What file extension should be used for Fountain files?
Fountain files are UTF-8 text files with the extension.fountain, .txt, or .spmd.
FAQ
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I like to put two spaces after periods. Because it is the right way to do things. Don’t mess with me on this. I will cut you.
You are among friends. Fountain respects whatever your spacebar habits may be.
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What exactly is the relationship between Fountain and Markdown?
Fountain, formerly known as Screenplay Markdown, is inspired by John Gruber’s super cool Markdown language, and uses some of its conventions, but Fountain is not Markdown. There’s no use in converting Fountain to Markdown or the reverse. Markdown simply pointed the way to a rich but simple experience of creating beautiful, functional documents using only…
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Why should Fountain support a title page?
One goal of Fountain is that you could write an entire screenplay with it, and easily export and/or print something that a colleague could read and provide feedback. A simple title page with contact information is required for this. The title page, like the rest of Fountain, is designed to read well in raw text…
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What about pagination?
Most screenplay file formats do not store pagination, except for explicit page breaks. Instead, the apps perform the pagination on-the-fly as you work. Fountain follows this standard, and only expects pagination on WYSIWYG preview or formatted output.
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Don’t Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Celtx, and many other screenwriting apps import and export plain text already?
Yes, but this isn’t enough. There’s no support for text styles, dual dialogue, or centered text. These things are silently stripped out and lost. Fountain is robust enough to be the primary working document format for your screenplay, not something you export to and lose a bunch of your work.
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Syntax? I’m a screenwriter Jim, not a nerd.
Fountain is designed to “just work” if you simply typed some text that looked like a screenplay. You would only need to learn the syntax if you wanted to take advantage of the “power user” features, such as “forced” formatting, or emphasis. When you first look at a Fountain document in a text editor, you’ll see some…
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Why Fountain?
Once you start working with plain text documents, you realize the power of their infinite portability and compatibility. You can edit them anywhere, on just about any device, and never break anything. It’s addicting. The popular Markdown syntax is valuable for text editing because it allows you to add formatting while maintaining this portability and compatibility. You…
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How Does Fountain Work?
Fountain is not an app. It’s not even really a file format. It’s a simple set of straightforward rules for writing a screenplay in plain text. If you opened a text editing app, or even email, and started typing something that looked like a screenplay, chances are, you’re using Fountain. That’s Fountain. When you’re ready to share…