High "praise"? Textpad is the main reason I haven't gone to Linux a long time ago. The Windows 10 update perils and burden make it no longer fit for my purposes.
Yes! This page has been around since 2013... but I reviewed what is here 2025. Maybe that alone tells you something?
But Textpad is so good. (I'm using it to write this with it... as, indeed, I write 90% of all that I write, web pages or other.) My use of Textpad goes back to before 2002... and it was my happy place from the start.
Textpad is a text editor vs a word processor. It is lean and mean. Files are small. Easy to work with directly with other tools. No, it won't do all the fancy things wordprocessors will... but it does manage to put words on the screen or paper in a manner that suits my needs. With a lot lower overheads.
More than all of that, Textpad is just incredibly intuitive to use. Things I want to do (rename a file? Etc.) are EASY. It'xs hard to explain... but it is at the heart of why I am so enthusiastic about the program.
And it is "Old Skool". You can use it (extensiuvely!) until you are sure the creators deserve payment. Then you buy it. Once. For life. And you aren't plagued with the "need" to update it regularly.
Just go to TextPad.com and give it a try.... or... if not yet willing to do that, please (for your sake!) read on.
Sorry... a lot of what you've just read was new in October 2025. I forgot that I already had some of it in what follows, which is mostly older material with some tweaks in October 2025.
Textpad is a text editor... which is different from a word processor (I'll explain).
You can use a word processor for many of the things I use Textpad for... but why would you want to? Word processors are Big Beasts, and have overheads. They take longer to start up. They waste disk space.
If I save ....
The Quick Brown Fox
... with Textpad, the file is 19 bytes long. If I save it with my word processor, it starts at 8,209 bytes, and that grows if I edit the document... even if what I see remains as long as before.
If my hard disc crashes, or Textpad suddenly becomes unavailable, recovering the Textpad file (extension .txt) is as easy as it gets. Recovering the word processor file would be harder, less certain.
A good text editor, like Textpad, will let you display your work in the font of your choice, size of your choice, as you edit. Syntax highlighting is available (I'll explain). The font and font size of any hardcopy can also be selected.... BUT! I must admit: While using a text editor, you can't avail yourself of multiple fonts, styles, etc... like italic and underlining (apart from what syntax highlighting "injects")... but I live very happily without those, using ** OLD FASHIONED ** answers to emphasis, when needed.
Ironic? I wrote the html document behind what you are reading using Textpad, so I suppose in an indirect sense, italics, underline, etc, are "available"... but I didn't see this in italics while writing the page. You see it in italics because you are reading the product of my Textpad work in a web browswer. (While it was in Textpad, I saw... <i>this</i>)
A brief aside: Syntax highlighting: If you write raw HTML or program code, Textpad is capable of displaying your work with various highlightings to make your word easier. This is applied on a document-class by document-class basis, and is entirely configurable by you. I am, at the moment, working on an .htm document. It contains html tags, e.g. <p>, and, through syntax highlighting, they are shown in blue, to distinguish them from the main text. (Each paragraph of this document starts with a <p>, and ends with a </p>.) If I were working on some Lazarus code, file extension .pas, then any Pascal/ Lazarus keywords, e.g. showmessage, would be show in special colors and/or typefaces. Etc. End of aside. (If syntax rules for the document class you want to work with isn't in the default selection, you can add further sets of rules. (There is an archive of prepared sets for many document classes, and many commonly needed syntax rule sets, e.g. the one for HTML, come with the basic installation. You are offered access to them when setting up a new document class. You can tweak them for your wants... using Textpad, of course! Or you can write your own from scratch. (If the 114 on offer don't have one to cover what you want!... That's 114 on offer with names beginning with "A". I was perhaps 1/3 of the way down the "A-G" page when I decided I wouldn't count all the entries.)
Textpad has a range of useful "smart" "clips". And you can add your own. I am typing html at the moment, and I put that in italics in what you read simply by highlighting it, and clicking on the "italics" clip in the list of clips on the left of my screen. Doing that added a a <i> in front of the highlighted material, and a </i> after it.
Textpad does spellcheck... well. I regularly use two different dictionaries... English and American... and switching between them is easy. I can, of course, add words to the dictionaries.
Textpad allows you to have multiple files open at any time. I have about a dozen text pad documents open at the moment, partly because I am a scatty worker, and also because I am using copy/paste to move things between documents. You can have multiple instances of Textpad running at the same time. (Or set it to refuse to start a new window if one is already open.) You can... easily, of course- this IS Textpad... save your workspace (i.e. what files you have open). Suppose you are working on two big projects, each needing sundry files. You can save each workspace, and then easily switch between project file sets.
Textpad has search and replace features which allow no end of complicated things to be done, if you take time to master them. But simple search and replace is still available, and... simple!
I hope you are getting a sense of the fact that my great affection for Textpad is not so much for its features but for how "comfortable" it is. I am never distracted from what I am trying to do by having to think how I am going to do it.
That still doesn't do Textpad justice, but I hope you get the idea?
You can get Textpad from its homepage, Textpad.com. You can download a free trial. If you agree that it is a great application, you don't have to re-install... just send them the money, and they tell you how to unlock all the features with a simple code.
The trial version... which installs cleanly, simply, by the way... is not time limited, nor does it impose awkward limitations, like only saving small documents. But, if you use it much, do the decent and legal thing? Pay the creators!
Almost all of this "old" at 2025: It only costs £16.50 GBP (approximately $27 USD). That... in 2023, I think hadn't gone up since at least November 2010. (The table of prices, at least for a single user license, hasn't even been revised to reflect the Brexit-induced exchange rate! ($22 on 27 Feb 19) You can pay by credit card, so don't let the UK currency be an excuse to leave the creators unrewarded.
Prices at 2025: Singel user Textpad license: USD 27.00. That's what you pay once, to use it forever.
N.B.: The search engine just looks through the web site for the words you enter. It cannot answer "Which program is fastest?"
Page has been tested for compliance with INDUSTRY (not MS-only) standards, using the free, publicly accessible validator at validator.w3.org. Mostly passes. (Copy your page's URL to your clipboard (ctrl-C) before clicking on the icon, so you can easily paste it into the validator when it has loaded.)
AND it has been tested with
Click either icon to retest the page.
Why is there a script or hidden graphic on this page? I have my web-traffic monitored for me by eXTReMe tracker. They offer a free tracker. If you want to try one, check out their site. Neither my webpages nor my programs incorporate spyware, but if the page has Google tools, they also involve scripts.
Why do I mention the scripts? One last bit of advice: Be sure you know all you need to about spyware.
. . . . . P a g e . . . E n d s . . . . .