Contextual screenwriting environment that leverages the speed of Sublime Text and the readability of Fountain, enabling the user to just write.
Inspired by Jonathan Poritsky's Fountain for Sublime Text package.
Compatible with Sublime Text 2 and 3. Optimized for Sublime Text 3.
Help documentation can also be found within Sublime Text at: Tools > Fountainhead > Help
.
Note: Even though Sublime Text 3 is in beta, it is extremely stable and is better than 2 in almost every way.
Fountainhead supports the open source dyslexia typeface, OpenDyslexic. The OpenDyslexic monospaced (and proportional) font can be downloaded here: https://opendyslexic.org
Instructions on how to install fonts are located in Settings - Installing Fonts.
John August gives a great explanation on the benefits of writing in Fountain.
- Download and install Sublime Text.
- Install Package Control.
- Select Package Control: Install Package from
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P). - Select Fountainhead.
- Download and install Sublime Text.
- Download the ZIP of this repository and uncompress it.
- Move the uncompressed Fountainhead folder to the appropriate packages directory:
- In Sublime Text, select:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Browse Packages...
- Place the Fountainhead folder inside the open Packages directory.
- In Sublime Text, select:
- Relaunch Sublime Text.
- Open or create a new
.fountain
file.- If creating a new file, first save the file with a
.fountain
filename extension.
- If creating a new file, first save the file with a
- Verify that "Fountainhead" appears in the bottom right-hand corner.
- If it doesn't, you can click on the offending syntax and change it to
Fountainhead
, or you can use the menu:View > Syntax > Open all with current extension as > Fountainhead
.
- If it doesn't, you can click on the offending syntax and change it to
- Wait for the
CHARACTERS FOUND!
andSCENES FOUND!
text to appear in the bottom left-hand corner, letting you know that everything has loaded properly.- The text will not appear if you have disabled the Character and Scene Lists options in Fountainhead settings.
- Write!
- Only action and dialogue sentences need to begin with uppercase letters. Starting everything else with lowercase letters will allow character and scene heading autocompletion suggestions to appear.
- The
Space
key will cause the autocomplete window to close, so write without spaces to keep the window open. - Pressing the
Tab
key will select the highlighted autocomplete selection.
- The
- Characters, scene headings, and transitions are automatically capitalized when you press the
Return
key at the end of a line.Command
+Return
(Control
+Return
) will produce a normal carriage return.- Starting a character name with
@
will keep it as it's written. Typing an already entered@
character name in lowercase will cause the autocomplete window to appear, which will enter the name in the correct format.
- Fountainhead commands can be found in the
Tools > Fountainhead
menu. - Instructions to change settings are in:
Tools > Fountainhead > Preferences > Fountainhead Settings - Default
, and can also be found in the Settings section of this document.- Additional settings that are off by default can be activated, like auto-save.
- The window will automatically scroll down once you reach the bottom.
- Only action and dialogue sentences need to begin with uppercase letters. Starting everything else with lowercase letters will allow character and scene heading autocompletion suggestions to appear.
- Customize Fountainhead by picking a color scheme (explained in Features - Color Schemes).
Symbol | Key |
---|---|
⏎ | Return |
⌘ | Command/Cmd/Super |
⌥ | Option/Alt |
⌃ | Control/Ctrl |
⇧ | Shift |
→ | Right Arrow |
↑ | Up Arrow |
↓ | Down Arrow |
Key bindings are displayed as: OSX / Windows/Linux
Fountainhead offers complete support of the Fountain syntax. For a complete overview of the Fountain syntax, go to https://fountain.io/syntax.
Note: Leading spaces and tabs are supported.
