While Ted is small in size, it is a full-featured and fast word processor, making it ideal for older computers and embedded systems.

It saves files in a Microsoft Word-compatible rich text format, and has support for headers, footers, tables, different fonts, text alignment, and other features common in word processors.

The built-in spellchecker is not automatic, whereby incorrect words are not highlighted when typing.

Until version 2.17, Ted used the Motif toolkit exclusively for widget rendering.

The Ted package had been included in Debian ("etch"),[4] in Ubuntu up to Hardy Heron,[5][6] and Gentoo Linux, and is available from the official homepage in various package formats.