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 | |
| 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| Eddie | An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS.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 text files | 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 |
| 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 | |
| Programmer's File Editor (PFE) | Freeware | |
| PSPad | An editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments. | Freeware |
| RJ TextEd | Freeware | |
| Sam | MIT | |
| SciTE | 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 |
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Editors that are specifically designed for the creation of ASCII and ANSI text art.