What you want | How to get it |
---|---|
Scene Headings | Start line with: INT. , EXT. , EST. , INT./EXT. , INT/EXT , I/E , . (forced scene heading) |
Scene Numbers | End Scene Heading with: # Scene Number# |
Action | Paragraph of text (empty line before and after) or force Action by starting line with ! |
Character | All uppercase with empty line before and without an empty line after or force by starting line with @ to allow for names with lowercase letters |
Character Extensions | End character line with ( O.S., V.O., CONT'D) |
Dialogue | Lines of text that are beneath Character or Parenthetical lines |
Parenthetical | Lines of ( Parenthetical Text) that are beneath Character or Dialogue lines |
Dual Dialogue | End second Character with: ^ |
Lyrics | Start line with: ~ |
Transitions | FADE IN: , FADE OUT. , FADE TO BLACK. , all uppercase line that ends with: TO: , or force by starting line with: > |
Notes | [[ Note Text]] |
Boneyard (ignored text) | /* Boneyard Text*/ |
Sections | Start line with one or more: # |
"Act" Section | Start line with: # Act |
"Sequence" Section | Start line with: ## Sequence |
"Scene" Section | Start line with: ### Scene |
Synopses | Start line with: = |
Centered Text | > Centered Text< |
Page Breaks | Line that only contains three or more consecutive equal signs: === |
Line Breaks | Lines can be broken up by using carriage returns |
Italics | * Italic Text* |
Bold | ** Bold Text** |
Bold Italics | *** Bold Italic Text*** |
Underline | _ Underline Text_ |
* | \* |
Title Page | Title Page Key that ends with : and precedes its value (Each key can have multiple values by placing them on newlines that are indented 3+ spaces or by a tab) |
Title: | Title: Title |
Credit: | Credit: Written by |
Author: | Author: Author Name(s) |
Source: | Source: Story by... |
Draft date: | Draft date: Date |
Contact: | Contact: Contact Info |
###Example:
Title:
Title 1
Title 2
Credit: Written by
Author: Author name
Source: Story by...
Draft date: 12/10/2014
Contact:
Contact Info
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
# Act 1
= The introduction of Character
EXT. HOUSE - DAY
Some action text.
CHARACTER
(parenthetical)
Dialogue.
CUT TO:
.Scene Heading
Fountainhead takes care of the formatting, so you just have to worry about the words.
Fountainhead commands can be found by selecting:
Tools > Fountainhead
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead
All settings can be deactivated and customized by the user, as described in the Settings section.
Automatic Capitalization and Line Spacing
Fountainhead believes in efficiency, and that means doing away with superfluous Shift
and Caps Lock
usage. It is smart enough to know which elements should be in all uppercase letters. Unless it's the beginning of an action or dialogue sentence, type everything in lowercase, and let Fountainhead handle the super-sizing.
Pressing ⏎ at the end of lines will have the following effect*:
* Pressing ⌘⏎ / ⌃⏎ will produce a normal carriage return.
Element Type | Uppercase | Line Spacing |
---|---|---|
Scene Headings | YES | DOUBLE |
Action | NO | DOUBLE |
Characters* | YES | SINGLE |
@ Characters** |
NO | SINGLE |
Dialogue*** | NO | DOUBLE |
Lyrics | NO | SINGLE |
Parenthetical | NO | SINGLE |
Transitions | YES | DOUBLE |
Notes | NO | DOUBLE |
Boneyard | NO | SINGLE |
Sections | NO | DOUBLE |
Synopses | NO | DOUBLE |
Centered Text | NO | DOUBLE |
Page Breaks | N/A | DOUBLE |
Title Page | NO | SINGLE |
* Supports V.O. and O.S. character elements, which are automatically capitalized.
** Character names that begin with @
will remain as written, but V.O. and O.S. will be capitalized ( e.g., @McDOWELL (v.o.) > @McDOWELL (V.O.) ).
*** Dialogue lines that are not complete sentences have single line spacing. Dialogue line spacing can be changed in settings.
For those times that manual capitalization is needed (e.g., edits), the following commands are provided:
Key Combination | Performs the Following Action |
---|---|
⌘K , ⌘L / ⌃K , ⌃L * |
Convert highlighted text to lowercase |
⌘K , ⌘U / ⌃K , ⌃U * |
Convert highlighted text to uppercase |
⌘K , K / ⌃K , K ** |
Capitalize the entire line |
* The comma is used to separate the sequence of key presses (X
,Y
is equal to "Press X, and then press Y").
** All commands use lowercase letters (K
is equal to pressing k), unless preceded by ⇧/Shift
.
The above commands can also be selected through the use of menus:
Tools > Fountainhead > Convert to Lowercase
Tools > Fountainhead > Convert to Uppercase
Tools > Fountainhead > Capitalize Current Line
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Convert to Lowercase
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Convert to Uppercase
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Capitalize Current Line
Pressing ⏎ when the cursor is directly to the left of the closing )
,*/
, ]]
will automatically escape the element and create a line break.
