For everyone whose editor froze on a big file
Open the gigabyte log.
Edit it. Save it.
NomiPad is a fast, careful notepad for logs, Markdown and code. It opens a 1 GB file in about a millisecond, saves huge files without loading them into memory, and never quietly changes your encoding or line endings.
Free · macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon & Intel) · Windows 10/11 · Linux
How fast does NomiPad open a 1 GB file?
- to first screen of a 1 GiB log
- ~1 ms
- 0.82 ms worst of 5 runs, 0.23 ms median
- to index every line, in the background
- ~2 s
- 1.9–3.2 s over 5 runs; the finished index uses 67 MiB for 8.8 M lines
- to jump to 90% before indexing is done
- ~30 ms
- 26–32 ms for the first jump, then under 1 ms anywhere
- plain-text search through the whole file
- 11.8 GiB/s
- 12,082 MiB/s literal full scan; 2.7 GiB/s with regex, case-insensitive, whole word
NomiPad opens a 1 GiB log (8.8 million lines) to its first screen in about 1 ms (0.23 ms median, 0.82 ms worst of 5 runs), indexes every line in the background in about 2 seconds while you already scroll and edit, jumps to a line 90% into the file in about 30 ms before indexing gets there, and searches the whole file for plain text at up to 11.8 GiB/s (2.7 GiB/s for a case-insensitive whole-word regex). Measured in September 2026 on an Apple M5, macOS 26.5, release build, file already in the OS page cache; a file that isn’t cached yet is limited by the speed of your disk.
How we measured. Measured by NomiPad's automated performance suite on a 1 GiB generated log (8.8 million lines), Apple M5, macOS 26.5, release build, file already in the OS page cache, September 2026. Open and jump times are the app’s file engine up to the data the first screen needs; drawing that screen in the window is not included. A file that isn’t cached yet is limited by your disk: expect the first pass over it to take about as long as reading it once. Full method and numbers
Screenshots
The real app, on a real gigabyte
Sound familiar?
Built for the moments other editors give up
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“Not responding”
on a 2 GB log
NomiPad maps the file instead of reading it into memory. The first screen is ready in about a millisecond, whatever the size.
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“…tokenization, wrapping, folding … have been turned off for this large file”
VS Code, from 20 MB or 300K lines
Code keeps its colors past 64 MiB: a Tree-sitter parser in the Rust backend takes over, for 18 languages.
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“Why is the whole file changed in git?”
after one edit
CRLF stays CRLF, a BOM stays a BOM, UTF-16 stays UTF-16. Nothing about the file changes except the text you typed.
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“été — where did my accents go?”
mojibake after saving
Encodings are detected, not guessed at random. Bytes that can’t be decoded are flagged, and NomiPad asks before changing an encoding.
Huge files
Open first. Index later. Never wait.
NomiPad reads only what’s on screen. The file is memory-mapped by a Rust engine, the first 2,000 lines are indexed right away, and the rest is indexed on a background thread while you already scroll, search and edit.
- Go to Line works immediately, even to a line the index hasn’t reached yet.
- Find streams through the whole file, in pages, with regex, case and whole-word options, in UTF-8, UTF-16 and Windows-1252.
- Memory stays flat: the editor holds a sliding window of lines, and the status bar shows exactly which lines are loaded.
Files above 64 MiB open in Plain mode: live Markdown and Replace All are off there, and code keeps its highlighting through Tree-sitter. Smaller files load whole, with every feature.
What happens when you open a 1 GiB log
- ~1 ms First screen of lines is ready. The file is mapped, not copied: opening it added 0.02 MiB to the heap.
- ~30 ms Jump to line 7.9 million, before indexing gets there. Every later jump: under a millisecond.
- ~2 s All 8.8 million lines indexed in the background, in 67 MiB. The status bar shows the progress.
Apple M5, warm cache. Details in “How we measured” above.
- 1Check the file on disk is still the one you opened. If another program changed it, stop and ask.
- 2Write untouched bytes as they are and only the edited lines anew, in the file’s own encoding and line ending, into a temporary file next to it.
- 3Check again, then swap the temporary file into place in one atomic rename. A failed save leaves the original untouched.
Edit and save huge files
Fix line 4,000,000. Press ⌘S. Done.
