Comparison of TeX editors
The following is a comparison of TeX editors.
Table of editors
Name | Editing style[Note 1] | Native operating systems | Latest stable version | Costs | License | Configurable | Integrated viewer |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUCTeX | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2023-04-23) 13.2 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
Authorea | Source / partial-WYSIWYG | Online | — | Free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes |
CoCalc | Source | Online | — | Free | AGPL + Commons Clause | Yes | Yes |
GNOME LaTeX | Source | Linux | (2023-06-25) 3.46.0 | Free | GPL | Yes | No |
Gummi | Source | Linux | (2022-04-29) 0.8.3 | Free | MIT | Yes | Yes (Live update) |
Kile | Source | Linux (macOS, Windows)[Note 2] | (2012-09-23) 2.1.3 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes (Quick preview) |
LyX | WYSIWYM | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2023-01-07) 2.3.7 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
Notepad++ | Source | Windows | (2024-02-20) 8.6.4 | Free | GPL | Yes | No, but can be integrated [Note 3] |
Overleaf | Source | Online | — | Free | Unclear | Yes | Yes |
Scientific WorkPlace | WYSIWYM | Windows | (2016-02-23) 6.0.12 | Non-free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes |
TeXmacs[Note 4] | WYSIWYG | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2024-03-11) 2.1.4 | Free | GPL | Yes | Partial (preview using system Pdf viewer) |
Texmaker | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2023-04-29) 5.1.4 | Free | GPL2 | Yes | Yes |
TeXnicCenter | Source | Windows | (2013-09-29) 2.02 Stable | Free | GPL | Yes | No |
TeXShop | Source | macOS | (2023-07-21) 5.15 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
TeXstudio | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2024-06-07) 4.8.1 | Free | GPL2 | Yes | Yes (pdf, selection with dvi2png) |
TeXworks | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2024-02-12) 0.6.9 | Free | GPL | No | Yes (pdf) |
Verbosus | Source | Online, Android, iOS | (2016-05-06) 4.1.3 | Free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes (pdf) |
Vim | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2024-01-02) 9.1.0 | Free | Vim | Yes | No |
Visual Studio Code | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2024-06-19) 1.90.2 | Free | Source code: MIT Microsoft-built binaries: Proprietary | Yes | Yes (pdf) [Note 5] |
WinEdt | Source | Windows | (2023-05-16) 11.1 | Non-free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes |
WinShell | Source | Windows | (2013-02-10) 3.3.2.6 | Free | Proprietary | Yes | No |
Name | Editing Style | Native Operating Systems | Latest stable version | Costs | License | Configurable | Integrated viewer |
Name | Inverse search[Note 6] | DDE support[Note 7] | Organises Projects | Menu for inserting symbols | Document comparison | Spell-checking | Multiple undo-redo |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUCTeX | Yes | No | Partial (master file) | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 8] | Yes |
Authorea | Yes | — | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
CoCalc | Yes | — | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
GNOME LaTeX | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Gummi | Yes | — | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Kile | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
LyX | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Notepad++ | Yes, with SumatraPDF | Yes, with a DDE client | Yes | Partial[Note 9] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Overleaf | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Scientific WorkPlace | — | ? | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No (one level) |
TeXmacs | — | Yes | Partial (shows document parts) | Yes | Partial (for own format only) | Yes | Yes |
Texmaker | Yes | No | Partial (master file) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXnicCenter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXShop | Yes | No | No | Yes[Note 10] | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXstudio | Yes | Yes | Partial (master file) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TeXworks | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes[Note 11] | Yes |
Verbosus | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Vim | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Visual Studio Code | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinEdt | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinShell | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Name | Inverse search | DDE Support | Organises Projects | Menu for inserting symbols | Document comparison | Spell-checking | Multiple undo-redo |
