gedit is a small and lightweight text editor for the GNOME environment.
Complete GNOME integration is provided, with support for Drag and Drop (DnD) from Nautilus (the GNOME file manager), the use of the GNOME help system, the GNOME Virtual File System and the GNOME print framework.
gedit uses a Multiple Document Interface (MDI), which lets you edit more than one document at the same time.
gedit supports most standard editing features, plus several not found in your average text editor (plugins being the most notable of these).
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Files are opened in tabs.
- Full support for internationalized text (UTF-8).
- Syntax highlighting for lots of languages (Python, Shell, C, C++, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, Markdown and many others).
- Configurable fonts and colors.
- Print and print preview support.
- Search and replace with support of regular expressions.
- A side panel with an integrated file browser.
- Spell-checking.
- Word auto-completion.
- Undo/Redo.
- Auto indentation.
- Text wrapping.
- Line numbers.
- Right margin.
- Highlight current line.
- Highlight matching brackets.
- Editing files from remote locations.
- Backup files.
- A flexible plugin system which can be used to dynamically add new advanced features:
- Document Statistics – Report the number of words, lines and characters in a document.
- External Tools – Execute external commands and shell scripts.
- File Browser Panel – Easy file access from the side panel.
- Insert Date/Time – Inserts current date and time at the cursor position.
- Modelines – Emacs, Kate and Vim-style modelines support for gedit.
- Python Console – Interactive Python console standing in the bottom panel.
- Quick Highlight – Highlights every occurrences of selected text.
- Quick Open – Quickly open files.
- Snippets – Insert often-used pieces of text in a fast way.
- Sort – Sorts a document or selected text.
- Spell Checker – Checks the spelling of the current document.
- Bookmarks – Easy document navigation with bookmarks.
- Bracket Completion – Automatically adds closing brackets.
- Character Map – Insert special characters just by clicking on them.
- Code Comment – Comment out or uncomment a selected block of code.
- Color Picker – Pick a color from a dialog and insert its hexadecimal representation.
- >Draw Spaces – Draw spaces and tabs.
- Embedded Terminal – Embed a terminal in the bottom panel.
- Git – Highlight lines that have been changed since the last commit.
- Join/Split Lines – Join several lines or split long ones.
- Multi Edit – Edit document in multiple places at once.
- Session Saver – Save and restore your working sessions.
- Smart Spaces – Forget you’re not using tabulations.
- Text Size – Easily increase and decrease the text size.
- Word Completion – Auto-completion using words already present in open documents.
Website: wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit
Support:
Developer: gedit team
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

gedit is written in C and Python. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Simple GUI Based Text Editors | |
|---|---|
| Notepad Next | Cross-platform text and source code editor |
| Pulsar | Hyper-hackable text editor |
| Lite XL | Lightweight cross-platform text editor derived from lite |
| GNOME Text Editor | Default text editor for the GNOME desktop environment |
| CudaText | Replacement for the discontinued SynWrite |
| Pluma | Powerful text editor for MATE |
| Mousepad | Simple text editor for the Xfce desktop environment |
| FeatherPad | Lightweight Qt plain-text editor |
| Nota | Browse, create, and edit text files |
| CorePad | Document editor for C Suite, a minimalistic application suite |
| xed | Small and lightweight text editor |
| gedit | Small and lightweight text editor for GNOME |
| Jottr | Designed for writers, journalists and researchers |
| Kate | Multi-document editor |
| typobuster | Simplified text editor with transformations and automatic correction |
| Howl | General purpose editor |
| Janus | Simple native Linux notepad meant for text editing |
| Webkit Word | Text editor built with GTK4/Libadwaita |
| v2 | Local-first rich-text editor with versioning capabilities |
| Mini Text | Very small and basic text editor |
| Airpad | Basic, generic graphical text editor |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |

