Geany Advanced Editor Spring 2025 Review

On 9 minutes, 11 seconds read By Edward
Geany IDE Settings For Terminal

Geany Editor Features Review

Geany is a lightweight integrated programming environment (IDE). Geany is free, open source and cross-platform (Mac, Windows and Linux).

This review is a 2025 update of an original 2013 article and is based on features I require of an advanced text editor. A list of required features was created after using different editors. Some features require extensions or plug-ins.

Geany is a free light-weight IDE for over 50 programming languages from the site https://www.geany.org/. There are downloadable packages for Linux, Mac and Windows systems. Geany can easily be extended by plug-ins to for features and to develop applications in other programming languages.

 

Geany has improved since the original review that it is still my preferred programming text editor for all simple programming tasks.

 

Requirements For Programming Text Editor

Glossary:

Code Editor

Designed for writing and editing source code.

IDE

Integrated Development Environment combines various tools need for software development.

Plugin

Software component that adds specific functionality.

Theme

Preset package containing graphical appearance to customize look and feel.

Open source

Freely available for possible modification and redistribution.

SCM

Source code management use to manage and track modifications to a source code repository.

 

Test Tools

Test System
Name Description
CPU Intel(R) i7 2600 @ 3.40GHz.
Memory 16GB DDR3.
Operating System Fedora Linux Workstation 41.
Desktop Environment Gnome 47.
Name Description

 

Test Suite
Name Description
Large File 1GB human-readable text.
Regex File Text with word “Geany” repeated.
Syntax File PHP file containing HTML, CSS & JavaScript.
Media File Smiley face or Tux Linux JPEG file.
Java Version OpenJDK 21.0.6.
PHP Version PHP 8.3.19.
Python Version Python 3.13.2.
Geany Version 2.0.
Name Description

 

Test Scoring

  1. Each feature has two parts.
  2. Score of zero indicates a missing feature.
  3. A part of a feature is work a score of 0.5.

 

Three bias elimination steps were utilized. The editor was used for at least three years on different platforms. Attempts were made to get stable plug-ins for missing features. The same editor was compared between the one in the repository, the developers website, and the compiled version if applicable.

 

Selecting Editor Version

For this review, Geany was downloaded from the developers website and it did not require additional plugins.

 

Features

  1. The theme can be native for the editor in terms of the background. Geany dark and light themes can be created or downloaded. The score for the theme was a perfect 1.0.
  2. Dragging and dropping a text file into the editor opens a new tab. It is still not possible to specify the tab location during the drag and drop operation. The score for drag and drop into editor was 0.5.
  3. Opening a very large text file did not crash Geany. A “Geany” Is Not Responding window to force quite or wait. It still not possible to remember the last session and it was not possible to edit the large file. The score for opening a large file was 0.5.
  4. Multiple documents can opened in multiple tabs. Tear-off tabs still do not work but Geany has a feature to open in new window as a new instance which is handy for multiple monitors. The score for multiple documents was 0.5.
  5. Multiple editors can be opened as new tabs with drag options. The window view can be split either vertically or horizontally using a plugin but Geany does not have a multiple editor view unless a new instance of Geany is opened. The score for multiple editor view was 0.5..
  6. Creating non-project files is possible by dragging the folder into the workspace. Non-project files can be opened by the drag and drop operation. The score for creating non-project files was a perfect 1.0.
  7. Soft word wrap can be enabled in the editor settings. Automatic soft wrap for documents is available for Geany. The score for word wrap was a perfect 1.0.
  8. Spell check works as words are typed. Spelling errors are shown in opened documents. The score for spell check was a perfect 1.0.
  9. Word count is available for Geany. Selection word count is available as part of word count. The score for word count was a perfect 1.0.
  10. Go to line can jump to a specified line. It is possible to jump to either the first or last line. The score for go to line was a perfect 1.0.
  11. Indentation can default to user-defined tab stops. Children are automatically indented. The score for indentation was a perfect 1.0
  12. Fonts can be dynamically scaled. The system font can be bypassed and a new editor font and size can be set. The score for fonts was a perfect 1.0.
  13. Find and replace using regular expressions can be utilized for all open documents in the current session. Find and replace will work for the current document or a selection in the current document. The score for find and replacing using regular expressions was 1.0.
  14. Multiple language syntax highlighting in one file is enabled if the language plug-ins are installed. Each language has code-sensitive syntax colors which can be modified. The score for multiple language syntax highlighting was a perfect 1.0.
  15. Code folding works for markup languages such as HTML. Code folding also works for programming languages such as Java and PHP. The score for code folding was 1.0.
  16. Selecting rectangular block per column works via a toggle or CTRL-SHIFT-R on Linux. Rectangular block selections work with word wrap enabled. The score for selecting rectangular block was a perfect 1.0.
  17. Multiple selection is not available for Geany. Search multiple selection is not available. The score for multiple selection was 0.0.
  18. Distraction-free mode to hide panes works. Line numbers can be toggled to improve distraction-free mode. The score for distraction-free was a perfect 1.0.
  19. The file manager required the File system browser plug-in to create and delete folders. Media files cannot be dragged and dropped into the file manager pane. The score for file manager was 0.5.
  20. Terminal is integrated into Geany. The terminal can follow folder if enabled. Terminal can execute system commands. The score for terminal was 1.0.

 

Results

Geany is a very powerful IDE. By default, the Geany editor is no longer missing required features which can be installed by using extensions. For my required features, the Geany editor scored 82.5% or 8.25 out of 10.

 

Geany Editor
Geany Editor View

 

Geany Terminal Follow
Geany Terminal Follow Folder

 

 

Usage

Geany can be used immediately after opening for Python, Java, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, C, C++ and PHP applications. For this review, custom files were used to test the code editing features of Geany.

Open Source

Geany is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2.0. The copyleft license comes with strict rules and requirements to ensure the software remains free and open-source. It allows commercial use, modification, distribution, and allows making derivatives proprietary, consult the license for more specific details.

 

Live Stream

Every day, you can join a live stream and ask questions. Check Ojambo.com for details and instructions. Scroll down to the footer to see the channels.

 

Conclusion:

Geany is a very powerful flyweight integrated programming environment. The dynamic font zoom is fast and workarounds exist for any fully lacking features. Overall Geany only scored 8.25 out of 10 for essential code editor features.

 

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References: