Editor Improvements: Smooth Caret Animation and New Selection Behavior

Bulat Davletov

We’re continuing to modernize our IDEs, and in this update we’ve refreshed something you interact with constantly – the editor. These changes are designed to provide improved comfort, a cleaner look, and a more enjoyable experience during the hours you spend coding. We want to make the editor easier on the eyes, help you stay productive, and add a bit of fun variety.

What’s new

• New selection behavior: Selection now only highlights the actual text, not the blank space at the end of a line.
• New smooth caret movement: A new animation makes caret jumps easier to follow. This is a long-awaited request from our users.
• Smooth blinking and rounded caret: The editor now has a more modern look and feel, matching the recently introduced Islands UI theme.

New selection behavior

When working with code, you often have to select multiple lines at once, and it is important to be able to see what is included in the selection. The editor now highlights only the characters you actually selected, rather than the entirety of each line. This reduces the amount of blank blue space, making the selection itself clearer. It also removes ambiguity, letting you see exactly which characters are selected.

New smooth caret movement

This one has been on our wishlist for a long time. Like us, you work in the text editor every day, constantly navigating and modifying code. One way we’re making this experience more enjoyable is by introducing smooth, animated caret movement. You might not realize you need this until you try it. It enhances comfort and helps you stay oriented in your work, making the editor feel both more functional and visually pleasing.

At the same time, we recognize that excessive caret animations may give the impression of a delay when you’re typing and feel slow and unresponsive. We believe that typing must feel instantaneous, and we wanted to make sure to get it right. It is a significant challenge to introduce animations without breaking habits.

That’s why we built our own mode for caret movement – Snappy – which you won’t find in other editors. In this mode, the caret lands almost immediately where it should be and then settles with a smooth stop. The result feels quick yet smooth.

If you prefer clearly visible motion, there’s also Gliding mode, where the caret moves smoothly, making jumps easy to follow with your eyes. This option is similar to what you see in other popular text editors.

You can switch between movement modes using the Use smooth caret movement dropdown in Settings | Editor | General | Appearance. You can revert to the old behavior simply by disabling it.

Smooth blinking and rounded caret

We’ve also given the caret a new look. Its smooth blinking feels calmer and more modern. As a final touch, we rounded it to match rounded elements throughout the IDE in the Islands UI.

How to try it

These new features are all available in the latest early access builds of JetBrains IDEs, meaning there’s still time for us to adjust them based on your feedback. Give them a try and let us know what you think!

Try them in the IntelliJ IDEA EAP today

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