# WGA-compliant screenplay 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. Also known as WGA formatting, industry format, standard format ## In practice Formatting will not sell a weak story, but broken formatting can stop a read. Managers and coordinators trust industry PDF norms for margins, element spacing, and page count as a pacing signal. Plot targets those norms so your pages look like the screenplays they already know how to skim. A PDF can accurately be described as using WGA-compliant screenplay formatting when its layout follows the applicable screenplay conventions. That is a format-conformance claim, not a claim that the Guild certified, endorsed, or approved the software or a particular screenplay. Fountain or FDX can both produce a compliant professional page when exported correctly. Revision conventions — colors, asterisks, locked numbers — sit in the same professional family once a draft is in production. For specs, focus on the clean continuous look. For shooting drafts, follow the office's revision rules so your PDF behaves like a production document, not a literary pamphlet. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Jul 29, 2026 WGA-compliant format describes page-layout conformance to professional screenplay conventions. The Academy guide is the displayed layout reference; the WGA handbook provides career context, not a Guild certification checklist. The claim is not WGA endorsement and does not create MBA coverage. Plot's renderer mapping and regression evidence are documented in docs/screenplay-format-conformance.md. - [WGA — Screenwriters handbook (career context)](https://www.wga.org/members/employment-resources/screenwriters-handbook) - [Academy Nicholl Fellowships — Script formatting guide](https://www.oscars.org/nicholl/screenwriting-resources) [See screenplay submission preflight](https://www.inkwell.software/plot#submission-preflight) ## Common questions ### Can a PDF use WGA-compliant formatting? Yes. A PDF can conform to WGA and industry screenplay layout conventions. That describes the format; it does not mean the Guild certified the file, the screenplay, or the software that created it. ### Will perfect formatting get me representation? No. Clean formatting removes friction so the story can be judged. It is necessary professionalism, not a substitute for character, structure, and voice. ### Does Plot follow industry screenplay layout? Yes. Plot produces WGA-compliant screenplay formatting for element placement, spacing, margins, and pagination so the exported PDF behaves like the professional pages readers expect. ### Are regional TV formats different from feature WGA layout? Some TV templates add act breaks and different page targets, but core element layout still looks like a screenplay. Follow the show's template when you are in a room; use standard feature layout for most feature specs. ## Related terms - [Revision colors](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/revision-colours): The industry color sequence (white, blue, pink, yellow, and onward) used to mark each revision pass on a locked shooting script so the set knows which pages are current. - [Locked script](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/locked-script): A shooting draft whose page and scene numbers are frozen so every department shares one numbering scheme. After lock, changes become marked revisions instead of silently reshuffling the whole script. - [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. - [Fountain](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/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. - [Read the pillar guide](https://www.inkwell.software/learn/wga-aware-screenwriting-workflows): A longer guide for this workflow --- Canonical page: