Originally this PR was going to introduce a `TextColorFeature`, but it
ended up becoming a more general-purpose `TextStateFeature`.
## Example of use:
```ts
import { defaultColors, TextStateFeature } from '@payloadcms/richtext-lexical'
TextStateFeature({
// prettier-ignore
state: {
color: {
...defaultColors,
// fancy gradients!
galaxy: { label: 'Galaxy', css: { background: 'linear-gradient(to right, #0000ff, #ff0000)', color: 'white' } },
sunset: { label: 'Sunset', css: { background: 'linear-gradient(to top, #ff5f6d, #6a3093)' } },
},
// You can have both colored and underlined text at the same time.
// If you don't want that, you should group them within the same key.
// (just like I did with defaultColors and my fancy gradients)
underline: {
'solid': { label: 'Solid', css: { 'text-decoration': 'underline', 'text-underline-offset': '4px' } },
// You'll probably want to use the CSS light-dark() utility.
'yellow-dashed': { label: 'Yellow Dashed', css: { 'text-decoration': 'underline dashed', 'text-decoration-color': 'light-dark(#EAB308,yellow)', 'text-underline-offset': '4px' } },
},
},
}),
```
Which will result in the following:

## Challenges & Considerations
Adding colors or styles in general to the Lexical editor is not as
simple as it seems.
1. **Extending TextNode isn't ideal**
- While possible, it's verbose, error-prone, and not composable. If
multiple features extend the same node, conflicts arise.
- That’s why we collaborated with the Lexical team to introduce [the new
State API](https://lexical.dev/docs/concepts/node-replacement)
([PR](https://github.com/facebook/lexical/pull/7117)).
2. **Issues with patchStyles**
- Some community plugins use `patchStyles`, but storing CSS in the
editor’s JSON has drawbacks:
- Style adaptability: Users may want different styles per scenario
(dark/light mode, mobile/web, etc.).
- Migration challenges: Hardcoded colors (e.g., #FF0000) make updates
difficult. Using tokens (e.g., "red") allows flexibility.
- Larger JSON footprint increases DB size.
3. **Managing overlapping styles**
- Some users may want both text and background colors on the same node,
while others may prefer mutual exclusivity.
- This approach allows either:
- Using a single "color" state (e.g., "bg-red" + "text-red").
- Defining separate "bg-color" and "text-color" states for independent
styling.
4. **Good light and dark modes by default**
- Many major editors (Google Docs, OneNote, Word) treat dark mode as an
afterthought, leading to poor UX.
- We provide a well-balanced default palette that looks great in both
themes, serving as a strong foundation for customization.
5. **Feature name. Why TextState?**
- Other names considered were `TextFormatFeature` and
`TextStylesFeature`. The term `format` in Lexical and Payload is already
used to refer to something else (italic, bold, etc.). The term `style`
could be misleading since it is never attached to the editorState.
- State seems appropriate because:
- Lexical's new state API is used under the hood.
- Perhaps in the future we'll want to make state features for other
nodes, such as `ElementStateFeature` or `RootStateFeature`.
Note: There's a bug in Lexical's `forEachSelectedTextNode`. When the
selection includes a textNode partially on the left, all state for that
node is removed instead of splitting it along the selection edge.
### What?
CheckListFeature is noted in the documentation. However, the package
uses ChecklistFeature
Rather than changing the package, this would be better.
### What
Before, richText docs were showing a feature name spelt as
`BlockQuoteFeature`.
### How?
However, the accurate spelling of the feature is `BlockquoteFeature`.
- Refactoring that simplifies finding things:
```md
## BEFORE
- Rich Text
- Overview
- Slate
- Lexical
- Lexical
- Overview
- Converters
- Migration
- Custom Features
## AFTER
- Rich Text
- Overview
- Converters
- Custom Features
- Migration
- Slate (legacy)
```
- It takes some of the spotlight away from Slate. Lexical is assumed as
the default editor and a banner at the beginning refers to the Slate
documentation.
- Various writing improvements.
PENDING:
- [ ] some 301 redirects needed
- `/docs/rich-text/lexical` to `/docs/rich-text/overview`
- `/docs/lexical/overview` to `/docs/rich-text/overview`
- `/docs/lexical/converters` to `/docs/rich-text/converters`
- `/docs/lexical/migration` to `/docs/rich-text/migration`