Leafpad is a free and open-source graphical

text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be ...

for

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, BSD, and

Maemo Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to c ...

that is similar to the Microsoft Windows program

Notepad A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...

. Created with the focus of being a lightweight text editor with minimal dependencies, it is designed to be simple-to-use and easy-to-compile. Leafpad has a small install size compared to other graphical text editors and has minimal features such as codeset options, undo/redo, and the ability to choose fonts. Leafpad is the default text editor for the

LXDE LXDE (abbreviation for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements. This makes it especially suitable for use on older or resource-constrained personal computers such as netb ...

lightweight

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

, and thus Leafpad is found on Linux distributions that use LXDE as their desktop environment such as Bodhi Linux and

Raspberry Pi OS Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) is a Unix-like operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi family of compact single-board computers. First developed independently in 2012, it has been produced as the primary ...

, as well as on some embedded systems. The program has been forked into

Mousepad A mousepad is a surface for placing and moving a computer mouse. A mousepad enhances the usability of the mouse compared to using a mouse directly on a table by providing a surface to allow it to measure movement accurately and without jitter. So ...

and l3afpad, and parts of Leafpad's code have been used in other text editors. Leafpad is released under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

(GPL) version 2.

History

Leafpad was created by Tarot Osuji, who remains its only author and maintainer. The first published version of Leafpad was version 0.5.x on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

in 2004. The first full release to the public was version 0.7.6 on November 11, 2004. Leafpad has not received an update since December 2010 with the release of version 0.8.18.1. Though it is part of the LXDE desktop package, it is not maintained by the LXDE development team. When first released, Leafpad had no printing capabilities. This led to members of the Xfce team creating a fork of Leafpad called Mousepad, specifically to address the lack of printing support. The ability to print was later added to Leafpad in 2005, with further improvements to the printing capabilities in 2006 and 2007. Language translations for Leafpad were provided through ''TranslationProject.org'', a

translation project A translation project is a project that deals with the activity of translating. From a technical point of view, a translation project is closely related to the project management of the translation process. But, from an intercultural point of vi ...

dedicated to providing language translation for open-source software. In 2020, the translation listing for Leafpad was removed from their database.

Features

Leafpad has a small

footprint Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The ...

compared to other graphical text editors such as

gedit gedit ( or ) is a text editor designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It was GNOME's default text editor and part of the GNOME Core Applications until GNOME version 42 in March 2022, which changed the default text editor to GNOME Text Ed ...

Kate Kate name may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American autho ...

. It is similar in visuals and functionality to the Microsoft Windows program Notepad. Depending on the

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

of the computer installed on, the program takes up between 417 kB and 486 kB on Debian after installation, with 457 kB being the installed size on an

i386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors compared to 5,462 kB for the text editor Kate. On

Arch Linux Arch Linux () is an independently developed, x86-64 general-purpose Linux distribution that strives to provide the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release model. The default installation is a minimal base system, ...

, Leafpad's size after installation is only 301 kB. Specific software features include a codeset option, auto codeset detection, an unlimited undo/redo feature, and

drag and drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, it can be used to ...

capabilities. Fonts can be chosen from among the operating system's available

computer font A computer font is implemented as a digital data file containing a set of graphically related glyphs. A computer font is designed and created using a font editor. A computer font specifically designed for the computer screen, and not for print ...

s, and

keybindings computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or ...

can be used for many features such as saving a file and printing. Leafpad is available in 42 languages. Although Leafpad cannot open multiple files at once, it is possible to open several instances of the program to have open more than one file at a time. According to Leafpad's

man page A man page (short for manual page) is a form of software documentation usually found on a Unix or Unix-like operating system. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and e ...

, Leafpad can be launched from the terminal in a format with several options including the ability to open a file with a specific codeset, specification of display and screen types, and tab width selections. The background color of the application window can be changed via a

configuration file In computing, configuration files (commonly known simply as config files) are files used to configure the parameters and initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system ...

Usage

As part of the LXDE desktop environment, Leafpad is pre-installed as the default graphical text editor on Linux distributions that use LXDE, such as Bodhi Linux, Knoppix, Trisquel Mini, and Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian). It is also the included in default installations of the

Kali Linux Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. Kali Linux has around 600 penetration-testing programs (tools), including Armitage (a ...

digital forensics distribution, and is pre-installed on

Ångström The angstromEntry "angstrom" in the Oxford online dictionary. Retrieved on 2019-03-02 from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/angstrom.Entry "angstrom" in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Retrieved on 2019-03-02 from https://www.m ...

