TextEditor

      

A SwiftUI rich text editor backed by UITextView, with a formatting toolbar above the keyboard.

 

Features

• Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and inline code, which combine freely and keep the font family
• Headings, bulleted and numbered lists, quotes and code blocks, with Return and Delete behaving as in Notes
• Links, font size, text color and per-paragraph alignment
• Images inserted at the caret through the system photo picker (no permission prompt)
• Markdown shortcuts while typing: # , - , 1. , > , **bold**, *italic*, _italic_, ~~strike~~ and backticks
• Markdown, HTML and lossless archive import and export
• Undo and redo for every edit, including formatting; ⌘B, ⌘I and ⌘U on hardware keyboards
• A configurable toolbar whose state follows the selection, with dark mode and VoiceOver support

Usage

import SwiftUI
import TextEditor

struct ContentView: View {
    @State private var text = NSAttributedString()

    var body: some View {
        ScrollView {
            RichTextEditor(text: $text, placeholder: "Write something…")
                .padding()
        }
    }
}

The editor grows with its content, so place it in a ScrollView for long documents.

Markdown shortcuts

Typing Markdown at the start of a paragraph or around a word turns it into formatting, and undo brings the Markdown back. Turn it off with a modifier:

RichTextEditor(text: $text)
    .markdownShortcuts(false)

Configuring the toolbar

Pick sections in display order, or pass an empty array to hide the toolbar:

RichTextEditor(text: $text, toolbar: [.textStyle, .blockStyle, .lists, .link, .history])

For custom colors or your own buttons, pass a configuration:

RichTextEditor(text: $text, toolbar: RichTextToolbarConfiguration(
    sections: [.textStyle, .lists, .colorPalette],
    colors: [RichTextColor("Ink", .label), RichTextColor("Brand", .systemIndigo)],
    customActions: [
        RichTextToolbarAction(title: "Quote", systemImage: "text.quote",
                              isActive: { $0.blockStyle == .quote },
                              action: { $0.toggleBlockStyle(.quote) }),
    ]
))

To place the toolbar somewhere other than above the keyboard, pass toolbar: nil and add RichTextToolbar(context:configuration:) yourself.

Saving and loading

let markdown = RichTextSerializer.markdown(from: text)
let html = RichTextSerializer.html(from: text)
let data = try RichTextSerializer.archivedData(from: text)

text = RichTextSerializer.attributedString(markdown: markdown)
text = RichTextSerializer.attributedString(html: html)
text = try RichTextSerializer.attributedString(archivedData: data)

Format	Keeps	Drops
Archive	everything	nothing — use it for drafts
HTML	blocks, inline styles, links, colors, alignment, images	font sizes
Markdown	blocks, bold, italic, strikethrough, code, links, images	underline, colors, sizes, alignment

Images are embedded as base64 data: URIs in HTML and Markdown. On import, only data: URI images are loaded; remote images are never fetched, so Markdown keeps them as a link and HTML drops them.

Driving the editor from your own controls

RichTextContext publishes the formatting at the current selection and exposes the same commands as the toolbar.

@StateObject private var context = RichTextContext()

var body: some View {
    VStack {
        RichTextEditor(text: $text, context: context, toolbar: [])
        Button("Bold") { context.toggle(.bold) }
            .foregroundColor(context.isActive(.bold) ? .accentColor : .primary)
        Button("Heading") { context.toggleBlockStyle(.heading1) }
    }
}

Example App

Example/TextEditorExample.xcodeproj is a small notes app showing the editor, Markdown and HTML export, and draft saving. Open it and run; it uses this package from the parent folder. The project is generated from Example/project.yml with XcodeGen.

Documentation

The package includes a DocC catalog with getting-started, toolbar and serialization guides. In Xcode, choose Product › Build Documentation.

Installation

Requires iOS 16 and Xcode 16 or later.

Add the package in Xcode via File › Add Package Dependencies…, or in Package.swift:

.package(url: "https://github.com/nothingsh/TextEditor", from: "2.0.0")

Migrating from 1.x

• The minimum platform is now iOS 16.
• RichTextEditor(richText:onCommit:) is replaced by RichTextEditor(text:) with a Binding<NSAttributedString>, which updates on every edit. Use .onChange(of:) to save.
• accessory: is renamed toolbar:. EditorSection gains .blockStyle, .lists, .link and .history, and the default toolbar (EditorSection.allCases) shows them all; pass the sections you want to keep the 1.x toolbar.
• Building now requires Xcode 16 or later.
• The public Color(hex:) and UIColor(hex:) extensions have been removed.

Roadmap

• Headings, lists, quotes and code
• Links
• HTML and Markdown import and export
• Configurable toolbar items and colors
• Markdown shortcuts while typing
• Checklists and nested lists
• Font selection
• macOS support