Are you looking for the best rich text editor with a page break feature? Froala and TinyMCE, two leading rich text editors, handle this critical feature a bit differently. In this comparison, we’ll examine how each editor implements page breaks, evaluate their strengths and limitations, and help you determine which solution best fits your project requirements.

What Are Page Breaks and Why They Matter

Page breaks are essential formatting elements that allow users to divide documents into separate pages, improving readability and professional presentation for print output.

Definition and Use Cases

A page break is a formatting element that forces content to continue on a new page in a document. This is essential for applications that generate printable or exportable documents where layout control matters. Page breaks are commonly used in:

• Invoice and report generation systems
• Academic papers and research documents
• Legal documents and contracts
• Multi-page forms
• Content management systems with print functionality

Importance in Document-Heavy Applications

For applications dealing with structured, professional documents, page breaks aren’t optional—they’re fundamental. Without proper page break support, users lose control over document layout, leading to unprofessional output and poor user experience. This is why evaluating page break implementations is crucial when selecting a rich text editor.

How Page Breaks Work in Froala & TinyMCE

Froala and TinyMCE implement the page break feature through a dedicated plugin.

The plugin is enabled and included in the toolbar configuration by default.

How Page Breaks Work in Froala

When Froala’s Page Break plugin is active, users see a page break button that inserts a <div class="fr-page-break"></div> element into the document. This approach uses CSS styling to render the visual representation of page breaks in the editor.

How Page Breaks Work in TinyMCE

When the TinyMCE “pagebreak” plugin is active, users see a page break button that inserts a <!-- pagebreak --> HTML comment into the document. Using HTML comments keeps the markup clean, but it has some drawbacks:

• Less visual prominence in the editor compared to Froala
• Styling options are more limited out-of-the-box
• Requires custom CSS to render page breaks visually during print
• HTML comment approach may be stripped by some content filters

Features and Capabilities

	Froala V4.7.1	TinyMCE V8.2.3
HTML Representation	<div class="fr-page-break"></div>	<!-- pagebreak -->
Visual Representation
Drag and Drop Reposition	Yes	Yes
Insert inside Tables	No	Yes
Toolbar Integration	Simple one-click insertion via the toolbar button
Undo/Redo Support	Full support for undoing and redoing page break insertions

Which Plugin is More Developer Friendly?

Selecting a rich text editor involves more than just features—developer experience matters significantly. Let’s conduct a detailed technical comparison of Froala and TinyMCE’s page break implementations to help you assess which aligns better with your development workflow.

Basic Setup and Configuration

Both editors require initialization, but their approaches differ in clarity and complexity.

Froala’s Initialization:

new FroalaEditor('textarea', {

  pluginsEnabled: ['pageBreak'],

  toolbarButtons: ['pageBreak']

})

Froala uses a direct constructor pattern. You instantiate a new FroalaEditor object, passing your target element selector as the first parameter and a configuration object as the second. The configuration explicitly declares which plugins to enable (pluginsEnabled) and which buttons to display in the toolbar (toolbarButtons). This approach is straightforward and self-documenting—developers immediately understand that the page break plugin is active and visible.

TinyMCE’s Initialization:

tinymce.init({

  selector: 'textarea',  // change this value according to your html

  plugins: 'pagebreak',

  toolbar: 'pagebreak'

});

TinyMCE uses a static initialization method. The tinymce.init() function accepts a single configuration object where you specify the target selector, plugins to load, and toolbar items. While equally straightforward, TinyMCE’s method is slightly less object-oriented, treating the editor as a singleton service rather than an instantiated object.

Developer Perspective: Froala’s object-oriented approach is more intuitive for developers working with multiple editor instances, while TinyMCE’s method works well for simpler implementations. However, both are easy to understand and implement.

Configuration Options

Configuration options reveal how each editor allows developers to customize behavior. The differences here are notable.

Froala’s Options:

exportPageBreak: Boolean (Default: true)

Froala provides a single, focused configuration option: exportPageBreak. When set to false, page breaks are excluded from exported content across all formats (PDF, Word, Print). This is a clean, intention-driven approach. If you need to control page break export behavior, this option does exactly that without additional complexity.

TinyMCE’s Options:

TinyMCE offers two configuration options, providing finer-grained control:

pagebreak_separator: String (Default: ‘<!– pagebreak –>’)

This option allows you to customize the HTML comment marker used to represent page breaks. By default, TinyMCE uses <!– pagebreak –>, but developers can modify this to any custom string. This is useful when integrating with systems that expect different delimiters.

pagebreak_split_block: Boolean (Default: undefined)

When enabled, this option improves the user experience by making it easier to split block-level elements (like paragraphs or lists) with a page break insertion. This prevents awkward formatting where a page break might conflict with element boundaries.

Developer Perspective: TinyMCE offers more granular configuration options, giving developers greater flexibility for specialized use cases. However, Froala’s simpler option set may be preferable for projects that don’t require extensive customization. The choice depends on your project’s specific requirements.

