The short answer.
Fountain is a plain-text markup format for screenplays. You write in any text editor, and an app turns the file into a formatted script: a line beginning INT. or EXT. becomes a scene heading, a line in capitals above dialogue becomes a character cue, and Key: value lines at the top become the title page. Files end in .fountain. First Page opens them and exports to them.
What Fountain is
Fountain is a way of writing a screenplay as plain text. There are no margins to set and no styles to apply: you type the script, and a few simple conventions tell a program what each line is. The format is open and documented at fountain.io, and many screenwriting apps read and write it.
That makes a Fountain file portable. It opens in any text editor, it works with version control, and it does not depend on any one program staying around.
The basic syntax
| Element | How it is written | The rule |
|---|---|---|
| Scene heading | INT. ROUTE 9 DINER - NIGHT | Begins INT, EXT, EST, I/E or INT./EXT, with a blank line above and below |
| Action | Rain on the windows. | Any paragraph that is not another element |
| Character cue | JUNE | A line in capitals, with a blank line above |
| Dialogue | Last bus left at eleven. | The lines directly below a cue |
| Parenthetical | (beat) | A line in brackets inside a dialogue block |
| Transition | CUT TO: | Capitals ending in TO:, with a blank line above and below |
| Centered text | > THE END < | Between a greater-than and a less-than sign |
| Page break | === | Three or more equals signs on a line of their own |
Fountain also has marks for bold, italic and underline, for notes and for outline headings. The full list is in the specification.
Forcing an element
The rules above are guesses, and sometimes they guess wrong: a scene heading that does not start with INT or EXT, or a character named McCLANE who is not in capitals. A leading symbol overrides the guess: a period for a scene heading, ! for action, @ for a character and > for a transition.
The title page
A title page is a block of Key: value lines at the very top of the file, followed by a blank line. The usual keys are Title, Credit, Author, Source, Draft date and Contact. A value that needs more than one line is continued on indented lines beneath it. Title page covers what goes where.
Title: The Last Bus Credit: Written by Author: A. Writer
INT. ROUTE 9 DINER - NIGHT
Rain on the windows. One booth lit.
JUNE Last bus left at eleven.
THEO (quietly) I know. I watched it go.
In First Page
On the Mac, First Page opens .fountain and .txt files and turns them into screenplay elements: scene headings, action, character cues, dialogue, parentheticals, transitions, centered text and page breaks, with the title page fields. The web app imports .fountain files too.
A Fountain file opens as a First Page copy, saved in First Page’s own format, so the original is left as it was. To write a script out as Fountain, choose File, then Export as Fountain. The title page is written as Title, Credit, Author, Source, Draft date and Contact lines at the top.
Questions
- What is a Fountain file?
- A plain-text file, usually ending in .fountain, in which a screenplay is written with simple conventions instead of formatting. Any text editor can open it, and screenwriting apps that read Fountain turn it into a properly formatted script.
- How do you write dialogue in Fountain?
- Put the character's name in capitals on its own line, with a blank line above it, and write the dialogue on the lines directly below with no blank line between. A parenthetical goes on its own line in brackets between the two.
- How do you make a title page in Fountain?
- Start the file with Key: value lines, such as Title:, Credit:, Author:, Source:, Draft date: and Contact:, and follow them with a blank line. Indent the next line to give a value more than one line.
- How do you force an element in Fountain?
- Begin the line with a symbol: a period for a scene heading, an exclamation mark for action, an at sign for a character name, and a greater-than sign for a transition. You need it only when the automatic rules would guess wrong, such as a character name that is not in capitals.
- Can First Page open and save Fountain files?
- Yes. First Page opens .fountain and .txt files and turns them into screenplay elements. It opens them as a First Page copy, so the original file is left as it was. To get a Fountain file out, use File, then Export as Fountain.
