodo Edit		Template:Open source
KWrite	A default editor on KDE.	Template:Open source
Lapis	An experimental text editor allowing multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection from a few examples provided by the user.	Template:Open source
Leafpad	Default under LXDE.<ref>"Leafpad" Template:Webarchive</ref>	Template:Open source
Leo	A text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation.	Template:Open source
LibreOffice Writer	Word processor and text editor of the LibreOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite.	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
mcedit	A text editor provided with Midnight Commander.	Template:Open source
Metapad	Windows Notepad replacement, GPL licensed.	Template:Open source
MicroEMACS	JASSPA MicroEMACS	Template:Open source
Mousepad	The default under Xfce.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Open source
Multi-Edit		Template:Proprietary
NEdit – "Nirvana Editor"		Template:Open source
Notepad	Default under Microsoft Windows.	Template:Proprietary
Notepad++	A tabbed text editor.	Template:Open source
Pe	A text editor for BeOS.	Template:Open source
pluma	The default text editor of the MATE desktop environment for Linux.	Template:Open source
PolyEdit	Proprietary word processor and text editor.	Template:Proprietary
Programmer's File Editor (PFE)		Template:Free
PSPad	An editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments.	Template:Free
RJ TextEd		Template:Free
Sam		Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
SimpleText	Default under Classic Mac OS from version 7.5.<ref>http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/0307163ASYS75UPG.pdf Template:Dead link</ref>	Template:Proprietary
SlickEdit		Template:Proprietary
Smultron	A macOS text editor.	Template:Proprietary
SubEthaEdit (formerly named Hydra)		Template:Proprietary
Sublime Text		Template:Proprietary
TeachText	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Proprietary
TED Notepad		Template:Free
Tex-Edit Plus		Template:Proprietary
TextPad		Template:Proprietary
TeXnicCenter		Template:Open source
TeXShop	TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer.<ref>Mittelbach, F., Goossens, M., Braams, J., Carlisle, D., & Rowley, C. (2004). The LATEX companion. Addison-Wesley Professional.</ref><ref>Lamport, L. (1994). LATEX: a document preparation system: user's guide and reference manual. Addison-wesley.</ref><ref>Hoenig, A. (1998). TeX unbound: LaTeX & TeX strategies for fonts, graphics, & more. Oxford University Press, USA.</ref><ref>Syropoulos, A., Tsolomitis, A., & Sofroniou, N. (2007). Digital typography using LATEX. Springer Science & Business Media.</ref>	Template:Open source
TextEdit	Default under macOS,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> NeXTSTEPTemplate:Citation needed, and GNUstep.Template:Citation needed	Template:Open source
TextMate		Template:Open source
TextWrangler	Mac-only editor by Bare Bones Software, sunsetted. Final version released 09/20/2016,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> replaced by free tier of [BBEdit].<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Free
The Hessling Editor		Template:Open source
The SemWare Editor (TSE) (formerly named QEdit).		Template:Free
UltraEdit	Text and source code editor with syntax highlighting, code folding, FTP, etc., handles multi-gigabyte files.	Template:Proprietary
Ulysses		Template:Proprietary
VEDIT		Template:Proprietary
Visual Studio Code<ref>Del Sole, A. (2018). Visual Studio Code Distilled: Evolved Code Editing for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Apress.</ref>	An extensible code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running and version control.	Template:Open source
WinEdt		Template:Proprietary
X11 Xedit		Template:Open source
XEDIT	Default under VM/CMS.	Template:Proprietary
Yudit		Template:Open source
Xed		Template:Open source

Text user interface

System default

Name	Description	License
E	is the text editor in PC DOS 6, PC DOS 7 and PC DOS 2000.	Template: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).	Template:Open source
ED	The default editor on CP/M, MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86.	Template:Open source
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.	Template: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.	Template: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.	Template:Proprietary
EDITOR	The text editor in DR DOS 3.31 through DR DOS 6.0, and the predecessor of EDIT.	Template: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.	Template:Proprietary
ee	Stands for Easy Editor, is part of the base system of FreeBSD, along with vi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
vi<ref name="vi1"/><ref name="vi2"/><ref name="vi3">Lamb, L., Robbins, A., & Robbins, A. (1998). Learning the vi Editor. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".</ref>	The default for Unix systems and must be included in all POSIX compliant systems<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based on ex.	Template:Open source

Others

Name	Description	License
ECCE	ECCE (The Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor) is a text editor designed by Dr Hamish Dewar at Edinburgh University.	Template:Open source
Emacs	A screen-based editor with an embedded computer language, Emacs Lisp. Early versions were implemented in TECO, see below.	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
JOE	A modern screen-based editor with a sort of enhanced-WordStar style to the interface, but can also emulate Pico.	Template:Open source
LE		Template:Open source
mcedit	Full featured terminal text editor for Unix-like systems.	Template:Open source
mg	Small and light, uses GNU/Emacs keybindings. Installed by default on OpenBSD.	Template:Open source
MinEd	Text editor with user-friendly interface, mouse and menu control, and extensive Unicode and CJK support; for Unix/Linux and Windows/DOS.	Template:Open source
GNU nano	A clone of Pico GPL licensed.	Template:Open source
ne	A minimal, modern replacement for vi.	Template:Open source
Pico		Template:Open source
SETEDIT	A clone of the editor of Borland's Turbo* IDEs.	Template:Open source
The SemWare Editor	(TSE for DOS) (formerly called QEdit)	Template:Proprietary

vi clones

Name	Description	License
BusyBox vi<ref>Wells, N. (2000). BusyBox: A swiss army knife for linux. Linux Journal, 2000(78es), 10.</ref>	A small vi clone with a minimum of commands and features.	Template:Open source
Elvis	The first vi clone and the default vi in Minix.	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
Kakoune	An editor inspired by vi that makes use of multi cursor workflows and modal editing.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	Template:Open source
nvi	A new implementation and currently the standard vi in BSD distributions.	Template:Open source
Stevie	STEVIE (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts) for the Atari ST, the starting point for vim and xvi	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
vim<ref name="vim"/>	An extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code.	Template:Open source

Sources:<ref name="vi1"/><ref name="vi2"/><ref name="vi3"/>

No user interface (editor libraries/toolkits)

Name	Description	License
Cocoa text system	Supports text components of macOS.	Template:Proprietary
Scintilla (software)	Used as the core of several text editors.	Template:Open source
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.	Template:Open source
Text Processing Utility (TPU)	Language and runtime package, developed by DEC, used to implement the Language-Sensitive Editor and Extensible Versatile Editor, Eve.	Template:Proprietary

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)
• TheDraw – ANSI/ASCII text editor for DOS and PCBoard file format support

ASCII font editors

• FIGlet – for creating ASCII art text
• TheDraw – DOS ANSI/ASCII text editor with built-in editor and manager of ASCII fonts

See also

• Comparison of text editors
• Editor war
• Line editor
• List of HTML editors
• List of word processors
• Outliner, a specialized type of word processor
• Source code editor