README

Manage TYPO3's default rich-text editor preset through Theme > RTE Manager. Configure fonts, colors, named sizes, SVG icons, custom styles and element defaults, with live previews before saving.

Composer package: kst3/rte-manager | Extension key: rte_manager

Requirements and installation

TYPO3 14.3.x–14.x, with Backend, Fluid and RTE CKEditor installed.
PHP 8.2 or newer within PHP 8, subject to the requirements of your TYPO3 installation and resolved dependencies.
Write access for the PHP process to fileadmin/rte_manager beneath the public document root, including Configuration, fonts and styles.

For Composer installations:

composer require kst3/rte-manager:^1.0
vendor/bin/typo3 extension:setup
vendor/bin/typo3 cache:flush

For Classic mode, install and activate rte_manager through TYPO3's Extension Manager after the TER release is available, then flush caches. Open Theme > RTE Manager, configure the desired features and save. Reopen any content editor that was already open to load the updated preset.

New installations start with TYPO3's default RTE configuration. No site-specific settings, fonts or icon collections ship with the extension.

Scope and permissions

The extension replaces the default RTE preset for the whole TYPO3 installation. All sites using that preset share the same settings; there is no per-site configuration. Explicitly selected alternative RTE presets keep their own editor configuration.

Generated CSS is automatically included in frontend pages through page.includeCSS.rte_manager_fonts and page.includeCSS.rte_manager_classes. Default font/color settings generate body rules, the root font size targets html, and element defaults target paragraphs, headings and links. These rules can affect the whole page, including content outside rich-text fields, and some use !important. An alternative editor preset does not isolate its frontend content from this CSS. Review the resulting frontend styling on every site.

Administrators can access the module. Non-admin users can be granted module access through their backend permissions; doing so allows them to change the shared preset, upload fonts and flush TYPO3 caches when saving. Grant this access only to users who should manage installation-wide presentation settings.

Using the module

The tabs are Fonts, Colors, Sizes, Icons, Styles and Defaults. Fonts, colors, sizes, icons and styles use collapsible entries. New entries open automatically; summaries show their names and key values.

Each entry and element default has a live preview. Click preview text to change the sample; hover or focus it to inspect CSS states. Samples are not saved. Previews use the manager's settings and selected uploads, without loading your frontend theme CSS. Saving is required to update the actual RTE and frontend.

Fonts

Enable the font selector and add a family name with a WOFF2, WOFF, TTF or OTF upload. The maximum is 10 MB per file, also subject to PHP upload limits. Choose the matching weight and normal/italic style. Variants share a family name; variable fonts can use the 100 900 weight range. Each family appears once in the RTE, alongside Default to reset the selection.

The separate default-font upload sets the base font. Font binaries are stored under generated filenames in fileadmin/rte_manager/fonts. Disabling the selector retains font definitions for existing content. Removing a row removes its CSS definition but does not delete its uploaded file. If validation fails, select new upload files again before retrying.

Colors

Enable the text-color palette and add unique names and three- or six-digit hex values, such as Brand Blue and #336699. An empty palette uses CKEditor's standard colors. Disabling the selector keeps saved definitions. The separate default color controls the base text color; leave it blank to retain existing CSS.

Fonts and colors become classes, for example <span class="color-brand-blue font-examplefont">Text</span>. Names are lowercased and spaces/punctuation become hyphens. Names that produce duplicate classes are rejected. Font variants share the family's class.

The RTE's free color picker and document-color suggestions are disabled so new selections use named classes. The color picker inside RTE Manager remains available for defining colors.

Sizes

Enable the font-size selector and add values such as 16, 18px, 1.25rem or 120%. Bare numbers mean pixels. Positive decimal values with px, rem, em, %, pt, vw, vh, vmin, vmax, ch and ex are supported.

Use an optional unique class name without the font-size- prefix: a size named large generates font-size-large. Without a name, 18px generates font-size-18px. Previously saved size-* classes remain supported. Blank rows are ignored and duplicate sizes or names are rejected. Default resets the selection. Disabling the selector keeps definitions for existing content.