Name | Collapsible sections | Find and replace using RegEx | Intelligent error handling | Autocompletion of LaTeX commands | Parenthesis matching | Starts up to previous state[Note 12] | Unicode support | RTL Support[Note 13] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUCTeX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 14] | Yes | Yes |
Authorea | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
CoCalc | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
GNOME LaTeX | Planned | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | (just same files) | Yes | Yes |
Gummi | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
Kile | Yes[Note 15] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
LyX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Notepad++ | Yes | Yes | No | Partial[Note 16] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Overleaf | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Scientific WorkPlace | No | ? | ? | — | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
TeXmacs | No | Yes | — | — | — | — | Yes | ? |
Texmaker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TeXnicCenter | since v2.0 | since v2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | since v2.0 | ? |
TeXShop | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
TeXstudio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TeXworks | No | Yes[Note 17] | No | Yes[Note 18] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Verbosus | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
Vim | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Visual Studio Code | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
WinEdt | Yes | Yes (modified) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinShell | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (just same files) | Yes | ? |
Name | Collapsible sections | Find and replace using RegEx | Intelligent error handling | Autocompletion of LaTeX commands | Parenthesis matching | Starts up to previous state[Note 19] | Unicode support | RTL Support[Note 20] |
Editor | Screenshot |
---|---|
LyX | ![]() |
Texmaker | ![]() |
TeXmacs | ![]() |
TeXstudio | ![]() |
Visual Studio Code | ![]() |
Editor | Screenshot |
See also
- Formula editor
- Comparison of word processors
- Comparison of text editors
- Comparison of desktop publishing software
- List of TeX extensions
Notes and references
- ^ "Source" means you see and edit the TeX source files. "WYSIWYM" = What You See Is What You Mean, i.e. you see and edit formatted text. WYSIWYG means that see the output file automatically updated during the edit. Note that some PDF viewers (e.g. evince) automatically reload the PDF document when it is updated on the disk. So, any "source" TeX editor can be turned into partial WYSIWYG editor by opening such a reader in an adjacent window.
- ^ Support for non-linux systems considered experimental.
- ^ Notepad++ can execute Tex viewers
- ^ TeXmacs is an original document preparation system, with own syntax and own algorithms, but can be used to obtain TeX files through its LaTeX export capability.
- ^ Requires installation of LaTeX Workshop extension.
- ^ Inverse search means that one can locate the relevant part of the source code from the viewer (e.g., double-clicking in dvi or pdf file brings up the appropriate line/paragraph in the latex code)
- ^ On Windows some pdf viewers like Sumatra PDF or Adobe Reader don't use command line arguments for forward search, but the editor sends the document position to them using Dynamic Data Exchange
- ^ Requires installation of extra package.
- ^ A plug-in is required.
- ^ LaTeX panel & Matrix panel
- ^ Requires installation of extra package
- ^ Starts up to previous state including the current editing point.
- ^ RTL support means Right to Left language support.
- ^ configurable as an option of the Emacs editor
- ^ With usual \section{} notation, Kile collapses equations and figures, but not sections. Collapsing of sections is possible with non-standard notation \begin{section}{}...\end{section}{}, but it eliminates sections from Structure View. An alternative possibility is bracketing sections with comments %BEGIN and %END.
- ^ This will have to be set up manually.
- ^ Provides a subset of the regular expression syntax implemented in the Perl scripting language, but fully supports Unicode ( Issue 194: Add advanced regexp options to Find/Replace )
- ^ Template file in resource directory ( Documentation of the code completion feature )
- ^ Starts up to previous state including the current editing point.
- ^ RTL support means Right to Left language support.
- v
- t
- e
TeX editors
- AUCTEX
- GNOME LaTeX
- GNU TeXmacs
- Gummi
- Kile
- LyX
- Texmaker
- TeXnicCenter
- TeXShop
- TeXstudio
- TeXworks
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/TeX_logo.svg/48px-TeX_logo.svg.png)
- Category
- Comparison