sgcRichEdit Feature Matrix
Everything sgcRichEdit does, grouped by task, followed by a comparison with other rich text editors for Delphi, C++ Builder and .NET. Every feature is in every sgcRichEdit license; there is no Community edition.
Everything sgcRichEdit does, grouped by task, followed by a comparison with other rich text editors for Delphi, C++ Builder and .NET. Every feature is in every sgcRichEdit license; there is no Community edition.
7 features
6 features
5 features
4 features
3 features
5 features
4 features
5 features
12 languages
Windows and Linux64
Delphi, C++ Builder and .NET
5 rich text editors
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Document model | TsgcRichDocument holds paragraphs, tables, page breaks, styles, lists, images, links, document properties and page settings. It does not depend on VCL or FireMonkey. |
| Native JSON | Reads and writes every detail of a document. Controls store their document in the form file as JSON. |
| HTML | Reads HTML with CSS, tables, lists and images (data URIs, or other sources through an event), including the list hints of Word and Outlook. Writes HTML5 with one class per named style. |
| Markdown | Reads and writes a CommonMark subset: headings, emphasis, code spans and blocks, quotes, nested lists, links, images, GFM tables and strikethrough. |
| RTF | Reads and writes RTF with fonts, colours, styles, lists, merged and nested tables, hyperlinks and PNG and JPEG images. Content from Word keeps its text, formatting, styles, lists, tables, links and pictures. |
| Plain text | Text in and out, one paragraph per line, with byte order mark detection. |
| Format detection | LoadFromFile, LoadFromStream and LoadFromString detect the format; AsJSON, AsHTML, AsRTF, AsMarkdown and AsText read and write the document as a string. DOCX and PDF are export formats. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Undo and redo | Every change is one undo step, typing is grouped into words, and Replace All is a single step. |
| Keyboard | Word processor shortcuts: Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U, Ctrl+L, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+J, Ctrl+Alt+1 to 3 for headings, Ctrl+Shift+L for bullets, Ctrl+K for a link, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, Ctrl+Enter for a page break, Tab to move between table cells. |
| Mouse and touch | Click, double click a word, triple click a paragraph, drag to select, resize images with handles, drag table column borders. The FireMonkey control has a touch mode with tap, double tap and long press selection handles. |
| Find and replace | Case, whole word, backwards, in the selection and regular expressions, across paragraphs and table cells. |
| Commands | ExecuteCommand and CommandState for formatting, paragraphs, lists, tables, images, links, clipboard, undo and find, with enabled, checked and value states for toolbars. |
| Actions | VCL and FireMonkey actions for every command, so menus, toolbars and ribbons such as sgcToolbar bind to the editor. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Tables | Insert and delete rows and columns, merge and split cells across columns and rows, header rows, rows that do not split across pages, borders, backgrounds, padding, vertical alignment and nested tables. |
| Images | Inline images with alternative text, scaled to the page width, resized with handles. PNG and BMP are built in; JPEG and GIF are decoded through the VCL, FireMonkey or .NET host. |
| Hyperlinks | Insert and remove links, Ctrl+click with the OnLinkClick event, and AutoOpenLinks to open them with the shell. |
| Lists | Bullets, decimal numbers, letters and roman numerals in 9 levels, with start numbers and restarts. |
| Styles and formatting | Paragraph, character and table styles with inheritance; built in Normal, Heading 1 to 6, Title, Subtitle, Quote, Code, List Paragraph, Hyperlink and Table Grid. Character formatting with font, size, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, colour, highlight, superscript and subscript; paragraph formatting with alignment, indents, spacing, line spacing, tab stops, keep with next and page break before. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Right to left | Right to left paragraphs for Arabic and Hebrew, with a direction per paragraph (left to right, right to left or automatic). |
| Mixed text | Arabic and English in the same paragraph, with shaped Arabic text, a visual caret and the selection drawn where the reader expects it. |
| IME | Inline composition for Japanese, Chinese and Korean, with the candidate window at the caret. The composition is one undo step. |
| Direction shortcuts | Ctrl+Right Shift and Ctrl+Left Shift set the paragraph direction, as in Word. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Copy | The selection goes to the clipboard as RTF, HTML and plain text, plus a private format that keeps every detail between sgcRichEdit controls. |
| Paste | Pastes content from Word and from browsers, choosing the richest format available. |
| Plain paste | Ctrl+Shift+V pastes text without formatting. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Pagination | Page settings per document; paragraphs split by lines with widow and orphan control, keep lines together, keep with next, page breaks, table rows split by lines, header rows repeated on every page. |
| Print and preview | Print and PrintPreview on VCL, FireMonkey, WinForms, WPF and Avalonia. |
| PDF export | ExportToPDF writes a tagged PDF with headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, figures with alternative text and links, through the sgcPDF engine that is installed with sgcRichEdit. |
| DOCX export | Writes Word documents with styles, numbering, tables with merged cells, hyperlinks, images and page settings. No external zip library is needed. |