, a speciality Linux distribution for

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' ...

s such as the

BeagleBone The BeagleBoard is a low-power open-source single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key and Newark element14. The BeagleBoard was also designed with open source software development in mind, and as a way of de ...

single-board computer, which uses Leafpad as its text editor. Leafpad was the default graphical text editor for

Lubuntu Lubuntu ( ) is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and uses the LXQt desktop environment in place of Ubuntu's GNOME desktop. Lubuntu was originally touted as being "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient", but now ...

up to version 18.04 LTS. After Lubuntu moved from the LXDE to the

LXQt LXQt is a free and open source lightweight desktop environment. It was formed from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects. Like its GTK predecessor LXDE, LXQt does not ship or develop its own window manager, instead LXQt lets the user ...

desktop, Leafpad was replaced by

FeatherPad FeatherPad is a free software text editor available under the GPL-3.0-or-later license. It is developed by Pedram Pourang (aka Tsu Jan) of Iran, written in Qt, and runs on FreeBSD, Linux, Haiku OS and macOS. It has few dependencies and is inde ...

. In addition to being installed by default on some Linux distributions, Leafpad can also be manually compiled for Linux, BSD, and Maemo or can be installed via the

software repositories A software repository, or repo for short, is a storage location for software packages. Often a table of contents is also stored, along with metadata. A software repository is typically managed by source control or repository managers. Package ...

of many Linux distributions including Arch Linux and Fedora. Leafpad can be installed on

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

via

MacPorts MacPorts, formerly DarwinPorts, is a package manager for macOS and Darwin. It is an open-source software project that aims to simplify the installation of other open source software. It's similar in function to Fink and the BSD ports collection ...

, or on Microsoft Windows via Cygwin.

Forks

Mousepad, which is a text editor for the Xfce desktop environment, was originally written as a fork of Leafpad due to an issue Leafpad had with printing, an issue which Leafpad later fixed. Mousepad was rewritten in December 2012 with version 0.3.0, which replaced the original Leafpad-based code with a complete rewrite. Another graphical text editor called l3afpad was created as a fork of Leafpad that is written in GTK3 instead of GTK2. Some parts of the Qt-based text editor FeatherPad were taken from Leafpad's code.

Architecture

Leafpad has been pre-compiled for Linux repositories to run on several types of computer architectures including

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

amd64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging m ...

RISC-V RISC-V (pronounced "risk-five" where five refers to the number of generations of RISC architecture that were developed at the University of California, Berkeley since 1981) is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on estab ...

, PowerPC (including

ppc64 ppc64 is an identifier commonly used within the Linux, GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and LLVM open-source software communities to refer to the target computer architecture, architecture for applications optimized for 64-bit big-endian PowerPC an ...

), and various

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...

and

MIPS architecture MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures (ISA)Price, Charles (September 1995). ''MIPS IV Instruction Set'' (Revision 3.2), MIPS Technologies, ...

Compiling In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

Leafpad requires only one dependency: GTK+ with a version higher than 2.0.0. There are two optional dependencies that are part of the GNOME library and require a version higher than 2.2.0: libgnomeprint, which allows Leafpad to access printing functions, and libgnomeprintui, which is the package for the printing

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

. Installation on some Linux distributions may require additional dependencies based on the distribution's configuration.

Reception

A ''LinuxInsider'' review focused on the simplicity of Leafpad, saying that it leaves a small footprint on a system's resources, making it a good choice for compact Linux distributions. The review further highlighted some of the features of Leafpad, and noted its inability to open more than one file at a time, but pointed out that multiple instances of Leafpad could be open at once in order to work on multiple text files at a time. The review concluded by praising the print preview option of Leafpad as a good

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...

representation of the final printout. A ''MakeTechEasier.com'' review noted that Leafpad was a lightweight alternative to the text editor Gedit, and said that Leafpad's simplicity was both an advantage for people seeking a simple text editor, and a disadvantage for those seeking additional features or functionality. An article by ''Admin Magazine'' comparing various text editors also focused on the lightweight nature of Leafpad. A review by ''DebugPoint.com'' called it an "ideal replacement" for the Windows program Notepad. The review called Leafpad's simplicity a feature in itself, and noted the lack of ongoing development for the software, stating that in order to keep the program lightweight further development was not needed. In a review of programming resources for the Raspberry Pi, ''Electromaker.io'' called Leafpad "the best text editor for the Raspberry Pi" and called it a solid resource for editing

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

References

External links

* {{GTK Free software projects Free text editors Text editors that use GTK Free software programmed in C Linux text editors LXDE