Last updated: · 10 min read
Moving scripts between Final Draft, Fountain, PDF, and Inkwell Plot without losing structure — and what to expect on the edges.
FDX is Final Draft's XML format — the lingua franca many production offices expect. Inkwell imports and exports FDX so you can write in Fountain-native Plot and hand off to coordinators who live in Final Draft.
Open Plot → Import / Export → Final Draft (.fdx). Inkwell parses scene headings, cues, and dialogue into structured Fountain data. Review import warnings before continuing if metadata cannot map one-to-one.
Use the same menu for PDF (reading copies) and FDX (systems). PDF uses industry margins; FDX preserves structure for round-trip. Export after save points so you know which version left the building.
Inkwell's full production pipeline connects production-draft locking, the WGA revision-colour sequence, locked pagination, frozen A-page labels in PDF export, breakdowns, and delivery handoff on Pro and above. The same structured screenplay and save-point history carry the draft from first lock through each issued revision.
No — Fountain is the in-editor source format; FDX is an export/import handoff. You are not trapped in plain text for production.
Standard Fountain and FDX elements map into Plot. Edge cases surface as import warnings rather than silent drops.
FDX
Final Draft’s native XML format — still the file many coordinators, studios, ...
Fountain
An open, plain-text markup for screenplays. Light conventions — scene heading...
Locked script
A shooting draft whose page and scene numbers are frozen so every department ...
Revision colours
The industry colour sequence (white, blue, pink, yellow, and onward) used to ...
