The Review Vault

iText: Solid, Lightweight, Free Word Processing for the Classic Mac OS, OS X, and Windows

- 2007.08.03

For quite sometime, I was searching for one word processor that would work on System 7 as well as OS X. I should also mention that I wanted this to be of the freeware persuasion.

Why only one word processor, you ask? I didn't want to get caught up in the game of translation tag.

We've all played the game at some point. You write something in one word processor, then try to convert it over to another word processor, and bang, it fails or severely messes up the formatting. I'm happy to say I've finally found a word processor that meets these requirements - and quite nicely at that.

iText from Michiaki Yamashita is a pleasure to use. It has enough basic features to make it extremely useful, and it can be upgraded to iTextPro for a small fee, giving you even more advanced features.

iText is very user-friendly and well laid-out. But the lure of it for me was the fact it covers a wide span of Mac OSes. iText works with any Macintosh that runs System 7.1 on up through "Tiger" (OS X 10.4). I've used iText on my Classic II, transferred the file to floppy, copied it over to my Mac mini with nary a problem!

iText can import and export RTF (Rich-Text Format) files. Not only does it cover the Mac side, it covers the Windows side as well. iText runs on Windows 95 and up. It's a great, free way to ensure your documents will come out as expected without having to play translation tag.

iText on Mac OS X

Other iText Programs

There are also other products he offers on his website. The layout of the site could be better, as it gets confusing knowing what to look for. Let me break it down for you - here what he offers:

iText is the flagship product. It's free and has versions for Classic Mac OS, OS X, and Windows 95 through XP. Then there's iTextPro, which expands upon iText by adding more features. iTextPro is shareware ($15), and there isn't a Windows version. You can purchase a key and enter it into iText to turn it into iTextPro.

Then there's LightWayText. It also runs on Classic Mac OS, OS X, and Windows. It's on the same playing field as Word. It's shareware ($15). I should also mention that when you pay the $15 shareware fee, it covers all versions and updates for life. That's a heck of a deal!

A new product that's only available on the Mac is iTextExpress. iTextExpress is only available for OS X users, limited to Panther (10.3) and Tiger (10.4), whereas iText, iTextPro and LightWayText can run on Puma (10.1) up through Tiger.

iTextExpress is essentially a light word processor that's a little step above TextEdit in OS X. iTextExpress is freeware.

The programs are all cross-compatible with each other.

Solid, Lightweight Software

The programs are superbly robust. They don't eat up hard drive space. They pack a heavy punch in a light package. In the case of iText for Classic Mac OS, iText only takes up a little over 2 MB of hard drive space, and it's light on it's memory usage. On my Classic II, which has 4 MB of RAM, it uses a little over 2 MB with virtual memory turned off. While it's not the lightest, it's by no means a hog.

iText for the Classic Mac OS

Since I've begun using my recently acquired eMate 300 for writing, I've exported everything from NewtonWorks to my Classic II. iText is the only word processor that doesn't screw up the articles I've written.

The only negative thing I've found with iText is that it isn't Universal binary. Load times on an Intel Mac can be somewhat painful without a RAM upgrade, especially if you have 512 MB or less. But this is petty in the scheme of it all.

I cannot recommend iText enough. Check out the website to learn more about what each program features. Whether your flavor is Classic or OS X on the Mac side - or Windows 95 on up to XP - you'll like what iText brings to the table. It's a stable, easy-to-use, lightweight, yet full-featured word processor that will do the job nicely!

Drop me a line at thomas (at) lowendmac (dot) com and let me know what you think of iText.

Link: iText

Go to the Welcome to Macintosh review index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac IIfx, introduced 1990.03.19. This 'wicked fast' 40 MHz Mac trumped the 33 MHz DOS world.
February 14 in LEM history: 98: A perfect compact Mac - 00: Extended computer warranties worth the cost? - Making your PC work with your Mac - 01: Customize Microsoft Word - 02: Quadra revives a passion for computing - 03: Real world performance - DIY Pismo screen replacement - Best Mac for writing - 03: Fastest browser on the Mac - 06: 15" MacBook Pro - Impressions of a newly acquired Lisa - Finding and using free WiFi - Apple should liberate OS 9 - 07: New Mac mini cheaper than upgrading a Power Mac - 08: Falling in love with OS X
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

This article copyright ©2007 by Tommy Thomas. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.