Check your format before someone else does.

Drop in your script and read the notes a reader would write on it. Type size, margins, scene headings without a time of day, speeches that fill a third of a page, character names spelled two ways. It runs on your computer and nothing is uploaded.

Drop your screenplay here

You can also pick a file from your computer.

PDF, Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain (.fountain, .spmd) and plain text. Nothing is uploaded.

What it checks

The things a reader sees before reading

Type size and left margin, measured on the page itself rather than trusted. A script set in 11 point looks shorter than it is, and a reader who has held a thousand scripts feels the difference in the first second.

The things that make a reader put it down

Action paragraphs past five lines, speeches past eight, parentheticals doing the director's job, headings that never say whether it is day or night, and the same character spelled two ways so every production report counts them twice.

Most of these fix themselves.

If you write in Google Docs with Screenplay Editor, the margins, the indents and the capitals are applied while you type, so the list above mostly never happens. It is free to start.

Install it
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Questions about format

I write my own films in Google Docs, so I built the tools I kept wishing existed.

Ask me something
What screenplay format does it check against?
The industry standard: Courier 12, a 1.5 inch left margin, dialogue and character cues at their usual indents. These are the same measurements Screenplay Editor applies while you write, so the checker and the tool agree.
Does it work on a PDF exported from Final Draft or Celtx?
Yes, and those are the easiest cases because they are laid out properly. The checker measures the columns your file actually uses rather than assuming Final Draft numbers, so an export from any software reads correctly.
Is my script uploaded to check it?
No. Everything happens inside this page, on your own computer. Your file never leaves the browser and there is no account to create.
Will it tell me if my script is any good?
No, and be suspicious of anything that says it will. This checks form, not writing. Form is worth checking because it is the part a reader judges before page one.

The other free tools

Open your screenplay in Google Docs

A PDF, a Final Draft file or a Fountain file becomes a document that opens already formatted.

Turn your script into a breakdown sheet

Every scene, its location, its time of day and its cast, in a coloured spreadsheet.

Lay out your beats and start writing

Fifteen beats at their real page numbers, in a document already divided.

Make a title page that looks right

Four fields, and the title page a reader expects.

How long does your script run?

A real estimate, and where the time actually goes.

See who carries your script

Who speaks, how much, in how many scenes, from which page to which.