15 Ubuntu Text Editors

Gedit

It is the default text editor in Ubuntu Linux and support UTF-8. It required no installation and can be loaded from Applications > Accessries > Text Editor.

Cream

Cream is basically an extension of a terminal based text editor Vim(which we have also covered in this post). It has a graphical interface while Vim does not have graphical interface. Run the following command in terminal to install it.
sudo apt-get install cream
Now, run it by pressing Alt + F2 (Run Application utility).

Maintaining notes using Cream is quite easy and is similar to notepad for Windows.

Jedit

It runs on all operating systems. Programmers around the world prefer using it as a text editor. It is an extensible text editor written in Java. Since a lot of people are contributing to its development, it is getting quite some popularity. To install Jedit in Ubuntu, run following command:
apt-get install jedit
Now load it from Run Application box.

Here you are ready to experience the exciting features and look of Jedit.

Emacs

Emacs is an extensible and customized text editor which is most commonly used and perhaps has greater number of features then any other open source text editor. Although it does not comes by default with Ubuntu Linux, but installing it in Ubuntu Linux is very simple. Open your terminal and enter following command to install it in Ubuntu Linux.
apt-get install emacs
Once installation is complete, you can load it from Run Application by typing emacs in the box.

Vim

Vim is improved version of text editor Vi. Vim is often said to be Improved Vi. People working in terminal use Vim editor to create and edit text files. System administrators who perform remote server administration, use Vim to do required changes in files. It is installed by default in almost all Linux flavors including Ubuntu. You can open some file with Vim by running following command:
vim filename
where filename is the name of file to open.

Nano

Nano is basically an improved and extended form of pico text editor.  It provides very easy navigation between beginning and end of lines and paragraphs.  It is a part of standard Ubuntu distribution and you can run it easily from Run Application box.

SciTE

SciTE is famous for syntax highlighting. You can install it by running following simple command in terminal.
sudo apt-get install scite
Once loaded, it looks like the screenshot shown below.

LeafPad

LeafPad is a light GUI based text editor which is commonly used by Linux users. It can also be installed on Ubuntu Linux using apt repositories.
sudo apt-get install leafpad
It can be loaded from Run Application, by typing leafpad in text box.

Geany

Geany is a famous cross platform text editors and lot of Linux/Unix users use it.  It has rich set of features which makes it famous on different operating systems. To install it on Ubuntu Linux,  run following command in your terminal.
sudo apt-get install geany
Due to its simplicity, the interface looks more like a PDF editor.

Bluefish

Bluefish is easy-to-install and use text editor and offers spell check feature. Due to broad sets of features, it looks more like MS Word of Ubuntu. You can install it via following simple command in Ubuntu Linux.
sudo apt-get install bluefish
Once installation is complete, you can load it from Run Application utility.

Xemacs

XEmacs is a highly customizable  graphical text editor and application development system. It has full color support on a color-capable character terminal. Run the following command in the terminal to install it.
sudo apt-get install xemacs21

Kwrite

Kwrite is basically developed for the KDE environment but runs flawlessly on Gnome desktop as well. If you want to run it in Gnome then you will need to install some of its supporting packages as well, simply run the following command in the terminal and it will take care of all the required packages as well.
sudo apt-get install kwrite

Scribes

It is developed for Gnome desktop environment and the common repetitive tasks are intelligently automated in it. To install it, simply open the terminal and run the following command :
sudo apt-get install scribes

Lyx

It is popular text editor for the technical authors and scientists. Its one of the key feature is that it provides Mathematical formula editor. You can insert graphs, add various formulas, enter equations and much more. Run the following command to install it.
sudo apt-get install lyx

Pico

After Vim and Nano, it is considered to be one of the most popular command line based text editor and system administrators who work on remote Linux/Unix servers. It comes by default installed with modern Linux/Unix distributions.

Enjoy!