Pressing ⇧Space
is the same as pressing → and will move your cursor to the right (useful for keyboards with Lilliputian arrow keys).
Fountainhead comes with a variety of custom color schemes, as well as support for all general Sublime Text color schemes.
By default, all custom color schemes are deactivated, allowing you to pick any of Sublime Text's general color schemes by selecting:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Color Scheme
Fountainhead's custom color schemes can be chosen by selecting:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Color Scheme > Fountainhead > schemes
Note: If you want a color scheme to only appear when working on a .fountain
file, you can edit your user settings (explained in Settings), and uncomment the desired color scheme.
You may have to close (save first!) and re-open your screenplay if your color scheme changes are not seen.
Characters are remembered and can be autocompleted:
- When a document is first loaded, wait for the
CHARACTERS FOUND!
to appear. This process generally takes less than a second.
- Begin a line with any lowercase letter.*
- When the autocomplete window appears, highlight the desired character by using ↑/↓, or by typing more letters of the character's name.
- Pressing the
Space
orEsc
key will cancel the autocompletion. If your name has a space in it, just think of it as being one long name and avoid theSpace
key like a cliché.
- Pressing the
- Press
Tab
to accept the autocompletion.**- Pressing
Return
will only produce a newline, and not accept the autocompletion.
- Pressing
* This also works for previously entered @
character names that require lowercase letters.
** If you don't want any of the suggestions, just write like normal. You can choose to close the window by pressing Esc
.
Sublime Text 3: ⇧⌃C / ⇧⌘C will bring up a pop-up menu that displays all previously entered characters. Pressing Enter
or clicking on it will select the character (Tab
will not select the character).
If the character list gets out of sync, you can recreate it by selecting:
Tools > Fountainhead > Update Character List
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Update Character List
Scenes are remembered and can be autocompleted:
- When a document is first loaded, wait for the
SCENES FOUND!
to appear. This process generally takes less than a second.
- Begin a line with any lowercase letter or a period.
- When the autocomplete window appears, highlight the desired scene by using ↑/↓, or by typing more letters of the scene heading.
- Pressing the
Space
orEsc
key will cancel the autocompletion, so skip pressing theSpace
key.
- Pressing the
- Press
Tab
to accept the autocompletion.*- Pressing
Return
will only produce a newline, and not accept the autocompletion.
- Pressing
* If you don't want any of the suggestions, just write like normal. You can close the window by pressing Esc
.
Sublime Text 3: ⇧⌃S / ⇧⌘S will bring up a pop-up menu that displays all previously entered scenes. Pressing Enter
or clicking on it will select the scene (Tab
will not select the scene).
If the scene list gets out of sync, you can recreate it by selecting:
Tools > Fountainhead > Update Scene List
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Update Scene List
By default, (CONT'D)
s are added to new characters. If you are loading a screenplay that doesn't have (CONT'D)
s added, or have them added incorrectly, you can update your entire script by selecting:
Tools > Fountainhead > Update Character (CONT'D)s
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Update Character (CONT'D)s
You can remove all (CONT'D)
s from the script by selecting:
Tools > Fountainhead > Remove all Character (CONT'D)s
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Remove all Character (CONT'D)s*
* If the "contd"
Fountainhead setting is not false
, a (CONT'D)
will be added to all newly typed characters.
Fountainhead has the ability to automatically save your script after a defined number of keystrokes. By default this feature is turned off, but can be activated in user settings (explained in Settings).
This feature pairs well with an app like Marked 2 that updates its preview every time you save.
Automatic page scrolling is built into Fountainhead, and activates when the cursor reaches the bottom of the screen. Once activated, the page scrolls down until the most recently edited action, character, or scene heading reaches the top of the screen.
Shortcut | Equal to |
---|---|
⇧Space |
→ |
⇧Return |
↓ |
⌘Return / ⌃Return |
"Normal" Return * |
* ⌘Return
/ ⌃Return
in the middle of a line of text will add a newline below, without breaking up the text on the previous line.
To navigate to a particular scene or section quickly, select: Goto > Goto Symbol...
