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.
Explore the Docs · Community Help · Roadmap · View G2 Reviews
Important
🎉 We've released 3.0! Star this repo or keep an eye on it to follow along.
Payload is the first-ever Next.js native CMS that can install directly in your existing /app folder. It's the start of a new era for headless CMS.
Benefits over a regular CMS
- Deploy anywhere, including serverless on Vercel for free
- Combine your front+backend in the same
/appfolder if you want - Don't sign up for yet another SaaS - Payload is open source
- Query your database in React Server Components
- Both admin and backend are 100% extensible
- No vendor lock-in
- Never touch ancient WP code again
- Build faster, never hit a roadblock
Quickstart
Before beginning to work with Payload, make sure you have all of the required software.
pnpx create-payload-app@latest
If you're new to Payload, you should start with the website template (pnpx create-payload-app@latest -t website). It shows how to do everything - including custom Rich Text blocks, on-demand revalidation, live preview, and more. It comes with a frontend built with Tailwind all in one /app folder.
One-click templates
Jumpstart your next project by starting with a pre-made template. These are production-ready, end-to-end solutions designed to get you to market as fast as possible.
🌐 Website
Build any kind of website, blog, or portfolio from small to enterprise. Comes with a fully functional front-end built with RSCs and Tailwind.
We're constantly adding more templates to our Templates Directory. If you maintain your own template, consider adding the payload-template topic to your GitHub repository for others to find.
✨ Features
- Completely free and open-source
- Next.js native, built to run inside your
/appfolder - Use server components to extend Payload UI
- Query your database directly in server components, no need for REST / GraphQL
- Fully TypeScript with automatic types for your data
- Auth out of the box
- Versions and drafts
- Localization
- Block-based layout builder
- Customizable React admin
- Lexical rich text editor
- Conditional field logic
- Extremely granular Access Control
- Document and field-level hooks for every action Payload provides
- Intensely fast API
- Highly secure thanks to HTTP-only cookies, CSRF protection, and more
🗒️ Documentation
Check out the Payload website to find in-depth documentation for everything that Payload offers.
Migrating from v2 to v3? Check out the 3.0 Migration Guide on how to do it.
🙋 Contributing
If you want to add contributions to this repository, please follow the instructions in contributing.md.
📚 Examples
The Examples Directory is a great resource for learning how to setup Payload in a variety of different ways, but you can also find great examples in our blog and throughout our social media.
If you'd like to run the examples, you can use create-payload-app to create a project from one:
npx create-payload-app --example example_name
You can see more examples at:
🔌 Plugins
Payload is highly extensible and allows you to install or distribute plugins that add or remove functionality. There are both officially-supported and community-supported plugins available. If you maintain your own plugin, consider adding the payload-plugin topic to your GitHub repository for others to find.
🚨 Need help?
There are lots of good conversations and resources in our Github Discussions board and our Discord Server. If you're struggling with something, chances are, someone's already solved what you're up against. 👇

