RichEditorView
A simple, modular, drop-in UIView subclass for rich text editing in iOS apps.
What is RichEditorView?
RichEditorView is an open-source iOS library that provides a rich text editing component as a UIView subclass. It allows developers to embed a WYSIWYG editor with formatting tools like bold, italics, lists, and image insertion directly into their apps. The project solves the need for a customizable, modular text editor without requiring complex implementations from scratch.
iOS developers building apps that require in-app rich text editing, such as note-taking applications, content management tools, or messaging platforms with formatting options.
Developers choose RichEditorView for its simplicity and modularity—it’s a drop-in component that doesn’t enforce specific UI patterns, offering full customization. It provides a comprehensive set of formatting features out-of-the-box, reducing development time compared to building a rich text editor from scratch.
Overview
RichEditorView is a simple, modular, drop-in UIView subclass for Rich Text Editing.
Use Cases
Best For
- Adding rich text editing to note-taking or journaling iOS apps
- Building custom CMS or blogging tools for mobile
- Implementing formatted comment or post creation in social apps
- Creating email or document editors within iOS applications
- Prototyping apps that require WYSIWYG text input quickly
- Educational apps where users need text formatting capabilities
Not Ideal For
- Projects targeting iOS 13 or later that must comply with Apple's WKWebView requirements
- Teams needing ongoing maintenance, bug fixes, or official support from the original author
- Applications where long-term stability and avoidance of deprecated APIs are critical
- Developers seeking a drop-in solution without forking or modifying the library for modern iOS
Pros & Cons
Pros
As a plain UIView subclass, it can be freely placed and sized within any iOS interface, offering full layout control without imposed UI assumptions, as stated in the philosophy.
Supports a wide array of text styles including bold, italic, lists, headings, and color changes, all listed in the features with checkmarks for completeness.
The toolbar is highly flexible, allowing developers to add custom actions via the RichEditorOption protocol or configure option items, as demonstrated in the advanced editing section.
Minimal code is required to get started, such as instantiating the view and setting HTML content, shown in the basic use example with just a few lines.
Cons
Relies on UIWebView, which was deprecated in iOS 12, and the README admits migrating to WKWebView is non-trivial due to asynchronous method changes.
The project is archived with no updates planned, posing risks for bug fixes, compatibility with new iOS versions, and feature enhancements.
Switching to WKWebView requires significant effort beyond find-and-replace, as noted in the README, which may deter developers from adopting it fresh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
YYTextPowerful text framework for iOS to display and edit rich text.
NimbusThe iOS framework that grows only as fast as its documentation
DTCoreTextMethods to allow using HTML code with CoreText
PhoneNumberKitA Swift framework for parsing, formatting and validating international phone numbers. Inspired by Google's libphonenumber.
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