Building Rich Text Editors with React – Tiptap UI Components

Description:

Tiptap UI Components is a collection of React components and templates for building rich text editor interfaces on top of the headless Tiptap framework.

The library provides ready-to-use editor templates and modular components that can be customized to match any design system.

Features

• 🛠️ CLI tool for scaffolding editor setups
• 📦 Modular, composable React components
• 🎨 Minimal styling for easy customization
• 🌗 Light/Dark mode support
• 📝 Rich text formatting tools
• 🖼️ Image upload and link editing
• 🔄 Undo/redo functionality
• 🧩 Node-based editor architecture

Common Use Cases

• Content management systems – Quickly implement rich text editing in admin panels
• Collaborative editing apps – Build real-time document editors with custom UI
• Developer documentation tools – Create code-friendly editors with syntax highlighting
• Custom form builders – Add rich text fields to complex forms

Installation and Setup

Install the CLI tool globally:

npm install -g @tiptap/cli

Scaffold a new editor project:

npx @tiptap/cli init

Add individual components to an existing project:

npx @tiptap/cli add image-upload
npx @tiptap/cli add link-popover

Core Components

UI Components

• HeadingButton – Dropdown for heading levels
• HighlightPopover – Text highlighting controls
• ImageUploadButton – File upload handler
• LinkPopover – URL input and validation

Node Components

• CodeBlock – Syntax-highlighted code editor
• Image – Responsive image handling
• List – Ordered/unordered list management

Primitives

• Toolbar – Container for editor controls
• DropdownMenu – Customizable menu component
• Popover – Floating UI element

Technical Implementation

The library uses Tiptap’s headless editor core with React for UI components. Key technical aspects:

• Built with TypeScript for type safety
• Uses ProseMirror under the hood for document model
• CSS-in-JS styling with minimal defaults
• Modular architecture allows tree-shaking
• Works with React 18+ and Next.js

Performance considerations:

• Virtualized rendering for large documents
• Debounced updates for frequent changes
• Isolated component states for better performance

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I use these components with Vue.js?
A: No, these are specifically React components. Tiptap offers separate Vue integrations.

Q: How do I customize the toolbar styling?
A: Each component accepts className props and uses CSS variables for easy theming.

Q: Is there mobile touch support?
A: Yes, all interactive components include touch event handling.

Q: Can I use this with existing Tiptap instances?
A: Absolutely – components work with any Tiptap editor instance.