path: root/README.md

About Screenplain
=================

You're a hacker. The command line is your home. You know tools like grep, sed
and Git inside out. You have formed a symbiotic relationship with your text
editor. Those tools are powerful in the right hands. But you're also a
screenwriter. Screenwriting is much like programming. It's about structure and
form, and -- obviously -- about reading, writing and modifying huge amounts of
text. You don't want to use software that lacks the power of your hacking
tools just because you're writing a screenplay instead of a shell script.

Enter Screenplain.

Screenplain allows you to write a screenplay as a plain text file using
a format called [Fountain](http://fountain.io). Text files
are simple and supported by all text manipulation software. It's not just for
hackers, too. The simplicity of plain text allows you to easily view and edit
them on devices such as tablets and phones. No need for specific screenwriting
software.

The magic that Screenplain performs is to take your plain text file and
convert it to a good looking screenplay in an industry standard format.
Send that file off to your producer, agent, director or screenwriting
competition. The supported output formats are FDX  HTML, and PDF.

Screenplain can be used as a command-line application or a library.
An [Online version of Screenplain](http://www.screenplain.com) is also
available.

Note that Screenplain is under development and is missing features and
the master branch may not always work. I'm currently working on supporting
the whole [Fountain](http://fountain.io) specification. (Fountain
was previously known as "Screenplay Markdown" or "SPMD.")

Installing
==========

    pip install screenplain

To enable PDF output, install with the PDF extra (installs ReportLab):

    pip install 'screenplain[PDF]'

Credits
=======

Screenplain was coded by [Martin Vilcans](http://www.librador.com).

The CSS code that formats Screenplain's HTML output as something that
looks as much as a printed screenplay as is possible in HTML was
created by [Jonathan Poritsky](http://www.candlerblog.com/).

The [Fountain](http://fountain.io) file format is the result of a
collaboration between [Stu Maschwitz](http://prolost.com) and
[John August](http://johnaugust.com/).


License
=======

Screenplain is released under the [MIT license](http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php).


Developing
==========

Set up virtual environment:

    python3 -m venv .venv
    . .venv/bin/activate
    pip install -r requirements.txt
    pip install -e .

After this, the `screenplain` command will use the working copy of your code.

To run unit tests and style checks, run:

    bin/test