Many large-file viewers are read-only. NomiPad lets you edit them, and a save rewrites only the part you changed. It never loads the whole file into memory, and bytes you didn’t touch, including ones that aren’t valid text, are copied exactly.
The save engine is covered by randomized (fuzz) tests alongside byte-for-byte round-trip tests.
Encodings and line endings
Your file stays your file
The encoding and line ending are detected when a file opens and shown in the status bar. On save, they are written back exactly as they were.
| Opened as | Saved as |
|---|---|
| UTF-8, with or without BOM | Same, BOM kept or left out |
| UTF-16 LE / BE, with or without BOM | Same |
| Windows-1252 (“ANSI”) | Same, byte for byte; asks before switching to UTF-8 |
| CRLF, LF or CR line endings | Same line ending |
| Damaged bytes (shown as �) | Flagged on open; asks before saving |
NomiPad asks. It never switches an encoding behind your back.
Your edits and the other program’s edits: you decide which one wins.
No silent data loss
It won’t overwrite what it hasn’t seen
- Changed on disk? If a build tool, git or another window touched the file after you opened it, saving stops and asks: Overwrite or Reload from Disk.
- Atomic saves. NomiPad writes a temporary file and renames it into place, so a crash or full disk can’t leave you with half a file.
- Undo per tab. Each tab keeps its own history; undo in one never brings back text from another.
- Closing asks first. Unsaved tabs are never discarded without a question, and a save waiting on a question finishes before the tab closes.
Two modes, no clutter
Plain text when you want speed. Live Markdown when you write.
Pure Plaintext is monospace and nothing else. Live Markdown renders as you type: headings, bold and italic, links, quotes, GFM tables and clickable task lists. Markers appear only on the line you’re editing.
- Chosen automatically by extension; switch any time with ⌘⇧M.
- Drag a table’s column edge to resize it for reading or export; the file itself stays untouched.
- A read-only Preview (⌘⇧P) for reading without accidental edits.
- The file on disk stays plain
.md. No vault, no database, no proprietary format.
** markers.
And the everyday things, done properly
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Highlighting that finds the language
Detected from the file extension, with content checks for ambiguous ones like .h. Tree-sitter grammars for 18 languages, from Rust and Python to SQL, YAML and Bash.
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Every shortcut is yours
Re-record any binding in Settings. Defaults follow each platform, and shortcuts match physical keys, so they keep working on Cyrillic, Greek or any other layout.
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Open a file by typing its path
File › Open Path… (⌥⌘O, Ctrl+Alt+O on Windows and Linux) suggests folders and files as you type. Tab completes, Enter opens, ~ is your home folder. No file dialog.
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A font for each kind of file
Separate font and size for code, plain text and Markdown, with a live preview. Zoom scales all three together.
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Export without a print dialog
File › Export As › PDF (paginated, A4 or US Letter by region), HTML, or a PNG of the whole document. No window pops up.
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Tabs that wrap, windows that come back
Tabs wrap onto extra rows instead of scrolling out of sight. Several windows, reopen closed tabs, and your session is restored on launch.
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At home on the Mac
Native menu bar and shortcuts, a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, signed and notarized. Light and dark themes.
No telemetry, no analytics, and no account needed for the free version. NomiPad has no code that reports what you do, and your files never leave your computer. NomiPad Pro uses an account only to sign in; the license is then checked on your computer, offline. Privacy details
What NomiPad deliberately doesn’t do: sync, plugins, a mobile app, AI features or real-time collaboration. It’s a notepad, and it tries to be a very good one.
Compare
Where NomiPad fits
Great editors, all of them. This is where each one stands on the things NomiPad is built for.
| Feature | NomiPad | Notepad++ | Sublime Text | VS Code | BBEdit | TextEdit | Typora |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on | macOS, Windows, Linux | Windows | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS | macOS | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Huge files (hundreds of MB and up) | Yes: Memory-mapped; 1 GiB to first screen in ~1 ms | Partly: BigFiles plugin is the usual advice for huge logs 1 | Partly: Users report very slow opens of 1 GB+ files 2 | Partly: Highlighting, wrapping, folding off from 20 MB / 300K lines 3 | Not assessed | Partly: Reports of long hangs on multi-GB files 4 | No: Won’t render files over a default size limit (~2 MB) 5 |
| Live (in-place) Markdown | Yes: Built in, plus read-only Preview | No: Via plugins | No: Via packages | Partly: Side-by-side preview | Partly: Preview window | No: No | Yes: Yes |
| Code syntax highlighting | Yes: Auto-detected by extension | Yes: Yes | Yes: Yes | Yes: Yes | Yes: Yes | No: No | Partly: In code blocks |
Scroll the table sideways to see every editor.
