Folio Writer
Folio Writer app icon

The writing studio for
scholarly manuscripts, books & novels.

Draft anything long — a paper, a book, a novel — the way you actually think about it: a binder of sections you outline, rearrange, and fold into a finished draft. Everything stays as plain text you own — portable Markdown and Typst files, on disk, forever.

macOS · iPhone · iPad — your files, everywhere, no lock-in.

Built for the way scholars write

Not a text box. A studio — with the structure, citations, and output a manuscript needs, on top of plain files.

📚

A real binder

Sections, folders, and subdocuments you outline, drag to reorder, and lay out on a corkboard — Scrivener-style.

🔖

Citations from BibTeX

Keep references as .bib files in the project. Insert by author and year; see them rendered inline as you write.

Live math & markup

LaTeX math, Markdown, and citations render right in the editor — the syntax steps aside as you read, returns as you edit.

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Compile anywhere

Export to PDF, Word, LaTeX, Typst, HTML, or Markdown through pandoc — title pages, figures, cross-references, bibliography.

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Markdown or Typst

Write in Markdown, or keep a document as a native Typst file — mix both in one project and compile them together.

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Everywhere, safely

Sync across your Macs and the free iPhone and iPad apps through iCloud, Dropbox, or any Files location — conflict-safe.

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Focus & composition

A distraction-free room, typewriter scrolling, sentence focus, and per-document, per-session word targets.

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Snapshots & history

Take a snapshot before a heavy revision; browse, diff, and restore. Nothing you write is ever quietly lost.

A look inside

The same project, seen every way you work — draft, structure, and output.

The editor beside a live rendered preview
Editor & live preview — Markdown, math, and citations render as you write.
Sections laid out as index cards on a corkboard
Corkboard — arrange sections as index cards and reorder by dragging.
The outline view of a manuscript
Outline — see the whole manuscript at a glance, with synopses and word counts.
The inspector showing document metadata
Inspector — synopsis, notes, labels, and snapshots for every document.
A full manuscript in the composition view
Composition — a distraction-free room with typewriter scrolling and focus.
The compile panel exporting to PDF, Word, LaTeX, and Typst
Compile — export to PDF, Word, LaTeX, Typst, HTML, or Markdown.

Free to write in. One purchase, forever.

No subscription, no account, no add-ons. Pro and Premium are one-time in-app purchases on the Mac App Store — free to try for 7 days — and the iPhone and iPad apps are free for everyone.

Folio

Freeforever

Everything you need to write and organize a manuscript.

  • The editor, binder, outline, and grid corkboard
  • Wikilinks, backlinks, and BibTeX citations
  • Live math, Markdown, and single-document preview
  • Syntax Highlight, Style Check, and the visual table editor
  • Manuscript check, sprints, and writing targets
  • Revert to Saved and conflict-safe recovery — never gated
One-time

Folio Pro

$29.99once, not yearly

Finish and ship your manuscript. Buy it once and it stays unlocked — on every Mac you own, for every future version.

  • Compile & export — PDF, Word, LaTeX, Typst, EPUB, HTML, Quarto, and source
  • The whole-manuscript preview
  • Corkboards arranged by label or status
  • Snapshots and version history, with a changes view
  • Revision passes, collections, the figure and name browsers, and read-aloud proofing
  • Word (.docx) import
  • Live sync with the free iPhone and iPad apps
One-time

Folio Premium

$49.99once, not yearly

The full studio — everything in Pro, plus the boards and everything that talks to other people and other tools. Pro owners upgrade for the difference ($19.99).

  • Everything in Folio Pro
  • The freeform canvas — frames, mind maps, and image export
  • The Word review round trip — tracked changes out, reviews back in
  • References from your Zotero library
  • The Response to Reviewers builder, and web capture into Research
  • The writing assistant — local model, Apple Intelligence, or your own account

Folio for iPhone and iPad is completely free

Every feature, no trial, no purchase, no add-ons — and it syncs live with your unlocked Mac. Draft on the Mac, keep writing on the train, pick it up again on the iPad; a project is the same folder of plain Markdown files at both ends, in iCloud Drive or any Files location. Nothing to buy twice: the one-time Mac unlock covers the whole setup.

The apps, one project format

The Mac app, its free tool helper, and the free iPhone and iPad apps — a project is the same folder of plain files everywhere.

macOS · Mac App Store

Folio Writer

  • Fully sandboxed and notarized, updated automatically
  • Compile with the tools already on your Mac — pandoc, LaTeX, Typst, Quarto — through the free Folio Helper
  • PDF, Word, LaTeX, Typst, EPUB, HTML, Markdown
  • Free to write in; Pro and Premium as one-time in-app purchases
macOS · Free download

Folio Helper

  • A tiny free companion for the Mac App Store edition
  • Lets sandboxed Folio run your installed typesetting tools — pandoc, pandoc-crossref, LaTeX, Typst, Quarto, and the Claude CLI
  • Runs only when Folio asks, only a fixed list of tools
  • Download & installation guide →
iPhone & iPad · App Store · Free

Folio Writer for iOS

  • Free — every feature, no trial, no purchase
  • Syncs live with your unlocked Mac; opens the same projects byte-for-byte
  • Draft with a Markdown key bar, cite from BibTeX, preview with math
  • The full binder: reorder, snapshot, search, and organize on the go
  • Compiling stays on the Mac; your writing always syncs back

Your words are yours

Folio collects nothing and tracks nobody. There are no accounts, no analytics, and no servers reading your work — your manuscripts live in plain files on your own disk and your own iCloud. Read the privacy policy →