Show HN: MacPad – a tiny macOS Notepad.exe-style editor

anvilfilbert1 pts0 comments

GitHub - anvilfilbert/MacPad: MacPad: a native macOS plain-text editor modeled after Windows notepad.exe. · GitHub

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anvilfilbert

MacPad

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Tests/NotepadMacTests

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MacPad

A small native macOS plain-text editor modeled after Windows notepad.exe.

Download

Download the latest ready-to-use app from:

https://github.com/anvilfilbert/MacPad/releases/latest

Get MacPad-1.0.3-macOS-universal.zip, unzip it, and drag MacPad.app into Applications.

If macOS warns that the app is from an unidentified developer, right-click MacPad.app, choose Open , then confirm Open . The app is locally signed but not Apple-notarized.

Features

Plain-text editing with native undo, cut, copy, paste, delete, and select all

New, open, save, save as, and print

Multiple windows, each with multiple tabs

New tabs and new windows, including separate windows with their own tab groups

Session restore for open windows and tab groups, including unsaved tab text

Unsaved-change prompts when closing or quitting

Find, find next/previous, replace, and replace all

Go to line and insert current time/date

Word wrap toggle

Font chooser and zoom controls

Status bar showing line, column, zoom, line ending mode, and UTF-8

Windows, Unix, and classic Mac line-ending detection and preservation

Builds into a launchable universal MacPad.app

Uses the included MacPad logo as the app icon

Build

./scripts/build-app.sh

The app bundle is created at:

build/MacPad.app

Launch it from Finder or with:

open build/MacPad.app

Install it into /Applications with:

./scripts/install-app.sh

Create a release zip with:

./scripts/package-release.sh

Development

Run tests:

swift test

Before publishing a release, run through QA.md.

About

MacPad: a native macOS plain-text editor modeled after Windows notepad.exe.

github.com/anvilfilbert/MacPad/releases/latest

Topics

macos

swift

open-source

notepad

text-editor

appkit

windows-notepad

macos-app

plain-text-editor

Resources

Readme

License

GPL-3.0 license

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Releases

MacPad 1.0.3

Latest

Jul 8, 2026

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Languages

Swift<br>93.9%

Shell<br>6.1%

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macpad windows macos text notepad editor

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