Competitor entries come from each product’s own documentation, source code or public issue tracker as of September 2026. We haven’t benchmarked other editors ourselves, and “not assessed” means we didn’t find a source we trust. Spotted something out of date? Write to support@nomipad.com.
- 1. Notepad++ Community, “Notepad++ freezes on large files”
- 2. Sublime Forum, “Extremely slow while handling large data”
- 3. VS Code source: textModel.ts (20 MB / 300K-line thresholds) and largeFileOptimizations.ts
- 4. Apple Developer Forums, “TextEdit freezing”
- 5. Typora issue tracker, “Unable to open large (4 MB) Markdown file”
Which editor for which job, and what NomiPad doesn’t do · vs Notepad++ · with VS Code
Pricing
Every feature is free
The free version has no time limit and no locked features. It shows a short reminder at start-up and keeps up to 3 tabs per window. NomiPad Pro removes both, and keeps NomiPad going.
See plans- Free
- $0
- Pro
$19.99 per year
USD; checkout shows your local price and tax
Questions
How big a file can NomiPad open?
Files are memory-mapped, so size is limited by your disk, not your RAM. We test every build against a generated 1 GiB log. Files above 64 MiB open in Plain mode: live Markdown, Replace All and encoding changes are off there, Find still searches the whole file, and code keeps its highlighting through Tree-sitter.
Will NomiPad change my encoding, BOM or line endings?
No. UTF-8 (with or without BOM), UTF-16 LE/BE and Windows-1252 are saved back as they were, and CRLF stays CRLF. If you type a character the file’s encoding can’t hold, NomiPad asks before saving as UTF-8. Invalid bytes are flagged when the file opens and never replaced without asking. One exception: a normal-size file with mixed line endings is saved with its most common one.
What if another program changes the file while I’m editing?
Saving checks the file on disk first. If it changed since your tab read it, NomiPad stops and asks whether to Overwrite or Reload from Disk. Saves go to a temporary file that is renamed into place, so an interrupted save never leaves a half-written file.
Is NomiPad free?
Yes. The free version has every feature, with no time limit and no account. It shows a 5-second reminder when it starts and keeps up to 3 tabs open per window. NomiPad Pro, a yearly subscription, removes both limits; Pricing shows its price in your currency.
Which systems does NomiPad run on?
macOS, Windows and Linux. On a Mac: macOS 12 or later, one universal download for Apple Silicon and Intel, signed and notarized by Apple. On Windows 10 or 11 (x64): an installer, or an MSI for IT deployment. The installer isn’t code-signed yet, so Windows may ask you to confirm before running it. On Linux (x86_64, Ubuntu 22.04 or newer, or any distribution with glibc 2.35 or later): AppImage, .deb or .rpm. PDF and PNG export aren’t available on Linux yet; HTML export is. Every version updates itself. All of them are on the download page.
Does NomiPad collect any data?
No. NomiPad has no telemetry, analytics or crash reporting, and your files never leave your computer. The free version needs no account and sends us nothing. With NomiPad Pro, NomiPad contacts nomipad.com only to sign in to your account and to renew a Pro license; the license itself is checked on your computer, so NomiPad works offline. Markdown images that point to the web load like they would in a browser. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
Does it have sync, plugins or a mobile app?
No, on purpose. NomiPad is a desktop notepad. There is no sync, plugin system, mobile app, AI feature or real-time collaboration, and none is planned for version 1.
Where do the speed numbers come from?
From NomiPad’s automated performance suite, which runs the app’s real file engine against generated fixtures. The numbers on this site were measured on an Apple M5 with the file already cached by the OS; they cover the file engine, not drawing the window. Slower disks and cold caches take longer on the first pass.