The separate Default (html) size sets the root size and affects rem-based layout on the frontend. Leave it blank to retain the site's existing root size.

Icons

Enable icon selection to add the Insert icon picker. Add named SVGs with a viewBox, using paths, groups and basic shapes. SVG input is limited to 50 KB and sanitized. Use currentColor to inherit text color. Convert text, external references, gradients and effects to simple paths before importing.

Icons are decorative inline objects containing SVG markup. Removing an icon from the picker does not remove copies already inserted into content.

Styles and defaults

In Styles, supply a display name, HTML elements and CSS classes separated by spaces, without dots. Multiple elements create separate named dropdown entries. Blank rows are ignored; incomplete or invalid rows prevent saving. Select named fonts, colors and sizes or add CSS declarations and state blocks such as &:hover { text-decoration: underline; }. Imports and URLs are not allowed in these CSS fields. Rules defined here are generated for both editor and frontend; other theme-specific class rules must be supplied by your site.

The overwrite switch defaults to off: custom styles are appended to Lead, Small and Muted, and the standard format choices remain. When enabled, only custom styles appear, and the format dropdown offers Paragraph and Heading 1 through Heading 6. Select Paragraph to reset a heading.

In Defaults, configure fonts, colors, sizes and additional CSS for paragraphs, headings and links. Save newly added named entries before selecting them as defaults. Leave values blank to retain existing styling.

Existing inline formatting matching a configured font or color becomes classes when content is opened and saved; database records are not bulk-rewritten. Unrecognized pasted or legacy formatting is preserved. Renaming/removing a named entry does not rename classes in previously saved content.

Storage, saving and recovery

Paths below are relative to TYPO3's public document root, commonly public/:

Path under `fileadmin/rte_manager/`	Purpose
`Configuration/Generated.yaml`	Saved form settings and generated RTE preset
`Configuration/Generated.yaml.lock`	Coordinates concurrent saves; do not delete during a save
`fonts/`	Uploaded font files and generated `fonts.css`
`styles/classes.css`	Generated formatting and default rules

Saving generates all file contents before publishing, locks concurrent saves, replaces CSS files and publishes YAML last. If a write fails, files already replaced are restored to their previous contents; newly created files in that save are removed. Successful saves flush TYPO3 caches. Uploaded font binaries may remain after a failed save; they are not automatically deleted. Generated CSS filenames stay fixed rather than accumulating versions.

This rollback handles ordinary write failures. It is not a crash-proof filesystem transaction: a process interruption or a filesystem that also rejects rollback can still require recovery. The module explicitly reports a rollback failure.

If the managed preset cannot be created or loaded, TYPO3 starts with its core RTE preset. The manager displays an error and blocks saving while the load problem persists, preserving the existing preset rather than replacing it with empty settings. Check the YAML and directory permissions, or restore a known-good backup. Then flush TYPO3 caches and reopen the manager and content editor.

Back up the database and the entire fileadmin/rte_manager directory. Preserve this directory across deployments and extension updates. For recovery after an incomplete save, restore Generated.yaml, fonts/fonts.css and styles/classes.css from the same backup, together with any required font files. Do not include site-generated files in an extension release archive.

Support and release history

Contact Konstantin Stolzenburg with the extension, TYPO3 and PHP versions, steps to reproduce, and relevant error output. Remove private content and credentials from reports.

License and uploaded assets

Licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later; see LICENSE.txt. TYPO3, CKEditor and Symfony are supplied by the TYPO3 installation and retain their respective licenses; this package imports their APIs rather than bundling them.

Only upload fonts and SVGs for which you have the necessary web embedding and usage rights. A desktop font license may not permit web hosting. Uploading an asset does not change its license. Keep required attribution and license notices with your site.

kst3 / rte-manager

Package info

Security

Statistics