Features · All of them · Free
All features.
This is the whole studio, and none of it is held back for a paid tier. Each of the tools below has its own page with a fuller description, and where the tool has an interface worth showing, a working version of it is on that page.
The editor
A floating page set in Merriweather with print conventions in place, and a manuscript panel that keeps front matter, body, and back matter as separate sections you can drag chapters between.
The page & structure →
Light & dark theme
A light studio and a dark one that cover every panel, switched on their own by sunrise and sunset in your time zone with a crossfade between them, or fixed to the theme you prefer.
Both themes →
Writing toolbars NEW
The rail down the right measures the draft — goals and chapter stats, pacing, sentence rhythm, how human the prose reads. The bar along the bottom answers questions about it, with the sentence that produced every answer attached.
See every panel →
Files & import
Your book is one file on your disk, in a format you can open in ten years, backed up before every save and saveable in any folder your cloud already syncs. EPUB and DOCX import straight into it.
Local first →
Export & editions NEW
Describe an edition of the book once — its formats, cover art, ISBNs and typesetting — and every export after that is a button. Print-ready PDFs with trim, bleed and crop marks, EPUB with the cover embedded, and a lock that freezes the text so re-exporting a first edition years later reproduces it exactly.
See the whole flow →
Planner NEW
The other half of the window. Story lines and cards on a board, the same cards as a timeline across your real chapters, a synopsis assembled from them, and a scratchpad you can open under the page while you write.
See the board →
Characters Codex NEW
The cast detected from the manuscript and mapped across every chapter in grid, heatmap, and intertwined views, with relationships, first appearances, and every mention indexed. There is a working demo on the page.
Try the live demo →
Spelling & grammar
Spelling, grammar, and a separate usage and style layer, checked as you type by deterministic rules that run on your machine, with a custom dictionary and a per-project lexicon of confirmed names.
The rules engine →
AI Studio
A separate plugin, disabled on a fresh install, that runs line and copy edits over a passage you select using a provider you connect yourself, and shows each change as a diff you accept or reject.
About the AI Studio →
Read Aloud NEW
Eight neural voices that run entirely on your machine, an underline that follows the sentence being read, and a cast mode that gives each character their own voice while the narrator keeps the tags.
Hear the chapter →
Free, forever
Every feature above ships to everyone, MIT-licensed and developed in the open, and the tools are plugins you can turn off. The author explains why it is built that way.
Why Draftline exists →
Alternatives
Draftline compared with Scrivener, Atticus, Reedsy, Novlr, Dabble, and Vellum.
Most writers arrive here from one of these. The short version is that Draftline is free and open source, runs the same on Windows, macOS, and Linux, keeps your book as a file on your own disk, and works with no connection. The specifics, as of this writing:
Scrivener
Scrivener is a paid application whose Mac version is the one people recommend; on Windows it lags behind. Draftline is free, open source, and the same application on Windows, macOS, and Linux. To move a project over, compile it from Scrivener as a DOCX and import it.
Atticus
Atticus is a browser-based writing and formatting tool sold as a one-time purchase. Draftline is a desktop application that works with no connection, keeps the manuscript as a file on your disk, and exports a print-ready PDF with trim size, bleed, and crop marks.
Reedsy Book Editor
The Reedsy Book Editor is free, online, and requires an account. Draftline requires no account, runs offline, and adds character tracking, local grammar checking, and Read Aloud on top of the editor and export.
Novlr and Dabble
Novlr and Dabble are subscription writing apps that sync through their own cloud. Draftline has no subscription and no servers; you save the file in any folder Dropbox, Drive, or iCloud already syncs, and a numbered backup is written beside it before every save.
Vellum
Vellum is a Mac-only formatting tool for producing EPUB and print files from a finished manuscript. Draftline runs on all three platforms and covers the drafting as well as the export, with EPUB, DOCX, and print-ready PDF from the same file.
ProWritingAid and Grammarly
Both are online services that send your text to their servers to check it. Draftline’s spelling, grammar, and usage checks are deterministic rules that run on your machine, with a custom dictionary and a per-project lexicon of your confirmed character names.
Questions
Frequently asked.
Is Draftline free?
Yes. Draftline is free and open source under the MIT license. There is no paid tier, no trial period, and no account to create.
Is Draftline a Scrivener alternative?
Draftline covers the same job as Scrivener, drafting and organizing a book-length manuscript, and adds automatic character tracking, local grammar checking, and print-ready PDF export. It is free, open source, and the same application on Windows, macOS, and Linux. To move a project over, compile it from Scrivener as a DOCX and import it.
Does Draftline work offline?
Yes. The application, your manuscript, and every analysis tool run on your own computer. The only network use is optional: an AI provider you connect yourself, and a one-time download of the Read Aloud voice model.
Does Draftline use AI?
The editor contains no AI. The AI Studio is a separate plugin that is disabled on a fresh install, and it cannot send anything anywhere until you connect a provider of your own. It edits prose you have already written and shows every change as a diff.
What file formats does Draftline import and export?
It imports EPUB and DOCX. It exports EPUB, DOCX, a standard PDF, and a print-ready PDF with trim size, bleed, crop marks, mirrored margins, running headers, drop caps, and a table of contents — either one at a time, or as a book edition that writes every file a printer and a storefront need in one pass.
Which platforms does Draftline run on?
Windows 10 and 11 (x64), macOS 10.15 or later on Intel and Apple Silicon, and Linux x86_64 as an AppImage.
Feature matrix
How it stacks up
Against the two tools most manuscripts get written in today: a general-purpose word processor, and the typical paid prose editor.
~ = partial, varies by product. "Prose editor" reflects the common feature set of paid manuscript tools.