A desktop studio for writing a novel, from first draft to print PDF.
Free and open source for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with no account to create.
What Draftline does.
A novel is a set of chapters in three sections, a cast that has to stay consistent across all of them, and a manuscript that eventually has to leave as an EPUB or a print PDF. Each tool below works on the whole book rather than on the page in front of you. If you are here looking for a free alternative to Scrivener, Atticus, or Reedsy that works offline, the comparison covers the differences.
Automatic light and dark theme.
If you write in the evening, the bright page that suited the afternoon is the wrong page by nine o'clock. Auto theme follows sunrise and sunset at your location, crossfades the studio to dark as the light goes and back at dawn, and plays a short sky animation in the title bar while it happens. You can also pin light or dark and ignore the clock.
Import.
If the book already exists as an EPUB or a DOCX, you import it and Draftline rebuilds the chapters, the front and back matter, and the scene breaks on the way in. The same three formats come back out when you export.
Local first.
Your manuscript is one file on your own disk, and you can save it in any folder your cloud already syncs. The app has no telemetry and nothing in it phones home.
Open source.
Draftline is MIT-licensed and developed in the open, and the version you download is the whole product, with no locked tier and no trial period. The author explains why on the next page.
Write the book.
Download Draftline, open a blank page, and start. There is nothing else to set up.