Screenwriting software that sets the page the way a script is read.

A page is a minute

The screenplay grid is not a house style. Twelve-point Courier at one line of leading per line of type is what makes a page of script run about a minute of screen time. That is why a reader can weigh a scene by looking at it, and why a hundred-and-ten-page script means something to everyone who picks it up. Get the grid wrong and you lose the one measurement screenwriting has.

Tabularia's Basic Screenplay starter opens on that grid, correct from the first slug line — margins, leading, hyphenation off, page numbers where a reader looks for them — so the timing you read off the page is the timing the page actually has. It stays correct while you write, rather than being applied to the script later.

That is the part you should stop having to think about. What the software can then be about is the script itself.

Nothing to reformat

The six elements a script is built from — Scene Heading, Action, Character, Parenthetical, Dialogue, Transition — are paragraph styles here, each already sitting at the indent a reader recognizes a script by. You choose what a line is, and it goes where it belongs. There are no tab stops to count. Nothing needs correcting on a pass afterwards, and a paste that brings its own formatting cannot leave dialogue at the wrong measure.

The title page is set in the same typewriter face as the script, not the display serif a book uses. A title page that looks like a novel is the first thing a reader notices. It is also the first reason to stop reading.

Moving through a script

A project holds one continuous manuscript rather than a file for every scene, so a screenwriter moves through the whole script in one place. The outline lists the scenes by their slug lines, and New scene at its foot starts the next one with a fresh slug line. The minimap shows where you are. Narrowing the working scope brings a single sequence into view without splitting the script apart. Timelines map character arcs and plot turns across the script, and a point anchor ties a note to the exact line that prompted it.

A project knows it is a script. Chapters, footnotes, and drop caps step out of the way, and they are still there if you want one.

Scene numbers and script reports

Turn on scene numbers and each slug line carries its number in both margins, on the page and in the PDF you send. The outline shows the same numbers, and Fountain export writes them where Fountain keeps them. They count themselves: add a scene in the middle of the second act and everything after it moves up one.

Script Reports read the pages as they stand:

• every scene, with the page it starts on and its length in eighths;
• every speaking part, with how many speeches and lines it has and in how many scenes;
• every location, and how much of the script happens there;
• a running time, at a minute a page.

Pick any row and you are on that line of the script.

Versions and notes

Alternative drafts hold a second version of a passage, a scene, or the whole script, so a rewrite does not overwrite the take it came from. Switching between them is a click, and merging one back shows the changes as a redline. Snapshots preserve a revision point before a large pass. Review Changes and review comments sit beside the passage they concern, so a producer's or a collaborator's notes are read against the words rather than in a separate document.

Taking a script out

Tabularia is not a production-document tool. Its scene numbers follow the script rather than lock to it, so there are no A-numbers and no locked pages, and it does not generate sides or breakdowns. It is where the script gets written and revised. The draft leaves in these forms:

• HTML
• DOCX
• EPUB
• PDF
• Markdown
• plain text
• Fountain
• Final Draft
• Project archive
• print

Getting started

The script stays on your own device while you write, and Tabularia is currently in Released and maintained. A Cloud subscription adds backup, sync across devices, and sharing a script for review, and either plan can publish your work as a readable web page; the Pricing page lists current plan limits. The feature page carries the full feature and storage detail, and the guide walks through the Studio.