10 jQuery and non-jQuery javascript Rich Text Editors

Written by Kevin Liew on 21 Apr 2009
405,420 Views • Javascript

Introduction

Javascript rich text editor has ease our life when we need to edit articles, post or even documents online. Most of the editors allow user to edit the content straight away (What You See Is What You Get - WYSIWYG), it just like editting a document with microsoft office. Nowadays, I think all of the content management system, blog systems are using rich text editor.

LATEST VERSION: You can read our latest post about rich text editors: 10 Feature Packed Javascript WYSIWYG and Rich Text Editors

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So, here are the 10 RTEs that I can find online. From the most basic support of font formatting to advanced features such as image upload, table creation, ajax support and so on. Be sure to drop me a comment if you know other RTE that is not listed below. Enjoy.

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MarkitUp - jQuery

Official Website | Demo
MarkitUp

markItUp! is not meant to be a "Full-Features-Out-of-the-Box"-editor. Instead it is a very lightweight, customizable and flexible engine made to meet the developer's needs in their CMSes, blogs, forums or websites. markItUp! is not a WYSIWYG editor, and it never will be.

  • Fast and unobtrusive integration
  • Support for keyboard shortcuts
  • Ajax dynamic preview
  • Supported: IE7, Safari 3.1, Firefox 2, Firefox 3. IE6 and Opera 9+ as-is.
  • Licence: MIT/GPL
  • File: Packed naked engine is about 6.5Kb.

jWYSIWYG - jQuery

Official Website | Demo
jWYSIWYG

This plugin is an inline content editor to allow editing rich HTML content on the fly. It's an alternative to WYMeditor with much less features. With a small file size less than 17Kb 26Kb total and only 9Kb 18Kb of code and 7Kb packed, the main concept is to keep it simple, not all users need font coloring or create tables, just the basic.

  • GNU General Public License v2
  • Compact and lightweight
  • Ajax dynamic preview
  • Browser friendly

Lightweight RTE- jQuery

Official Website | Demo
jWYSIWYG

I have made this Rich Text Editor as simple as possible to be easily changed according your needs.

  • Super lightweight 7kb uncompressed
  • Compatible with major browsers
  • Degrade gracefully
  • GNU General Public License

HTMLBox - jQuery

Official Website | Demo
HTMLBox

Cross-browser interactive open-source HTML / XHTML textarea built on top of the jQuery library. Tested with Mozilla Firefox, Inrernet Explorer, Opera, Netscape and Safari. The integration of HtmlBox into Content Manegement Systems, Forums, Guest Books, Contact Forms is as easy as a childs play.

  • Easy Integration.
  • Multiple Browser Support.
  • Small Size. Size of 15kb (11kb minimized)
  • XHTML Output Possible.
  • Ajax Integration Supported.
  • User Manual. A complete user manual, that will guide you through every step of integrating HtmlBox into your application and customizing it.

D Small Rich Text Editor - jQuery

Official Website | Demo
D Small Rich Text Editor

This piece of code creates a Rich Text Editor ("RTE") from an IFRAME element. Yes, I know, there are tens of such scripts, and most of them are probably more sophisticated than mine, but my script's purpose is to provide enough basic functionality while having the smallest footprint possible.

  • Small (~18k) footprint! (Packed/Minified JS, Plugins & CSS sum to 12k w/o GZIP, HTML can be reduced to ~3k using GZIP, Images (w/o emoticons) are less than 3k)
  • Cross-browser
  • All basic Rich Text functionality
  • Plugin-enabled
  • Image Upload via AJAX (using the AjaxFileUpload plugin).
  • Resizing of text area.
  • Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional markup (Note: this refers to the editor's markup and not to it's generated content which may or may not be valid!).
  • HTML Cleanup

WYMEditor - jQuery

Official Website | Demo
WYMEditor

WYMeditor is a web-based WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) XHTML editor. WYMeditor's main concept is to leave details of the document's visual layout, and to concentrate on its structure and meaning, while trying to give the user as much comfort as possible (at least as WYSIWYG editors).

