# Fountain > An open, plain-text markup for screenplays. Light conventions — scene headings, character cues, dialogue — keep the file readable in any text editor while still carrying structure. In Plot you write normally; Inkwell understands the structure as you type. Also known as Fountain format ## In practice Fountain matters when you want a draft that survives outside one vendor's ecosystem. You can archive it, email it, or reopen it years later without renewing a license. Plot is not a markup tutorial — Fountain is the portable representation under a structured editor, and Final Draft (FDX) remains available when a coordinator or studio still requires that handoff. Writers often assume they must memorize scene-heading prefixes or dialogue indent rules to "do Fountain right." In Plot you Tab between element types and type normally; the structure travels with the file. That keeps attention on story beats instead of typing conventions, while still giving you a plain-text fallback if you ever need one. Production reality still leans on FDX and industry PDFs for many pipelines. Treat Fountain as freedom during drafting and revision, not as a refusal to speak production's language. Export when the next person in the chain needs Final Draft; keep writing where your save history and review passes already live. [Fountain spec](https://fountain.io) ## Common questions ### Do I have to learn Fountain syntax to use Inkwell? No. Tab between element types and write the way you already write a script. Fountain is how the file stays portable underneath — you are not expected to memorize markup to draft a scene. ### Is Fountain a replacement for Final Draft? They solve different jobs. Fountain is an open text format; Final Draft's FDX is what many production offices still ask for. Inkwell imports and exports both so you can write in Plot and hand off when someone needs FDX. ### Can I open a Fountain file outside Inkwell later? Yes. That is the point of an open plain-text format. Any text editor can read it; structure-aware tools can still recognize scene headings, cues, and dialogue if the conventions were preserved. ### Should I send Fountain to a studio reader? Usually send a clean industry PDF (or FDX if they request it). Fountain is excellent for your archive and tooling; readers expect a formatted screenplay page, not a markup source file. ## Related terms - [Scene heading (slugline)](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/scene-heading): The line that opens a scene: interior or exterior, location, and time of day — for example, INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT. It orients the reader and anchors production breakdowns. - [FDX](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/fdx): Final Draft’s native XML format — still the file many coordinators, studios, and production tools expect. Inkwell imports and exports FDX so a Plot draft can enter and leave a Final Draft workflow without rewriting by hand. - [Action](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/action): The descriptive prose of a screenplay — what the audience sees and hears, written in present tense. Also called description. - [WGA-compliant screenplay formatting](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/wga-formatting): Professional screenplay layout that conforms to WGA and industry submission conventions — familiar margins, element spacing, pagination, and production behavior that let readers focus on the story. --- Canonical page: