Rich Text Processing

An overview of Qt’s rich text processing, editing and display features.

The Scribe framework provides a set of classes for reading and manipulating structured rich text documents. Unlike previous rich text support in Qt, the new classes are centered around the QTextDocument class rather than raw textual information. This enables the developer to create and modify structured rich text documents without having to prepare content in an intermediate markup format.

The information within a document can be accessed via two complementary interfaces: A cursor-based interface is used for editing, and a read-only hierarchical interface provides a high level overview of the document structure. The main advantage of the cursor-based interface is that the text can be edited using operations that mimic a user’s interaction with an editor, without losing the underlying structure of the document. The read-only hierarchical interface is most useful when performing operations such as searching and document export.

This document is divided up into chapters for convenient reference:

• Rich Text Document Structure outlines the different kinds of elements in a QTextDocument , and describes how they are arranged in a document structure.

• The QTextCursor Interface explains how rich text documents can be edited using the cursor-based interface.

• Document Layouts briefly explains the role of document layouts.

• Common Rich Text Editing Tasks examines some common tasks that involve reading or manipulating rich text documents.

• Advanced Rich Text Processing examines advanced rich text editing tasks.

• Supported HTML Subset lists the HTML tags supported by QTextDocument .

Rich Text Processing APIs

Qt provides an extensive collection of classes for parsing, rendering manipulating and editing rich text.

PySide2.QtGui.QAbstractTextDocumentLayout	The QAbstractTextDocumentLayout class is an abstract base class used to implement custom layouts for QTextDocuments.
PySide2.QtGui.QFont	The QFont class specifies a query for a font used for drawing text.
PySide2.QtGui.QSyntaxHighlighter	The QSyntaxHighlighter class allows you to define syntax highlighting rules, and in addition you can use the class to query a document’s current formatting or user data.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextCursor	The QTextCursor class offers an API to access and modify QTextDocuments.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextDocument	The QTextDocument class holds formatted text.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextDocumentFragment	The QTextDocumentFragment class represents a piece of formatted text from a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextDocumentWriter	The QTextDocumentWriter class provides a format-independent interface for writing a QTextDocument to files or other devices.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextLength	The QTextLength class encapsulates the different types of length used in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextFormat	The QTextFormat class provides formatting information for a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextCharFormat	The QTextCharFormat class provides formatting information for characters in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextBlockFormat	The QTextBlockFormat class provides formatting information for blocks of text in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextListFormat	The QTextListFormat class provides formatting information for lists in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextFrameFormat	The QTextFrameFormat class provides formatting information for frames in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextTableFormat	The QTextTableFormat class provides formatting information for tables in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextImageFormat	The QTextImageFormat class provides formatting information for images in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextTableCellFormat	The QTextTableCellFormat class provides formatting information for table cells in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextInlineObject	The QTextInlineObject class represents an inline object in a QAbstractTextDocumentLayout and its implementations.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextLayout	The QTextLayout class is used to lay out and render text.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextLine	The QTextLine class represents a line of text inside a QTextLayout.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextList	The QTextList class provides a decorated list of items in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextObject	The QTextObject class is a base class for different kinds of objects that can group parts of a QTextDocument together.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextBlockGroup	The QTextBlockGroup class provides a container for text blocks within a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextFrame	The QTextFrame class represents a frame in a QTextDocument.
QTextFrame.iterator	The iterator class provides an iterator for reading the contents of a QTextFrame.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextBlockUserData	The QTextBlockUserData class is used to associate custom data with blocks of text.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextBlock	The QTextBlock class provides a container for text fragments in a QTextDocument.
QTextBlock.iterator	The QTextBlock::iterator class provides an iterator for reading the contents of a QTextBlock.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextFragment	The QTextFragment class holds a piece of text in a QTextDocument with a single QTextCharFormat.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextOption	The QTextOption class provides a description of general rich text properties.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextTableCell	The QTextTableCell class represents the properties of a cell in a QTextTable.
PySide2.QtGui.QTextTable	The QTextTable class represents a table in a QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtWidgets.QPlainTextDocumentLayout	The QPlainTextDocumentLayout class implements a plain text layout for QTextDocument.
PySide2.QtWidgets.QPlainTextEdit	The QPlainTextEdit class provides a widget that is used to edit and display plain text.
PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextBrowser	The QTextBrowser class provides a rich text browser with hypertext navigation.
PySide2.QtWidgets.QTextEdit	The QTextEdit class provides a widget that is used to edit and display both plain and rich text.