Welcome to Fathom (Alpha)
Hi — thanks for agreeing to put Fathom through its paces.
This is a friends-and-family alpha test. Fathom is in active development and there are rough edges. You're getting it early because I trust your eye and your patience.
What Fathom Is
Fathom is a screenwriting app for macOS that's trying to do something specific: help screenwriters not just write scripts, but generate the production documents that come from those scripts. Casting breakdowns. Scene breakdowns. Schedules. Eventually, watermarked PDFs for distribution. The vision is to be useful from outline through pre-production, not just during the typing phase.
Right now, in this alpha, most of that production-tool side is still under construction. What's working is the screenplay editor itself, some basic metadata views (Cast, Breakdown, Stripboard, Notes), and exports to Fountain format. PDF export isn't built yet. Production-document exports aren't built yet.
The reason I'm sharing it now: the foundational editor experience — typing, formatting, navigating, basic file handling — is at a point where outside eyes will catch things I can't see anymore.
How Fathom Differs From What You Know
If you're coming from Final Draft, here's what's different and what to expect:
Fathom uses Fountain instead of FDX. Fountain is a plain-text format for screenwriting. Instead of clicking a dropdown to format something as a character cue, you type the name in all caps and Fathom recognizes it. Instead of "Insert Scene Heading," you type INT. or EXT. and Fathom understands. The system is convention-based rather than UI-toolbar-based.
This takes about thirty minutes to feel natural. The cheat sheet below covers the most important conventions.
Fathom is local-first. Your files live on your Mac. There's no cloud, no account, no syncing. A Fathom document is a `.fathom` file you can email, back up, or move around like any other file.
No real-time collaboration. This is intentional for now. Fathom isn't trying to be a writers' room tool (Scripto does that well). It's a tool for individual writers who eventually want production-side outputs.
Title pages live separately from the script body. When you open a document, the editor shows just the script. The title page has its own tab. This is different from Highland Pro (which puts title page metadata in the script text) and from Final Draft (which has its own title page editor). I think Fathom's approach is cleaner; you'll let me know.
How To Get Started
Open Fathom from the icon in your Applications folder
The Welcome window will offer you "Start a new screenplay" or "Open Recent"
Pick "Start a new screenplay" — you'll get a blank document
Start typing. The cheat sheet below covers the basics.
If you'd rather start with an existing script: File → Import Screenplay... handles `.fountain` files (and `.highland` files from Highland Pro, but those open read-only — more on that later).
Fountain Cheat Sheet — The Essentials
Type these conventions and Fathom will recognize them as screenplay elements. The Fountain spec was designed to look like screenplay text already does, so most of this should feel natural.
Scene Headings
Type INT. or EXT. followed by location and time of day. Examples:
```
INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY
EXT. STREET - NIGHT
INT./EXT. CAR - MOMENTS LATER
```
The all-caps prefix (INT., EXT., INT./EXT., I/E.) is the signal. Fathom will recognize the line as a scene heading.
If you need a scene heading that doesn't start with INT./EXT. (like a montage card), start the line with a period:
```
.MONTAGE
```
Action
Anything that's not another element type is action. Just type:
```
Sarah enters the coffee shop. She looks around for her sister.
```
If for some reason action gets misclassified (rare), force it with an exclamation point at the start of the line:
```
!INT. is a brand of mints, not a scene heading.
```
Character Cues
Type the character's name in ALL CAPS on its own line:
```
SARAH
```
Following lines (until a blank line) are interpreted as dialogue from that character.
If the character name isn't all caps (lowercase character names, character names with numbers), force it with an @ symbol:
```
@MaryAnne
```
### Dialogue
Just type after a character cue. No special formatting needed:
```
SARAH
I told you we'd be late.
```
Parentheticals
Wrap in parentheses on their own line between character cue and dialogue:
```
SARAH
(annoyed)
I told you we'd be late.
