Fountain Syntax,
Plain and Simple.

I used to keep screenplays in a word processor and fight with margins. Every revision meant reapplying styles. When I tried Fountain for the first time, I just typed and it worked. No template, no hidden formatting. The file was still readable if I opened it in Notepad ten years later. That feeling of ownership is the point.

Fountain is not a new file type you have to learn. It is a handful of simple conventions on top of plain text. If you can write a scene heading and a character name the way you normally would, you already know most of it. The rest is there when you need it.

The cheatsheet you can keep

Here is the whole surface of Fountain in one table. You will use the first four rows ninety percent of the time.

A real scene, in Fountain

Copy this into any text editor. It is already a screenplay.

INT. KITCHEN - DAY

Sunlight hits a small apartment kitchen. JESS (30s) pours coffee like it is a ritual.

JESS
You said you would call.

MARK (O.S.)
I did. You did not pick up.

JESS
(softly)
Try again.

FADE TO:

INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT

They stand a little too close. Neither moves.

That is it. No formatting panel, no style menu. In ActOne, you see the same text turn into a properly paginated manuscript as you type, with ghost text hints for character names you have used before.

Small tips that save time

• Start headings with INT. or EXT. ActOne will catch them even if you forget the dot, but starting with those words keeps it consistent.
• Use uppercase for characters. If you type jess, ActOne will still offer JESS as a suggestion.
• Parentheticals need parentheses. Put them on their own line under the character. ActOne will close the bracket for you.
• Keep notes with [[ ]] for anything you do not want in the PDF, like a reminder to research a location.

Do you need to memorize this?

Not really. ActOne is a Fountain editor, not a Fountain test. You type, it detects. You press Tab to cycle prefixes like @ for a character or . for a heading if something is ambiguous. The point of knowing the syntax is lighter: if you ever open the file in another app, on your phone, or ten years from now, you can still read it and fix it by hand.

I keep a few old scripts as .fountain files in a folder, tracked with simple file backups. They have survived three computers. That would not be true for a proprietary binary that needs a specific version of a specific app.

Fountain and your files

ActOne edits .fountain directly. When you need more than one script plus notes in the same place, it bundles them into .actone. That bundle is just a ZIP you can open with any unzip tool. Your Fountain file is still inside, untouched.

If you write in Tamil, Hindi, or another Indic language, Fountain handles Unicode fine. The same file holds the same characters. Export to PDF will use fonts that support your language, which is a separate font question, not a Fountain question.

How to start today

1. Open ActOne and create a new project. Start with a single Fountain file.
2. Write one scene using the example above. Do not worry about perfect formatting.
3. Press the export shortcut and check the PDF. If the scene looks right there, your Fountain is right.
4. Save and close. Reopen the file in any plain text editor to see that it is still readable.

Fountain is not there to be noticed. It is there to get out of the way so the story stays readable.

FAQ

What is Fountain?

A plain text way to write screenplays. Simple conventions turn normal text into a formatted script without proprietary software.

Do I need to learn Fountain to use ActOne?

No. ActOne formats as you type. Knowing a little Fountain just helps if you ever hand edit or share the file.

Can I share a Fountain file with someone on a Mac?

Yes. Fountain is platform independent. They can open it in Beat, Highland, or any Fountain app, and you can still export to FDX or PDF when needed.