Also known as Fountain format
An open, plain-text markup for screenplays. Light conventions — scene headings, character cues, dialogue — keep the file readable in any text editor while still carrying structure. In Plot you write normally; Inkwell understands the structure as you type.
Fountain matters when you want a draft that survives outside one vendor's ecosystem. You can archive it, email it, or reopen it years later without renewing a license. Plot is not a markup tutorial -- Fountain is the portable representation under a structured editor, and Final Draft (FDX) remains available when a coordinator or studio still requires that handoff.
Writers often assume they must memorize scene-heading prefixes or dialogue indent rules to "do Fountain right." In Plot you Tab between element types and type normally; the structure travels with the file. That keeps attention on story beats instead of typing conventions, while still giving you a plain-text fallback if you ever need one.
Production reality still leans on FDX and industry PDFs for many pipelines. Treat Fountain as freedom during drafting and revision, not as a refusal to speak production's language. Export when the next person in the chain needs Final Draft; keep writing where your save history and review passes already live.
No. Tab between element types and write the way you already write a script. Fountain is how the file stays portable underneath -- you are not expected to memorize markup to draft a scene.
They solve different jobs. Fountain is an open text format; Final Draft's FDX is what many production offices still ask for. Inkwell imports and exports both so you can write in Plot and hand off when someone needs FDX.
Yes. That is the point of an open plain-text format. Any text editor can read it; structure-aware tools can still recognize scene headings, cues, and dialogue if the conventions were preserved.
Usually send a clean industry PDF (or FDX if they request it). Fountain is excellent for your archive and tooling; readers expect a formatted screenplay page, not a markup source file.