| PNG export | ExportToPNG renders any page at the DPI you choose. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| UI Automation text pattern | Screen readers on Windows read the document by character, word, line, paragraph and page, query the formatting and follow the selection. Available on the VCL control, the FireMonkey control on Windows, and the WinForms and WPF controls. |
| Images and links | Images are named by their alternative text; links have the hyperlink role and can be invoked. |
| Keyboard reach | Every action has a shortcut or a command, images and tables can be selected and resized from the keyboard, and formatting changes are announced. |
| Accessible output | The PDF export is tagged with the document structure. See the sgcUI accessibility pages. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Data-aware controls | TsgcVCLDBRichEdit and TsgcFMXDBRichEdit with DataSource and DataField, for string, memo, wide memo and BLOB fields. |
| Stored format | FieldFormat: Auto, JSON, HTML, RTF, Markdown or Text. Auto detects JSON, RTF and HTML on read and writes back the format it read. FieldEncoding: auto, UTF-8, ANSI or UTF-16. |
| Edit semantics | The first change puts the dataset in edit mode, focus loss writes the field once, Escape restores the field value, and undo is cleared on a record change. AutoDisplay loads large documents on demand. |
| WinForms binding | DocumentText is bindable with DataBindings; the control also has DataSource, DataMember, DataField, FieldFormat and FieldEncoding. |
| WPF and Avalonia binding | DocumentText binds two way and updates the source when the control loses focus; DocumentFormat selects JSON, HTML, RTF, Markdown or text. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| 12 UI languages | Command names, accessibility texts and messages in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, shared by the Delphi and .NET controls. |
| Document language | A language per text run and per document, written to the PDF, HTML and DOCX exports. |
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| No window needed | The document model, formats, layout, pagination and exports do not use VCL or FireMonkey, so services and daemons can convert and render documents. |
| Linux64 | The framework neutral units compile for Linux64 from Delphi 10.2. |
| .NET | The core library targets .NET Standard 2.0, .NET Framework 4.7.2 and .NET 6, 8, 9 and 10; PNG export is in the Rendering package. |
| Target | Components | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| VCL | TsgcVCLRichEdit, TsgcVCLDBRichEdit | Delphi 7 to 13, C++ Builder 2007 to 13 |
| FireMonkey | TsgcFMXRichEdit, TsgcFMXDBRichEdit | Delphi and C++ Builder XE6 and later |
| Linux64 | Document model, formats, layout and exports | Delphi 10.2 and later |
| WinForms | TsgcWinFormsRichEdit, with a Visual Studio designer and data binding | .NET Framework 4.7.2, .NET 8, 9 and 10 on Windows |
| WPF | TsgcWpfRichEdit | .NET Framework 4.7.2, .NET 8, 9 and 10 on Windows |
| Avalonia | TsgcAvaloniaRichEdit | Avalonia 12 on .NET 8, 9 and 10 |
A C# port with the same class and member names. The packages are Registered only and are not published on nuget.org.
| Package | Edition | Contents |
|---|---|---|
esegece.sgcRichEdit | Registered | Document model, formats, layout and exports |
esegece.sgcRichEdit.Rendering | Registered | Image decoders and PNG page export |
esegece.sgcRichEdit.WinForms | Registered | Windows Forms control |
esegece.sgcRichEdit.WinForms.Design | Registered | Visual Studio designer for .NET 8 and later |
esegece.sgcRichEdit.Wpf | Registered | WPF control |
esegece.sgcRichEdit.Avalonia | Registered | Avalonia control |
Each product has its strengths. The table lists what each vendor states on its public pages, so you can check which one fits your project.
| Product | Frameworks | Document formats | Data-aware and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| sgcRichEdit | VCL and FireMonkey for Delphi 7 to 13 and C++ Builder 2007 to 13; WinForms, WPF and Avalonia for .NET | Reads and writes JSON, HTML, Markdown, RTF and text; exports DOCX, PDF and PNG | TsgcVCLDBRichEdit and TsgcFMXDBRichEdit, .NET data binding. Headless rendering on Linux64. Part of sgcUI. |
| TRichView and ScaleRichView | VCL and FireMonkey components for Delphi and C++Builder, plus Lazarus LCL components | Import and export of DocX, RTF, HTML, Markdown and other formats | TDBRichView and TDBRichViewEdit. ScaleRichView is a separate product of the same vendor for WYSIWYG editing. |
| DevExpress VCL Rich Edit Control | VCL for Delphi and C++Builder. DevExpress sells separate Rich Text Editors for WinForms and WPF. | TXT and RTF built in; DOC, HTML and DOCX through additional units | Described by DevExpress as a feature complete RTF control inspired by Microsoft Word, with nested tables, merged cells, a Print Layout view and mail merge. |
| TMS FNC Rich Editor | TTMSFNCRichEditor, a cross platform FNC control for Delphi. TMS also offers TAdvRichEditor in the TMS VCL UI Pack. | HTML import and export through TTMSFNCRichEditorIO, PDF output through TTMSFNCRichEditorPDFIO, RTF import and export through a separate component on Windows | Printing through TTMSFNCRichEditorPrintIO. |
| TRichEdit | VCL only, on Windows. It wraps the Windows RichEdit control and ships with Delphi and C++Builder. | RTF and plain text | TDBRichEdit is the data-aware version in the VCL. |
Third party information comes from the vendors' public pages in October 2026: trichview.com, devexpress.com, docs.devexpress.com and doc.tmssoftware.com. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Check each vendor's site for current details.
sgcRichEdit is documented in the sgcUI help, with one build for each development environment.
The complete sgcUI help as a PDF file, to read offline or print.
Delphi (PDF) →