Comparison of TeX editors

Tables of editor properties

Properties of TeX editors 1
Name	Editing style^{[Note 1]}	Native operating systems	Latest stable version	Costs	License	Configurable	Integrated viewer
AUCTeX	Source	Linux, macOS, Windows	(2019-10-30) 12.2	Free	GPL	Yes	Yes
Authorea	Source / partial-WYSIWYG	Online	—	Free	Proprietary	Yes	Yes
Auto-Latex Equations for Google Docs	Source^{[Note 2]}	Online	(2020-04-06) 48	Free	Free	Yes	Yes
CoCalc	Source	Online	—	Free	AGPL	Yes	Yes
GNOME LaTeX	Source	Linux	(2019-03-10) 3.32	Free	GPL	Yes	No
Gummi	Source	Linux	(2020-01-26) 0.8.1	Free	MIT	Yes	Yes (Live update)
Kile	Source	Linux (macOS, Windows)^{[Note 3]}	(2012-09-23) 2.1.3	Free	GPL	Yes	Yes (Quick preview)
LEd	Source	Windows	(2009-10-09) 0.53	Free	Proprietary	?	Yes (dvi)
LyX	WYSIWYM	Linux, macOS, Windows	(2019-06-25) 2.3.3	Free	GPL	Yes	Yes
MeWa	Source	Windows	(2007-06-06) 1.4.0	Free	GPL	Yes	No
Notepad++	Source	Windows	(2019-10-29) 7.8.1	Free	GPL	Yes	No, but can be integrated ^{[Note 4]}
Overleaf	Source	Online	—	Free	Unclear	Yes	Yes
Scientific WorkPlace	WYSIWYM	Windows	(2016-02-23) 6.0.12	Non-free	Proprietary	Yes	Yes
TexLab	Source-WYSIWYG	Windows	(2019-04-30) 7.8	Free	Free	Yes	Yes
TeXmacs	WYSIWYG	Linux, macOS, Windows	(2017-12-21) 1.99.6	Free	GPL	Yes	Yes
Texmaker	Source	Linux, macOS, Windows	(2018-11-01) 5.0.3	Free	GPL2	Yes	Yes
TeXnicCenter	Source	Windows	2.02 Stable (September 29, 2013 (2013-09-29)) [±]	Free	GPL	Yes	No
TeXShop	Source	macOS	(2019-10-23) 4.44	Free	GPL	Yes	Yes
TeXstudio	Source	Linux, Windows, macOS	(2020-01-18) 2.12.22	Free	GPL2	Yes	Yes (pdf, selection with dvi2png)
TeXworks	Source	Linux, macOS, Windows	(2019-03) 0.6.3	Free	GPL	No	Yes (pdf)
Verbosus	Source	Online, Android, iOS	(2016-05-06) 4.1.3	Free	Proprietary	Yes	Yes (pdf)
WinEdt	Source	Windows	(2018-05-07) 10.3	Non-free	Proprietary	Yes	No
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

Properties of TeX editors 2
	Inverse search^{[Note 5]}	DDE support^{[Note 6]}	Organises Projects	Menu for inserting symbols	Document comparison	Spell-checking	Multiple undo-redo
AUCTeX	Yes	No	Partial (master file)	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[Note 7]}	Yes
Authorea	Yes	—	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Auto-Latex Equations for Google Docs	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
LEd	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
LyX	Yes	?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MeWa	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Notepad++	Yes, with SumatraPDF	Yes, with a DDE client	Yes	Partial^{[Note 8]}	Yes	Yes	Yes
Overleaf	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scientific WorkPlace	—	?	?	Yes	No	Yes	No (one level)
TexLab	Yes	—	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
TeXmacs	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	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 9]}	No	Yes	Yes
TeXstudio	Yes	Yes	Partial (master file)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TeXworks	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes^{[Note 10]}	Yes
Verbosus	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
WinEdt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WinShell	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Inverse search	DDE Support	Organises Projects	Menu for inserting symbols	Document comparison	Spell-checking	Multiple undo-redo

Properties of TeX editors 3
Name	Collapsible sections	Find and replace using RegEx	Intelligent error handling	Autocompletion of LaTeX commands	Parenthesis matching	Starts up to previous state^{[Note 11]}	Unicode support	RTL Support^{[Note 12]}
AUCTeX	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[Note 13]}	Yes	Yes
Authorea	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Auto-Latex Equations for Google Docs	No	Yes	No	No	No	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 14]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
LEd	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No (just same files)	No	?
LyX	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MeWa	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	No	Partial^{[Note 15]}	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Overleaf	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Scientific WorkPlace	No	?	?	—	Yes	No	Yes	?
TexLab	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
TeXmacs	No	Yes	—	—	—	No	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 16]}	No	Yes^{[Note 17]}	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Verbosus	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
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 18]}	Unicode support	RTL Support^{[Note 19]}

Screenshots and Video Tutorials of TeX editors
Editor	Screenshot
LyX	Screenshot
Texmaker	Screenshot of Texmaker version 4.5
TexLab	TeXLab Screenshot
TeXstudio	Screenshot of TeXstudio (2.12.6)
Editor	Screenshot

^ "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.
^ Not a full TeX editor. Only limited to math expressions only.
^ Support for non-linux systems considered experimental.
^ Notepad++ can execute Tex viewers
^ 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.

References

[editStyle-1] "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.

[2] Not a full TeX editor. Only limited to math expressions only.

[3] Support for non-linux systems considered experimental.

[4] Notepad++ can execute Tex viewers

[5] 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)

[6] 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

[7] Requires installation of extra package.

[8] A plug-in is required.

[9] LaTeX panel & Matrix panel

[10] Requires installation of extra package

[11] Starts up to previous state including the current editing point.

[12] RTL support means Right to Left language support.

[13] urable as an option of the Emacs editor

[14] 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.

[15] This will have to be set up manually.

[16] 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 )

[17] Template file in resource directory ( Documentation of the code completion feature )

[18] Starts up to previous state including the current editing point.

[19] RTL support means Right to Left language support.

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[Note 4]

[Note 5]

[Note 6]

[Note 7]

[Note 8]

[Note 9]

[Note 10]

[Note 11]

[Note 12]

[Note 13]

[Note 14]

[Note 15]

[Note 16]

[Note 17]

[Note 18]

[Note 19]

v t e TeX editors
Open source	AUCT_EX GNOME LaTeX GNU TeXmacs Gummi Kile LyX Texmaker TeXnicCenter TeXShop TeXstudio TeXworks
Freeware	WinShell
Retail	Scientific WorkPlace WinEdt
Category Comparison

Tables of editor properties

See also

References