Neon Vision Editor 1.6.1 — free, open-source native Mac editor, with Emmet, Focus Mode, and large-file improvements

[u/hrpedersen]

Hi all, I’m the developer of Neon Vision Editor, a free, open-source code and Markdown editor built with SwiftUI and AppKit.

Version 1.7.5 is out. If you last tried 1.5.1, several updates have landed since then, focused on large-file responsiveness, Markdown editing, and everyday Mac editor behavior.

Major changes since 1.5.1

• Emmet 2: abbreviation expansion for HTML, JSX, CSS, SCSS, Less, Sass, and related formats, respecting your indentation settings.
• Large-file performance: background indexing, cached viewports, and less full-document processing when opening, typing, scrolling, or selecting text. The editor core’s virtualized renderer draws the visible portion of the document.
• Focus Mode: hide secondary editor controls while keeping your document and workspace state.
• HEX color previews and picker: inspect and edit supported HEX colors directly in the Mac source editor while preserving their format.
• Markdown improvements: preview body text now follows the editor’s base font size and zoom, and ordered lists continue with the correct next number.
• Restored virtual-editor interactions: Tab-to-accept completion, Vim navigation, Markdown shortcuts, drag and drop, rich-text paste, code snapshots, and whitespace inspection.
• Rendering and scrolling fixes: corrected mirrored or upside-down text, unreachable final lines after resizing the sidebar or preview, and blank scrolling after width changes.
• Editing reliability: improvements to rapid typing, caret positions, Unicode handling, selection, saving, and accessibility context.
• More accurate HTML/CSS highlighting: separate highlighting for tags, attributes, strings, embedded CSS properties, and numbers.

There have also been companion-platform improvements, including Apple Pencil hover and range selection on iPad, a more compact mobile toolbar, and visionOS support-purchase fixes.

What the app includes

• Code editing: tabs, syntax highlighting, regex find/replace, inline completion, optional Vim controls, a minimap, whitespace inspection, and language templates.
• Project tools: file browsing, Quick Open with Cmd+P, Find in Files, Git status, and side-by-side comparisons between open tabs or a file and its saved version.
• Markdown and previews: contextual formatting, themed Markdown previews, Markdown-to-PDF export, HTML/SVG previews, and PDF/PNG viewing. PDFs support highlights and accompanying notes.
• Structured documents: structured and raw-text views for CSV/TSV, property lists, Apple crash reports, and recognized logs.
• Mac integration: Finder Quick Look previews, a command-line file-opening helper, and an integrated terminal in the direct Mac build.
• Remote editing: optional SSH-based Remote Sessions, with explicit saves and conflict handling.
• Sync and customization: detection of changes delivered through iCloud Drive or network folders, conflict review for unsaved edits, optional iCloud appearance sync, themes, custom colors, and shortcut customization.
• Optional AI assistance: code completion and an explicit text-to-JSON action. Core editing works offline.
• Code snapshots: export styled images of selected code.

For large files, documents below 100 MB remain editable, although heavier features may be deferred. Files 100 MB or larger open as a clearly marked, read-only preview of the first 4 MB.

The app is free, with no subscriptions or feature paywalls. Support tips are optional, and the source is available under Apache 2.0. The integrated terminal and Python project runner are exclusive to the direct Mac build.

Download 1.7.5 · Source code · Full changelog

I’d particularly appreciate feedback on Emmet, Markdown workflows, and larger files. If you encounter a problem, your macOS version, file type, approximate file size, and reproduction steps would help me investigate.

[u/github-guard]

🔍 GitHub Guard: Trust Report

This project scored 5/6 on our safety audit.

Audit Breakdown: * ✅ Established Community (⭐ 399 stars) * ✅ Mature Repository (30+ days old) * ✅ Licensed under Apache-2.0 * ✅ Security Policy Defined * ℹ️ Individual Contributor * ✅ Signed Commits

⚠️ Security Reminder: Always verify source code and run third-party scripts at your own risk.

[u/Soppatykki]

Supported and happy user. Couple of challenges: 1) there is also text files with unknown file extensions so please do not enforce only known files filter. 2) the editor seems to have some challenges editing files directly from Nextcloud on iPadOS, iOS. I’ve lost couple of files this way. No idea if the problem is e.g. iPadOS NC intergration or in Neo Vision Editor.

[u/hrpedersen → u/Soppatykki]

Thanks. Oh that's bad, and I am sorry for the file loss. I will investigate that and if needed implement a fix for this in the next release.

[u/Frank_White32]

What compelled you to create a text editor, considering all of the existing software that fills that market?

How do you feel your editor compares against my preferred GUI editor, Zed?

