SimpleEdit
A super simple text editor
Free · In-App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
A simple plain text editor built using SwiftUI.
Features:
• Open any text file or compatible data files as UTF8 encoded text from the Files app.
• Enter view-only mode for data detection (links, phone numbers, addresses, …).
• Rewind button to revert files to their original state.
• Supports dark mode, multiwindow, and state restoration.
• Customise font family & size used for editing.
• Select fonts using the system font picker, which shows fonts installed in the Settings app. (Settings → General → Fonts)
• Switch between native iOS keyboard types (default, number pad, phone pad, URL, web search, Twitter, …).
more iOS 26 redesign!
• New look
• The editor toolbar is now customisable
• Added System Settings link to Settings page
3.0.0 23/09/2025
• Works around an iOS 18 toolbar regression which caused issues reopening files. (v2.2.5)
• Adds an About page.
• App updates require iOS 17+.
v2.3.1:
• Small fixes to the About page.
2.3.1 24/01/2025
• Works around an iOS 18 toolbar regression which caused issues reopening files. (v2.2.5)
• Adds an About page.
• App updates require iOS 17+.
2.3.0 06/01/2025
Last update for iOS 16!
• Works around an iOS 18 toolbar regression which caused issues reopening files.
2.2.5 02/01/2025
• Fixed a regression in iOS 18 where the text cursor could jump to the end of the document in longer files
2.2.4 24/12/2024
• Work around changing behaviour for document toolbar visibility between iOS versions
2.2.3 03/11/2024
• Clarified 2-stage Dismiss/Done button in editor
• Tweaked the colour scheme in icons and document browser
2.2.2 27/10/2024
• Dark mode & tintable app icons
• New iOS 18-style document picker
• Cmd-comma to open Settings from anywhere in the app
• Press escape to dismiss keyboard / close a document
• New tint colour
• iOS 16 minimum
2.2.1
• Quick fix a crash on launch on iOS 17 (Sorry!)
2.2.1 07/10/2024
• Dark mode & tintable app icons
• New iOS 18-style document picker
• Cmd-comma to open Settings from anywhere in the app
• Press escape to dismiss keyboard / close a document
• New tint colour
• iOS 16 minimum
2.2 07/10/2024
Bug fixes and use of the document menu
2.1 26/03/2024
Same features, new design, rewritten in SwiftUI using Playgrounds!
2.0 31/03/2022
This update brings auxiliary editor windows to iPad! When you open a document in SimpleEdit via the share sheet or the new ‘Open in New Window’ menu item, you'll be greeted with a new editor window. These windows look just like the regular document editor, but when you press close they handily get out of your way.
This update also:
• Fixes a bug which could crash the app when changing settings.
• Improves the foundations for state restoration & multiwindow support.
• Attempts to sync document changes between windows, when multiple windows are showing the same document. This relies on file-system document APIs to sync the changes, which isn't instant and may require backgrounding the app.
1.2 22/01/2021
Happy new year! Time for a second update, in rapid succession.
In case you missed it, the last update added multiwindow. This one adds state restoration!
Here's the update notes again:
• If the app or a window is terminated in the background, it should now launch back to the previously opened document as if nothing happened!
• Windows titles reflect the open document! Fancy.
• All the app's preferences are persistent between launches. I've maintained this behaviour in this version, which means they'll apply across all open windows.
• ‘Open In’ functionality still works, but needed some modifications behind the scenes. If anything seems amiss, or maybe even better than before, let me know!
I've had a look at rewriting this project in SwiftUI alongside this update, but it doesn't seem like I'll be able to recreate the toolbar's preferences popover due to SwiftUI bugs with popovers from toolbars, or the export/share sheet due to it being a UIKit-only view for now, so that update will have to wait (iOS 15?). SwiftUI will be pretty big for SimpleEdit, since the OS will handle most of the logic for me, which means less bugs and more features along the lines of multiwindow, state restoration, and undo/redo functionality for free. And of course, it means we could see macOS support too, because why not?
I'm also leaving out adoption of the native font picker for now, since it's UIKit-only (and I want to use SwiftUI) and the current solution seems to work fine anyway.
1.1.3 31/12/2020
Just a small update to add multiwindow support. This, like other multitasking features, is iPad-only at the OS-level.
Couple of things to note:
• Windows titles reflect the open document! Fancy.
• If a window is terminated in the background, it will launch back to the document browser. State restoration looks tricky, and I expect I'll get it for free when SimpleEdit adopts SwiftUI.
• All the app's preferences are persistent between launches. I've maintained this behaviour in this version, which means they'll apply across all open windows.
• ‘Open In’ functionality still works, but needed some modifications behind the scenes. If anything seems amiss, let me know!
I've had a look at rewriting this project in SwiftUI alongside this update, but it doesn't seem like I'll be able to recreate the toolbar's preferences popover due to SwiftUI bugs with popovers from toolbars, or the export/share sheet due to it being a UIKit-only view for now, so that update will have to wait (iOS 15?). SwiftUI will be pretty big for SimpleEdit, since the OS will handle most of the logic for me, which means less bugs and more features along the lines of multiwindow, state restoration, and undo/redo functionality for free. And of course, it means we could see macOS support too, because why not?
I'm also leaving out adoption of the native font picker for now, since it's UIKit-only (and I want to use SwiftUI) and the current solution seems to work fine anyway.
1.1.2 31/12/2020
Updated to use:
• iOS 13's new system Dark Mode setting.
• SF Symbols. The settings button is now a gear, which should save space on smaller devices.
New: Dismiss keyboard by swiping down while editing. Thanks to the reviewer who pointed out this omission!
Did you know this app is open source? Take a look at github.com/MutatingFunc/SimpleEdit
v1.1.1: Reuploading the same version to fix the App Store page's screenshot orientation. Apparently the App Store doesn't support orientation metadata, which conflicts with taking automatic simulator screenshots via XCTest.
1.1.1 10/11/2019
Updated to use:
• iOS 13's new system Dark Mode setting.
• SF Symbols. The settings button is now a gear, which should save space on smaller devices.
New: Dismiss keyboard by swiping down while editing. Thanks to the reviewer who pointed out this omission!
Did you know this app is open source? Take a look at github.com/MutatingFunc/SimpleEdit
1.1 09/11/2019
iOS 26 redesign!
• New look
• The editor toolbar is now customisable
• Added System Settings link to Settings page
more Version 3.0.0 23/09/2025
Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app.