JumpCut

JumpCut converts screenplays between Fountain and Final Draft’s FDX format. It also creates PDFs, HTML, plain text, and JSON.

Use it from the command line, in a Rust application, or from JavaScript through WebAssembly.

Install

cargo install jumpcut

Convert a screenplay

jumpcut script.fountain script.pdf
jumpcut script.fountain script.fdx
jumpcut script.fdx script.fountain

JumpCut chooses the output format from the filename. See the command-line guide for more examples and options.

Formatting

JumpCut handles screenplay formatting and page breaks automatically. You can change the paper size, heading styles, and other formatting through your script’s metadata.

There are two "profiles" available that bundle together different pagination schemes. The default is called jumpcut and is very similar to industry standard programs like Final Draft, but with some small aesthetic tweaks (handles em-dashes better, handles cont'd and mores in dual dialogue more elegantly, avoids starting pages with parenthetical dialogue, etc). This profile reflects the author's tastes and is subject to change.

The other profile is called industry and produces nearly identical pagination to Final Draft, even in cases that I personally find unattractive like splitting halfway through an em-dash.

Example:

jumpcut script.fountain script.pdf --render-profile industry

See the formatting guide for details, or the Fountain guide for a syntax example.

Use in an application

Add JumpCut to a Rust project:

jumpcut = { version = "2.0.0", default-features = false, features = ["lib-only"] }

Then parse and render a screenplay:

let mut screenplay = jumpcut::parse(&content);
let fdx = screenplay.to_fdx();
let html = screenplay.to_html(true);

See the Rust guide for HTML options, or the JavaScript guide for browser and Node usage.

License