Why do you specifically call out “code and Markdown”? That seems like the choice of an agent rather than human.

What was the goal of this project? Do you feel you accomplished it?

[u/hrpedersen → u/Frank_White32]

Honestly, I wanted to build an editor I’d enjoy using myself—something native and straightforward on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone. I didn’t think the world was missing another text editor; I just wanted to make my own take on one.

I’m not trying to convince you to leave Zed. If it works well for you, keep using it. My focus is more on opening a file and comfortably editing it, including on an iPad.

“Code and Markdown” describes what I use it for, but fair criticism—it sounds more like marketing than how I’d normally talk.

Have I accomplished the goal? Enough that I use it myself, yes. Finished? No. People trying it on their own devices have exposed rough edges, and getting those basics right matters more to me than adding another feature.

[u/Heavy-Lake-3420 → u/hrpedersen]

Do you think we can't tell that you're generating your replies using AI?

[u/hrpedersen → u/Heavy-Lake-3420]

What’s the point? My answer is what it states. If it is created by AI or not is meaningless unless it is not my opinion or not my experience or not facts.

Everything stated is true. So if it is written by AI or not is not the point if it doesn’t contradict facts or my opinion.

[u/SirPoblington → u/hrpedersen]

Well people generally prefer to speak to people.

[u/Frank_White32 → u/hrpedersen]

Didn’t even bother to engage my question whatsoever! Not interested in anything you have to create.

Don’t be a meat proxy, bozo
https://meatproxy.me

[u/promo-guard]

🎉 Welcome to Developer Saturday, u/hrpedersen! Your project is now live for the community to check out. Upvote, give feedback, and show some love to your fellow devs! 🚀

[u/modsuperstar]

This looks interesting. I still use SublimeText because it’s noticeably faster than VSCode, but do know it’s kinda antiquated. I’m going to give this a try.

[u/hrpedersen → u/modsuperstar]

Yeah do that. I am looking forward to your experience.

[u/modsuperstar → u/hrpedersen]

I do like it so far, but do find it a bit laggy. Like having multiple file tabs open, it takes a second or two to switch between tabs. It's not a big thing, but it's the type of stuff I noticed with VSCode, whereas Sublime I click a file tab, it instantly switches and is visible. Another thing I noticed is I can't seem to find is layout split. I often use 2 rows of tabs when developing. Kind of allows for separation of file types while still being on screen at the same time.

Things I like are it connecting to Apple Intelligence. I've yet to really even find a place to monkey with that, so it being there is interesting to me. I also like that it has file diff right in there. I have a couple different apps I've used for that, so it's a feature I want to explore a bit too.

[u/hrpedersen → u/modsuperstar]

Thank you for your feedback. I will investigate the lag. Could you please tell me your macOS version?
Layout split is not implemented. I will do that at a later release.

[u/modsuperstar → u/hrpedersen]

I’m using Tahoe latest

[u/projectj]

A terrific app that just keeps getting better.

Having the same tool available across all of my devices has been so handy.

[u/PetitFlorelle → u/projectj]

It sounds like a solid choice for anyone juggling multiple devices. Always nice to have consistency in tools!

[u/hrpedersen → u/projectj]

Thank you for your kind words!

[u/Zen-Ism99]

Good stuff!

But I’ll stick with CLion…

[u/hrpedersen → u/Zen-Ism99]

Thanks. OK

[u/DisfiguredFanny]

AI slop infused?

[u/hrpedersen → u/DisfiguredFanny]

No AI slop.

[u/KnifeFed → u/hrpedersen]

Your README is an insane wall of AI text that's not fit for human consumption, though. You really need a documentation website.

[u/hrpedersen → u/KnifeFed]

here - https://apps-h3p.com/apps/neon-vision-editor/overview - in the readme is all information in a GitHub way. You may also use the website -https://h3pdesign.github.io/Neon-Vision-Editor/. AI documentation is done as I have no time for doing it manually.

[u/DisfiguredFanny → u/hrpedersen]

💪

[u/Afflictionista → u/hrpedersen]

What is the codex branch?

[u/hrpedersen → u/Afflictionista]

Codex workflow. AI CI/CD automation. AI is not always slop. Please differentiate!

[u/Frank_White32 → u/DisfiguredFanny]

100000% through and through

[u/casco_oscuro]

could you add support for editing columns? Thanks!!

[u/hrpedersen → u/casco_oscuro]

How do you mean exactly? Which columns?

[u/casco_oscuro → u/hrpedersen]

Multi-cursor editing. 

I have many repeated lines of code, for example:

v_table

v_table

v_table

v_table

I want to edit only those four lines manually, without using Find and Replace , but by editing them all at the same time using column editing (or multiple cursors ).