FOUNT
Blockbusters in Terminal
Fount is a minimal, distraction-free Fountain screenplay editor built for writers who live in the terminal. It blends the raw efficiency of Rust with a "Zen Studio" aesthetic, providing a writing experience that feels professional, focused, and deeply personal.
- Arch Linux (AUR):
yay -S fount-bin
- Debian / Ubuntu: Download the latest
.debpackage from the Releases page. - Fedora / RHEL: Download the latest
.rpmpackage from the Releases page.
cargo install fount
- Cargo:
cargo install fount(for best results, use a terminal with Truecolor support like iTerm2 or Ghostty)
Note
Project Status (v0.11.0) Fount has reached a highly mature milestone. With version 0.11.0, the application is running smoothly, passing all unit tests, compiler checks, and code lints. Since the core feature set is now complete and solid for daily writing, development will transition to a slower pace, focusing primarily on bug fixes, performance maintenance, and ensuring long-term compatibility rather than major new features.
Note
A Letter from the Creator
As a credited Tamil/Indian screenwriter—writing predominantly in English and Tanglish—I found myself at a crossroads when I transitioned to Linux. I deeply missed Beat, my long-time companion for storytelling, and couldn't find a minimalist alternative that felt "right" in the terminal.
My search led me to Lottie, whose elegance immediately captivated me. I cloned the project and began shaping it into the tool I needed. While I possess a moderate grasp of Rust, this journey was significantly smoothed by the partnership of AI Agents like Claude and Gemini. They were instrumental in helping me overcome technical hurdles, complicated logic, and the often frustrating nuances of software release workflows. Fount is the result of my creative vision and writing background, the open-source code that inspired me, and the intelligence of the agents that helped me build it. It is a tool I use daily, and I hope it serves you just as well.
Important
A Note on Pagination Due to TUI constraints, page counts shown in the editor are only approximate. Layouts for A4 and US Letter may have up to a +/- 2 pages difference in the TUI view. The TUI pagination is an approximation; only the final export contains the true, definitive page count.
Fount is a dedicated writing environment designed to disappear while you work.
A walkthrough of the beautiful homescreen dashboard in Fount, showing recent screenplay files and quick actions.
Live editing showcasing bold, italic, underlined, lyrics, centered text, and inline notes syntax rendering in FountTUI.
Interactive side-panel and tree-structured view of scenes and sequences inside the screenplay, with instant search and jump.
Plot your story at a high level using the grid-based index cards to organize and edit scene synopses with smooth word-wrap.
Import structural templates (e.g. Hero's Journey, 3-Act Structure) directly into FountTUI to scaffold a screenplay outline instantly.
Visualize your screenplay's pacing, character frequency, and scene length distribution in real-time using X-Ray mode.
Cycle through curated themes like Catppuccin, Nord, Everforest, and the new Lilac to suit your mood.
Under the hood look at Fount's background snapshotting system that periodically auto-saves buffer states to prevent data loss.
Fount stands on the shoulders of giants. This project would not have been possible without the inspiration and foundational work of the following:
- Lottie: My immediate inspiration. Fount began as a fork and evolution of this beautiful terminal editor.
- Beat: The gold standard for minimalist screenwriting software. Fount is my attempt to bring the spirit of Beat to the Linux terminal.
- Fountain.io: The universal screenplay format that powers modern independent screenwriting.
Important
A massive thank you to the creators of these tools. Their commitment to the craft of writing and software design continues to inspire creators worldwide.