# List of text editors

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. | ClArtistic |
| Extensible Versatile Editor (EVE) | Default under OpenVMS. | ? |
| GNU Emacs/XEmacs | 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. | 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 | 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 |

## Graphical user interface

| Name | Description | License |
| Acme | A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike. | MIT |
| Alphatk | | Proprietary |
| Apache OpenOffice Writer | Word processor and text editor of the Apache OpenOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite. | Apache-2.0 |
| Arachnophilia | A source code editor which is successor to another HTML editor, WebThing. | Free software |
| Atom | A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js. | MIT |
| BBEdit | A proprietary text editor originally developed for Macintosh System Software 6 | Proprietary |
| Bluefish | A source code editor with web development features. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Brackets | A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework. | MIT |
| CodeWright | An editing system or source code editor which can be configured to work with other integrated development environment (IDE) systems. | Proprietary |
| Crimson Editor | A text editor which is typically used as a source code editor and HTML editor. | Freeware |
| CygnusEd (CED) | | Proprietary |
| E Text Editor | Default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4. | Proprietary |
| Eddie | An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS. | Freeware |
| 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) | Proprietary |
| Epsilon | A programmer's text editor modelled after Emacs. | 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. | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| GNOME Text Editor | Default under GNOME from GNOME 42 onwards | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE) | | Proprietary |
| 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 |
| 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. | 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. | 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 |
| 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. | 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. | Proprietary |
| TED Notepad | | Freeware |
| Tex-Edit Plus | | Proprietary |
| TextPad | | Proprietary |
| TeXnicCenter | | GPL |
| TeXShop | TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer. | GPL-2.0 |
| TextEdit | Default under macOS, NeXTSTEP, and GNUstep. | BSD-3-Clause |
| TextMate | | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| TextWrangler | Mac-only editor by Bare Bones Software, sunsetted. Final version released 09/20/2016, replaced by free tier of [BBEdit]. | 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 | 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 |
| Xed | | GPL-2.0-or-later |

## Text user interface
### System default

| 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. | 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 | The default for Unix systems and must be included in all POSIX compliant systems – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based on ex. | BSD-4-Clause or CDDL |

### Others

| 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 |

#### vi clones

| Name | Description | License |
| BusyBox vi | 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 |
| Kakoune | An editor inspired by vi that makes use of multi cursor workflows and modal editing. | 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 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 | An extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code. | Vim |
Sources:

## No user interface (editor libraries/toolkits)

| Name | Description | License |
| 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 |

## 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

## Historical
### Visual and full-screen editors

* Brief – a 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 VMS
* O26 – written for the operator console of the CDC 6000 series machines in the mid-1960s
* Red – a 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
* SPMOL-II – editor used mostly for programming on IBM mainframes with the IBM 3270 terminal
* STET (the 'STructured Editing Tool') – may have been the first folding editor; its first version was written in 1977
* TeachText
* TECO – a character-based editor, which included a programming language.

### Line editors

* Colossal Typewriter – an early editor thought to be written for the PDP-1
* ed:
** Unix's early line editor
** CP/M's line editor
* EDLIN – a line editor delivered with MS-DOS
* EDT (Univac) – a line editor for Unisys VS/9 and 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 CDC 7600 at Los Alamos
* GEDIT (aka George 3 EDITor) – 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