```
Transitions
End the line with TO: and it's a transition:
```
CUT TO:
DISSOLVE TO:
SMASH CUT TO:
```
Or force a transition with > at the start:
```
>FADE OUT.
```
Centered Text
Wrap with > and <:
```
>THE END<
```
Inline Formatting
Use these to format within text:
- `**bold**` makes text bold
- `*italic*` makes text italic
- `_underline_` makes text underlined
When your cursor is outside the formatted word, Fathom shows the visual formatting (no asterisks visible). When you click into the word, the markers reveal so you can edit them.
You can also use the Format menu (⌘B, ⌘I, ⌘U) to wrap selected text automatically.
Notes
Wrap text in double brackets to add a writer's note:
```
[[Need to revise this scene]]
```
Notes appear with a yellow tint in the editor and show up in the navigator sidebar alongside scene headings. They're for your eyes — they don't appear in exports.
Boneyard (Commented-Out Content)
Wrap text in `/* */` to remove it from the active script without deleting it:
```
/* Old version of this scene:
Sarah burns the coffee and curses. */
```
Boneyard shows grey with strikethrough in the editor. Useful for keeping alternate versions or cut content for reference.
### Page Breaks
Three or more equal signs on their own line:
```
===
```
Synopsis
Start a line with = (single equals) for a synopsis line (won't appear in script body):
```
= Sarah confronts her past.
```
Sections
Start a line with # for a section heading (also won't appear in script body — used for organizing your outline):
```
# ACT ONE
## Sequence A
```
## What's Working in This Alpha
- Typing screenplays with all the above Fountain conventions
- Format menu for selecting text and wrapping with ⌘B / ⌘I / ⌘U etc.
- Visual rendering of bold/italic/underline (cursor-reveal for raw markers)
- Visual rendering of notes (yellow tint) and boneyard (grey strikethrough)
- Navigation sidebar showing scenes and notes
- Cast tab (per-character casting metadata)
- Breakdown tab (14-category per-scene breakdown — props, wardrobe, SFX, etc.)
- Stripboard tab (visual scene strips)
- Department Notes tab (per-department free-text notes)
- Title Page tab (separate editor for title page metadata)
- Fountain export (File → Export → Fountain...)
- Cast export to CSV or Markdown
- Importing existing `.fountain` files
- Importing Highland Pro `.highland` files (opens read-only, as a "linked" document)
## What's NOT Working Yet
- PDF export (no way to generate a printable script yet — coming soon)
- Final Draft `.fdx` import/export
- Highland Pro `.highland` export
- Real-time collaboration
- Audio read-aloud / TTS
- iOS app
- Many production-document exports (casting breakdown PDFs, schedules, etc.)
- Accessibility for screen readers (VoiceOver) is still being audited
- App Store distribution (you're running an unsigned build)
What "Read-Only Highland Documents" Means
If you import a `.highland` file, the resulting Fathom document opens with the script body read-only. You can edit metadata (Cast, Breakdown, etc.) but not the script text itself.
This is intentional. The idea is that Highland Pro should remain the source of truth for the script, while Fathom adds production metadata on top. It's an experimental workflow I'm testing.
If this is annoying or confusing for your testing, let me know — feedback on this is genuinely useful.
Reporting Findings
When you find something — a bug, a confusion, a feature you wish existed, a workflow that feels backwards — note it down in the "Findings Log" document I sent along with this one. When you're done testing (or when you decide you've done enough), email the filled-out log back to me.
There's no rush. Take a week, take a month, do an hour and put it down. Whatever works for you.
## A Note on Tone
Treat this as a script you've been asked to give notes on, not as a product you're being asked to QA. Tell me what worked, what didn't, what surprised you, what confused you, what you wanted to do that you couldn't. Write it however you write notes naturally — I'd rather have your honest impression in your own voice than checklists.
If something is broken in a way that's frustrating, say so. If something is broken in a way that's funny, say so. If something is great, say so. All of it is useful.
Thanks for doing this.
— Steve