(⌘R / ⌃R). Type the desired scene/section or use ↑/↓, and press Return
to select it. Pressing Esc
will cancel out of the process.
Boneyard, Synopses, and Notes can be quickly hidden or revealed by selecting:
Tools > Fountainhead > Boneyard: Show/Hide
( ⌘K then ⌘/ / ⌃K then ⌃/ )
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Show/Hide Boneyard
Tools > Fountainhead > Synopses: Show/Hide
( ⌘K then ⌘= / ⌃K then ⌃= )
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Show/Hide Synopses
Tools > Fountainhead > Notes: Show/Hide
( ⌘K then ⌘[ / ⌃K then ⌃[ )
or
Tools > Command Palette
(⇧⌘P / ⇧⌃P) and entering Fountainhead: Show/Hide Notes
Within user settings (explained in Settings), there is the ability to hide boneyard, synopses, and notes by default.
Previously typed words can be highlighted and given the desired emphasis by typing the appropriate *
and _
characters. *
and _
will wrap automatically around the word(s).
Sublime Text comes with a distraction free mode: View > Enter Distraction Free Mode
(⇧⌃⌘F).
You can create separate settings by editing: Sublime Text > Preferences > Settings - More > Distraction Free
*.
* These changes are reflected no matter the syntax. I have found that a "wrap_width": 80
setting works well for distraction free coding as well as screenplay writing.
A description of Fountainhead's settings are located in the Default Fountainhead Settings file:
Tools > Fountainhead > Preferences > Fountainhead Settings - Default
If you want to change any of Fountainhead's settings, you must do so in your Fountainhead User Settings file, or else your changes will be lost whenever Fountainhead is updated:
- Open
Tools > Fountainhead > Preferences > Fountainhead Settings - Default
- Select all of the text:
Selection > Select All
(⌘A / ⌃A) - Open
Tools > Fountainhead > Preferences > Fountain Settings - User
- Paste the copied text:
Edit > Paste
(⌘V / ⌃V) - Comment/Uncomment (
⌘/
/⌃/
or by adding/deleting the//
at the beginning of the line) or Edit the value of the setting you want to change (usually true or false)* - Save (⌘S / ⌃S)
* Each setting should only have one active value.
The steps below will install fonts onto your system, allowing them to be used in all programs, including Sublime Text.
- Double-click the font file (usually ending in
.otf
or.ttf
) - The Font Book app will open and display the font
- Click
Install Font
on the bottom of the preview window
Taken from Microsoft.
- Open Fonts by clicking the
Start
button, clickingControl Panel
, clickingAppearance and Personalization
, and then clickingFonts
. - Click
File
, and then clickInstall New Font
.- If you don't see the File menu, press
ALT
.
- If you don't see the File menu, press
- In the Add Fonts dialog box, under Drives, click the drive where the font that you want to install is located.
- Under Folders, double-click the folder containing the fonts that you want to add.
- Under List of fonts, click the font that you want to add, and then click
Install
.
- Double-click the font file (usually ending in
.otf
or.ttf
) - Font Viewer will launch and display the font
- Click
Install Font
in the lower right-hand corner of the preview window
You can customize Fountainhead's key bindings by copying the desired default key binding and editing it in your user key bindings. Due to how many key bindings Fountainhead uses, changes made to key bindings can have unexpected results.
Key Bindings can be accessed at:
Tools > Fountainhead > Preferences > Key Bindings - Default
Tools > Fountainhead > Preferences > Key Bindings - User
- I have completed my Fountain masterpiece; now what?
- A good place to look for ways to convert your screenplay to a PDF or a Final Draft document, is the official Fountain Apps page.
- An online solution that appears to convert Fountain files to PDFs well is Writer Duet. You can also convert Fountain to Final Draft and Celtx.
- Will Fountainhead ever have the ability to convert Fountain files to Final Draft or PDFs?
- I hope to add these features in the future.
- I want to use a character name that ends with a period (e.g., JR.).
- Start the character name with an
@
.
- Start the character name with an
- Issue Tracker: https://github.com/derickc/Fountainhead/issues
- Source Code: https://github.com/derickc/Fountainhead
Feel free to contact me at: derick
at unterrible
dot com
.
The project is licensed under the MIT license.