Event Handling and Hooks

Event systems allow developers to execute custom logic when specific actions occur. This is where the implementations diverge significantly.

Froala’s Event System:

pageBreak.beforeInsert()

Froala provides a dedicated event: pageBreak.beforeInsert(). This event fires immediately before a page break is inserted into the editor. Developers can attach listeners to this event to run validation, logging, or modification logic.

Example implementation:

editor.on('pageBreak.beforeInsert', function(e) {

  console.log('A page break is about to be inserted');

  // Perform validation or custom logic here

});

This is direct and purpose-built for page break operations, making the developer’s intent clear.

TinyMCE’s Event System:

TinyMCE doesn’t provide page break-specific events. Instead, developers must use the broader command event system to intercept page break operations:

tinymce.init({

  selector: 'textarea',

  setup: function(editor) {

    // Before any command executes

    editor.on('BeforeExecCommand', function(e) {

      if (e.command === 'mcePageBreak') {

        // Logic before page break command execution

        console.log('Page break command about to execute');

      }

    });

    

    // After any command executes

    editor.on('ExecCommand', function(e) {

      if (e.command === 'mcePageBreak') {

        // Logic after page break command execution

        console.log('Page break command executed');

      }

    });

  }

});

TinyMCE’s approach requires developers to:

1. Use the setup function during initialization
2. Listen for generic BeforeExecCommand and ExecCommand events
3. Check the e.command property to identify if the event relates to a page break (‘mcePageBreak’)

This works reliably but requires more boilerplate code and conditional logic compared to Froala’s dedicated event.

Developer Perspective: Froala provides a cleaner, more intuitive event model with dedicated hooks. TinyMCE’s generic command system is powerful and flexible but requires more code to achieve the same result. For developers who need to frequently intercept page break operations, Froala has a clear advantage here.

Methods and Command Execution

Programmatically inserting page breaks is a common requirement. The two editors provide different mechanisms.

Froala’s Method:

editor.pageBreak.insert();

Froala exposes a direct method on the editor instance. Calling editor.pageBreak.insert() immediately inserts a page break at the cursor position. This is intuitive—the method name clearly indicates the action being performed.

TinyMCE’s Command:

tinymce.activeEditor.execCommand('mcePageBreak');

TinyMCE uses a command execution pattern. The execCommand() method is a generic function that accepts a command string (‘mcePageBreak’). TinyMCE maintains a registry of available commands, and mcePageBreak is the registered command identifier for page break insertion.

Detailed explanation of the TinyMCE approach:

• tinymce.activeEditor refers to the currently active editor instance in the DOM
• execCommand('mcePageBreak') queues the page break command for execution
• The command is processed through TinyMCE’s command pipeline, potentially triggering event listeners

Developer Perspective: Froala’s approach is more explicit and self-documenting. A developer reading editor.pageBreak.insert() immediately understands the action. TinyMCE’s command string approach (‘mcePageBreak’) requires familiarity with the command registry or documentation lookup. For new developers, Froala’s method is more discoverable and easier to understand.

Summary: Developer Friendliness Comparison

Recommendation: If developer experience is a priority, particularly for teams working with page breaks frequently, Froala provides a more intuitive and straightforward API. Its dedicated methods and events reduce the need for conditional logic and command registry lookups. TinyMCE, however, remains a solid choice for developers who value flexibility and are comfortable with command-based architectures. Your choice should align with your team’s familiarity with these patterns and your project’s complexity requirements.

Scenarios Favoring Froala Over TinyMCE

Choose Froala if your project exhibits these characteristics:

• Print-Heavy Applications: If your users frequently generate printed documents or PDFs with precise page layouts, Froala’s <div class="fr-page-break"></div> approach provides superior CSS styling control and visual prominence in the editor. Users see exactly how page breaks will appear in the final output.
• Complex Document Workflows: Applications requiring intricate document structures—such as legal document generators, report builders, or academic paper editors—benefit from Froala’s robust page break implementation. The ability to drag-and-drop reposition page breaks streamlines the editing experience.
• Branded Document Output: When documents must match corporate branding or specific visual styling, Froala’s CSS-based approach allows you to customize page break appearance (colors, icons, borders) more intuitively than HTML comments.
• Object-Oriented Development Teams: Developers familiar with object-oriented patterns will find Froala’s instantiation model (new FroalaEditor()) more natural. This is especially valuable for teams building applications with multiple editor instances or complex state management.
• Frequent Programmatic Manipulation: If your application needs to regularly insert, validate, or track page breaks through code, Froala’s dedicated methods (editor.pageBreak.insert()) and events (pageBreak.beforeInsert()) reduce boilerplate and improve code maintainability.
• Export Control Requirements: Projects requiring granular control over whether page breaks appear in exported content benefit from Froala’s exportPageBreak configuration option, which cleanly handles this common requirement.

In summary: Froala excels in professionally managed document workflows where visual control and developer ergonomics matter most. Let’s try Froala Now.