Fountain vs. WYSIWYG Editors

Screenplay editors generally fall into two camps: markup languages like Fountain, and WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors that show the formatted page as you type. Both have real strengths. Here is how they compare and where Ensemble fits.

What Is Fountain

Fountain is a plain-text markup syntax designed specifically for screenplays. Created in 2012, it lets you write a properly structured screenplay in any text editor. No special software required. Fountain uses simple conventions to identify screenplay elements:

• Lines beginning with INT. or EXT. are scene headings.
• Lines in ALL UPPERCASE followed by dialogue are character cues.
• Text in parentheses on its own line between character and dialogue is a parenthetical.
• Lines ending with TO: are transitions.
• Everything else is action.

A Fountain file is just a .fountain or .txt file. Here is what a short scene looks like in raw Fountain format:

INT. KITCHEN - MORNING

Sarah pours coffee. Her hands tremble.

SARAH
(quietly)
I can't do this anymore.

Applications like Highland, Slugline, and WriterSolo can read Fountain files and render them with proper screenplay formatting. Many writers also store Fountain files in Git repositories, giving them version control and diffing for free.

What Is WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG stands for "what you see is what you get." In a WYSIWYG screenplay editor, the screen shows you exactly what the final printed page will look like as you type. Margins are correct, fonts are in Courier, page breaks appear in real time, and each screenplay element is visually distinct.

Traditional desktop applications like Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, and WriterSolo (in paginated view) are WYSIWYG editors. You interact directly with the formatted page rather than writing markup that gets rendered later.

Here is how the same scene looks in Ensemble's WYSIWYG editor:

The writer sees the final result immediately. There is no separate "preview" step and no mental translation from markup to formatted output.

Pros and Cons

Fountain

Advantages:

• Write anywhere. Any text editor works, from VS Code to Notepad to vim.
• Files are plain text, making them tiny, future-proof, and easy to back up.
• Version control with Git gives you full history, branching, and diffing.
• No vendor lock-in. Your screenplay is never trapped in a proprietary format.
• Distraction-free writing since you focus on text rather than visual formatting.

Disadvantages:

• You do not see the final page layout while writing, so page count and breaks are invisible until you render.
• Requires learning the markup conventions, which adds friction for new writers.
• Some edge cases (dual dialogue, forced elements) use syntax that is not intuitive.
• Collaboration tools are limited. Most Fountain workflows are single-writer.

WYSIWYG

Advantages:

• Immediate visual feedback. You always know exactly what the printed page looks like.
• No syntax to learn; the editor handles formatting rules automatically.
• Page count is always accurate and visible, which matters for professional work.
• Easier to adopt for writers coming from word processors.

Disadvantages:

• Often tied to a specific application or platform.
• Proprietary file formats can make migration difficult.
• Can be distracting if you find yourself fussing with formatting instead of writing.
• Desktop applications require installation and updates.

Ensemble's Approach

Ensemble is a WYSIWYG editor with Fountain export. You get the immediacy of seeing your formatted screenplay as you write, with the portability of being able to export to Fountain whenever you want.

The editing experience is fully WYSIWYG: your screenplay appears with correct margins, Courier font, proper page breaks, and real-time page counting. You never need to learn markup syntax. The editor auto-detects element types as you write. Start a line with INT. and it becomes a scene heading; type a character name in uppercase and the next line becomes dialogue.

But your screenplay is never locked in. Export to Fountain at any time to get a clean plain-text file that works with any Fountain-compatible application. Export to PDF for submissions. Export to Ensemble JSON for a complete backup. You get the convenience of WYSIWYG without the lock-in that traditionally comes with it.

Because Ensemble runs in the browser, there is nothing to install and your scripts are accessible from any device. Real-time collaboration is built in, so you can co-write with a partner, which is hard to do with plain-text Fountain workflows. And because the core editor is built in Rust compiled to WebAssembly, formatting and rendering are fast even on long screenplays.