lottie is a terminal-based screenplay editor for writers working with the Fountain markup format. It provides a dedicated text interface for drafting and editing film scripts without requiring a graphical application.
The editor understands screenplay structure and offers writing aids for common elements such as scene headings, characters, dialogue and action. Writers can open an existing Fountain document or begin a new script directly from the terminal.
lottie is written in Rust and uses the ratatui terminal interface library. Its display, editing behaviour and screenplay formatting can be customised through a configuration file.
The original repository has been archived and is now read-only. The application remains available for writers who prefer its keyboard-driven approach.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Create and edit Fountain screenplay files within a terminal.
- Open existing scripts or begin a new screenplay.
- Display scene numbers and page numbers while writing.
- Automatically hide Fountain markup when the cursor moves away from a line.
- Autocomplete scene headings and character names.
- Automatically append consecutive dialogue markers such as (CONT’D).
- Insert paragraph breaks after Action, Dialogue and other screenplay elements.
- Automatically close parentheses and paired formatting characters.
- Typewriter mode for maintaining a consistent writing position.
- Focus mode for distraction-reduced writing.
- Keyboard shortcuts for navigating between screenplay element types.
- Search, cut, paste, undo and redo operations.
- Configure editor behaviour using a lottie.conf file.
- Customise scene heading styles, spacing and other formatting settings.
- Adjust the display of page breaks and scene numbers.
- Export rendered scripts as plain text, ASCII or ANSI-formatted output.
- Control terminal colours and text attributes according to terminal capabilities.
Website: github.com/coignard/lottie
Support:
Developer: René Coignard
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Lottie is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Script Writing Tools | |
|---|---|
| Trelby | Simple, powerful, full-featured program for writing movie screenplays |
| Manuskript | Use the snowflake method to grow your ideas |
| Pago | Screenwriting plugin for the Vim text editor |
| Screenwriter-mode | A plug-in for Emacs |
| Screenplain | Plain text to readable screenplay |
| KIT Scenarist | Fully-featured studio for creating movie screenplays |
| LyX | The Hollywood document class equips LyX for script writing |
| Afterwriting | Post-processing tools for Fountain screenplay |
| Story Architect | Reinventing the screenwriting software |
| lottie | Fountain screenplay editor |
| obsidian-fountain | Fountain support for Obsidian |
| Barefoot | Convert Fountain screenplay files to plain text |
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