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JDarkRoom
A simple full-screen text editor

News
23rd June 2010 - Website
JDarkRoom has now had over 200,000 hits and over 75,000 downloads.
JDarkRoom has now had over 200,000 hits and over 75,000 downloads.
Community:
JDarkRoom has now been downloaded by thousands of people. See some of our JDarkRoom sightings.
JDarkRoom has now been downloaded by thousands of people. See some of our JDarkRoom sightings.
[ news archive ]
About JDarkRoom
I have released JDarkRoom under the umbrella of CodeAlchemists. Please donate if you find this software useful - it encourages me to add features and fix bugs.
The development of JDarkRoom was heavily inspired by DarkRoom, an implementation of WriteRoom (which is a Mac-only application) for Windows, but DarkRoom requires the Microsoft .NET framework. I decided to create my own implementation in Java for those that prefer not to use .NET.
Features
- Change your colour preferences, font and font size - via the settings screen (F6)
- JDarkRoom remembers the file that you were working on last time
- Support for central-european character sets
- JDarkRoom notifies you if you might have forgotten to save your changes
- Word/line/character count (Ctrl-L)
- Specify a file on the command-line for JDarkRoom to open it at startup
- Text antialiasing (where possible)
- Mouse-wheel scrolling
- Adjustable margins to fit any screen resolution (F9 to reset)
- Auto-save backups - so you never lose your work again
- Text search (F7 / Ctrl-F)
- A command-reminder strip can be displayed at the bottom of the screen
- Export to HTML using Markdown
- Goal feature - displays number of words required to reach a specific goal
- Inherit indentation
- Convert tabs to spaces
- Insert timestamp feature - with configurable timestamp format
- 'No Delete' mode
- 'Typewriter scrolling' mode (experimental)
- A choice of file encodings (default: UTF-8)
Screenshots
Donations
(paypal account not required)
Alternatively, we now accept Bitcoin donations:
Donate Bitcoins
Download
JDarkRoom version 15-beta
![]() | Windows (installer) | (283KB) |
![]() | Mac (zipped application) | (332KB) |
![]() ![]() | Mac / Linux (JAR file) | (216KB) |
JDarkRoom version 14 User Guide
Download (PDF, 96KB)
Download (PDF, 96KB)
Once the program has fully downloaded, you should be able to double-click on it and it should run straightaway. If you download the JAR version, an alternative is to open a command prompt, navigate to the directory where you downloaded the program, then type
java -jar JDarkRoom.jarMac users: You should be able to double-click the downloaded ZIP file, open the JDarkRoom directory, then drag JDarkRoom to your Applications folder, or to the Dock.
AsusTek Eee users: please see the tips section below.
Latest changes:
- Goal feature - displays number of words required to reach a specific goal
- Inherit indentation
- Convert tabs to spaces
- Insert timestamp feature - with configurable timestamp format
- 'No Delete' mode
- 'Typewriter scrolling' mode (experimental)
- A choice of file encodings (default: UTF-8)
- Many bug fixes and small tweaks
Tips
- AsusTek Eee users: Download the Linux version and follow the instructions below for Ubuntu Linux. JDarkRoom will work with Java 1.5, but you will need to specify
force.full.screen=true
as described below. ('suppress.native.look.and.feel=true' is not required) - Ubuntu Linux (or Xandros) users: JDarkRoom will work on Ubuntu/Xandros with Java 1.6. You will need to add the following line to your conf/jdarkroom.properties file (create one if it doesn't exist):
suppress.native.look.and.feel=true
If that doesn't work (and you're using Ubuntu Gutsy) try adding:force.full.screen=true
- To override the default 'conf' directory location, set the
JDARKROOM_CONF
environment variable to (for example)~/.jdarkroom
and JDarkRoom will look for jdarkroom.properties in that directory instead of the default location - To switch between JDarkRoom and another program, use Alt-Tab (on Windows) or Command (Apple)-Tab (on an Apple Mac).
- Another way to temporarily switch out of JDarkRoom is to try pressing Ctrl-K (may not work for all platforms).
- To upgrade from an old version of JDarkRoom, just copy the new JDarkRoom file you downloaded over the old one.
- Ctrl-backspace deletes the previous word
- Press F9 to automatically recalculate font size and margins to something appropriate to your screen resolution
- Any file specified on the command line will be opened at startup, e.g.
java -jar JDarkRoom.jar /My JDarkRoom Files/writing.txt
(as of version 12, they can contain spaces) - Backups (enabled by default) are auto-saved every 5 minutes. New files are saved to the directory shown on the settings screen and are called something like
.jdarkroom-3765.tmp
. Files that already have a filename are backed up in the same directory as the proper file, but are named.yourfilename.backup
(for example). The filenames are prefixed with a dot so that they become 'hidden' on some platforms - to see them, you may need to typels -a
- To enable Emacs-style key bindings, you must shutdown JDarkRoom, add the following to your 'keymap.conf' file (in $HOME/.jdarkroom directory):
Ctrl-F = move cursor left Ctrl-B = move cursor right Ctrl-N = move cursor up Ctrl-P = move cursor down Ctrl-A = move cursor to beginning of line Ctrl-E = move cursor to end of line
.. then start up JDarkRoom. - To have JDarkRoom export your file to HTML format, you can use the 'export via Markdown' feature. In the Settings screen (F6), change the export converter to 'Markdown', then use Ctrl-F2 to export your file - give the exported file a name like 'myfile.html'. The syntax used is called 'Markdown' - learn more at http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
If you have any more tips for using JDarkRoom, please email us.
Contact
If you find a bug with JDarkRoom, please report it via our bug tracker. It would help us greatly if you could attach debug information (JDarkRoom can automatically generate this for you via a button on the Settings screen (F6)) and a screenshot of the problem (again, automatically generated if you press Ctrl-F11).
JDarkRoom was written by Duncan Jauncey. To contact the author please email:

Old Versions
- Version 1 (7th July 2006)
- Version 2 (23rd July 2006)
- Version 3 (27th August 2006)
- Version 4 (3rd September 2006)
- Version 5 (25th September 2006)
- Version 6 (1st November 2006)
- Version 7 (7th January 2007)
- Version 8 (21st January 2007)
- Version 9 (8th May 2007)
- Version 10 (7th July 2007)
- Version 11 (9th Sept 2007)
- Version 12 (21st Jan 2008) - JAR, Windows (EXE), Mac
- Version 13-beta (21st May 2008) - JAR, Windows (EXE)
- Version 14 (15th May 2009) - JAR, Windows (EXE), Mac (ZIP)
Copyright (c) 2006-2010 Duncan Jauncey.