  • XHTML strict + CSS compliant
  • No font or text formatting, sizes or colors - WYMeditor is CSS-based
  • Designed to be easy to integrate into your application
  • No installation needed - this is 100% Javascript code - no plugin, no extension
  • Image, link, table support
  • Skins support via CSS
  • APIs, plugins support
  • Free and Open Source
  • Major browsers support

TinyMCE - non-jQuery

Official Website | Demo
TinyMCE

TinyMCE is a platform independent web based Javascript HTML WYSIWYG editor control released as Open Source under LGPL by Moxiecode Systems AB. It has the ability to convert HTML TEXTAREA fields or other HTML elements to editor instances. TinyMCE is very easy to integrate into other Content Management Systems.

  • Easy to integrate - Only a few lines of code needed.
  • Customizable - Themes and plugins, block invalid elements and force attributes.
  • Browserfriendly - Mozilla, MSIE, FireFox, Opera, Safari and Chrome.
  • Lightweight - PHP/.NET/JSP/Coldfusion GZip compressor, Makes TinyMCE 75% smaller and a lot faster to load.
  • AJAX Compatible - You can easily use AJAX to save and load content!
  • International - Multilanguage support using language packs.
  • Open Source - Free under the LGPL license, millions of ppl help test and improve this editor every day.

fckeditor - Non-jQuery

Official Website | Demo
fckeditor

This HTML text editor brings to the web much of the power of desktop editors like MS Word. It's lightweight and doesn't require any kind of installation on the client computer.

  • Multi browser compatibility
  • Outputs XHTML 1.0
  • CSS support for better integration with your web site
  • Font formatting: type, size, color, style, bold, italic, etc
  • Text formatting: alignment, indentation, bullets list, etc
  • Cut, Paste, and Paste as Plain Text, Undo and Redo
  • Paste from Word cleanup with auto detection
  • Image insertion, with upload and server browsing support
  • Right click context menus support
  • Plugins support
  • Spell checker
  • Lightweight and fast
  • Automatic browser detection and customization

Yahoo YUI Rich Text Editor - Non-jQuery

Official Website | Demo
Yahoo UI RTE

The Rich Text Editor is a UI control that replaces a standard HTML textarea; it allows for the rich formatting of text content, including common structural treatments like lists, formatting treatments like bold and italic text, and drag-and-drop inclusion and sizing of images. The Rich Text Editor's toolbar is extensible via a plugin architecture so that advanced implementations can achieve a high degree of customization.

Xinha - Non-jQuery

Official Website | Demo
Xinha

Xinha (pronounced like Xena, the Warrior Princess) is a powerful WYSIWYG HTML editor component that works in all current browsers. Its configurabilty and extensibility make it easy to build just the right editor for multiple purposes, from a restricted mini-editor for one database field to a full-fledged website editor. Its liberal, BSD licence makes it an ideal candidate for integration into any kind of project.

Conclusion

I hope you all love this resource. :)

Join the discussion

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77 comments
bordeux 13 years ago
Doug 13 years ago
I am looking for an editor that when in raw text mode, supports tabs. Also one that ignores javascript in wysiwyg mode. I edit web pages that might have javascript on them. Any ideas?
Reply
Grierhenk 12 years ago
If you're looking for a non-rich text editor for jQuery to just markup your code in a text field, try PhenoEdit (http://babalin.com/phenoedit/) - it's just what I needed, not bloated with features, easily extendible and supports BBCode/HTML/XML/etc.
Reply
Sella muthu.R 12 years ago
It's ok but we want more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
Reply
NguyenTung 12 years ago
Can not type on WYSIWYG default value false. Help
Reply
Alexander Ewering 12 years ago
Last time I tried, TinyMCE was not platform-independant at all, but instead generated completely different HTML depending on which browser it was used in.
Reply
Razor 12 years ago
There's also RichComments (http://webevolved.co.cc/)
Reply
Nick Valeontis 11 years ago
Great info thanks!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
Omar Sedki 11 years ago
try also livegap editor http://editor.livegap.com
free online code editor for html,css,javascript,xml with syntax highlighting,live preview,code folding,fullscreen mode,themes,matching tags,auto completion,tag finding,frameWork and closing Brackets

you can try you javascript ,jquery,jqueryui (add it from framework).
Reply
chetan 10 years ago
hi friends, i want maths formulas in rich text box, is that possible and yes we need ready control
Reply