10 Code and Syntax Highlighter WordPress Plugins

We all know how bad code snippets look when they viewed in plain text without indentation and color highlighting. WordPress does have a built in ‘<code>’ tag but it is pretty useless. It indents the source codes but does not have any support for programming language recognition and syntax highlighting. Without colors and proper indentation, the code snippets will look very dull and unattractive for readers.

To solve this, developers have built their own syntax highlighter plugins for WordPress. fortystones uses Syntax Highlighter plugin to highlight its code snippets. Below, I have listed ten syntax highlighter plugins you can choose from. Usually most plugins support a range of programming language but if you want highlighting for some specific language, go through their documentation for more details.

WP-SynHighlight

WP-SynHighlight is a WordPress plugin that allows easy syntax highlighting of source code you post in your blog. It works much like any other BBCode tag. It highlights everything you put between codesyntax BB code tags. Plugin provides syntax highlighting for about 116 programming languages via Geshi Engine.

Compatible up to: 3.0.5

WordPress Plugin Page

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Developer Formatter

This plugin do use of GeSHi highlight system, so you will have support for more then 110 languages, including PHP, ASP, Html, JavaScript, CSS, Java, Python, Delphi, C++, C, Visual Basic and much more.

Compatible up to: 3.2.1

WordPress Plugin Page

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WP Chili

Easy code highlighting for WordPress with Chili.

Compatible up to: 3.0.5

WordPress Plugin Page

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CodeColorer

CodeColorer is a syntax highlighting plugin which allows to insert code snippets into blog posts. Supports color themes, code in RSS, comments.

Compatible up to: 3.1.4

WordPress Plugin Page

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Syntax Highlighter MT

This plugin works like many of the others that enable the use of the Syntax Highlighter tool. Dynamic plugin loading is now available as part of the Syntax Highlighter tool, making plugin configuration obsolete.

Compatible up to: 3.1.4

WordPress Plugin Page

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WP-Code

Code highlight, supporting a wide range of popular languages. Comparing to other plugins of the same kind, it’s a mini one, but still support more than 40 developing languages.

Compatible up to: 3.0.5

WordPress Plugin Page

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jQuery.Syntax

jQuery.Syntax is an extremely fast and lightweight syntax highlighter. It has dynamic loading of syntax source files and integrates cleanly using CSS or modelines. It supports a large number of different programming languages.

Compatible up to: 3.0.5

WordPress Plugin Page

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JUSH JavaScript Syntax Highlighter

JavaScript Syntax Highlighter can be used for client-side syntax highlighting of following languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, HTTP and SMTP protocol, php.ini and Apache config.

Compatible up to: 3.2.1

WordPress Plugin Page

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WP-Syntax Effects

Adds a simple mouseover-effect for WP-Syntax. Scaled the “Sourcecode”-Frame of the sourcecode width. Check the Screenshots for more details.

Compatible up to: 3.1.4

WordPress Plugin Page

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Syntax Highlighter and Code Colorizer for WordPress

This is a wordpress syntax highlighting plugin. It is simple and probably one of the best syntax highlighters in the market. Supports a lot of languages including Bash/shell C#, C++, CSS, Delphi, Diff, Groovy, JavaScript, Java, Perl, PHP, Plain Text, Python, Ruby, Scala etc.

WordPress Plugin Page

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