clients.md

Afterwriting Command Line Interface

Afterwriting CLI is a command line tool that lets you generate PDF from your fountain script using node.js.

Requirements

Afterwriting CLI requires node.js. To install it, follow instructions on node.js website.

Installation

Using npm:

> npm install afterwriting -g
> afterwriting --help

From sources:

Download project sources - https://github.com/ifrost/afterwriting-labs/releases/latest. Extract all files and open a terminal window:

> cd afterwriting-labs
> npm install
> node awc.js --help

Usage

Basics:

> node awc.js --source my_draft.fountain --pdf screenplay.pdf

This command will convert a script in my_draft.fountain file into a PDF and (and save it as screenplay.pdf).

If the only difference in file names is the extension, you can simply write:

> node awc.js --source screenplay.fountain --pdf

Force overwriting:

The script will prompt you for confirmation if the PDF file already exists. If you want to always overwrite existing files, pass --overwrite option:

> node awc.js --source screenplay.fountain --pdf --overwrite

Configuration:

If you need to customize your PDF you can pass a config file:

> node awc.js --source screenplay.fountain --pdf --config config.json

Config file

The output can be customized using configuration file passed as --config parameter. Config should be a JSON with this structure:

{
	"embolden_scene_headers": false,
	"show_page_numbers": true,
	"split_dialogue": true,
	"print_title_page": true,
	"print_profile": "a4",
	"double_space_between_scenes": false,
	"print_sections": false,
	"print_synopsis": false,
	"print_actions": true,
	"print_headers": true,
	"print_dialogues": true,
	"number_sections": false,
	"use_dual_dialogue": true,
	"print_notes": false,
	"print_header": "",
	"print_footer": "",
	"print_watermark": "",
	"scenes_numbers": "none",
	"each_scene_on_new_page": false
}

Available options:

Option	Value	Description
embolden_scene_headers	true/false	-
show_page_numbers	true/false	-
split_dialogue	true/false	whether to split dialogue between pages or not
print_title_page	true/false	-
print_profile	"a4"/"usletter"	paper size
double_space_between_scenes	true/false	-
print_sections	true/false	print sections (marked with #)
print_synopsis	true/false	print synopsis (market with =)
print_actions	true/false	print action blocks
print_headers	true/false	print scene headers
print_dialogues	true/false	print dialogues
number_sections	true/false	auto-numbering sections
use_dual_dialogue	true/false	print dual dialogue in two columns
print_notes	true/false	print notes
print_header	string	a text to put on the top of the page
print_footer	string	a text to put on the bottom of the page
print_watermark	string	watermark text
scenes_numbers	"none"/"left"/"right"/"both"	side of auto-numbering scenes
each_scene_on_new_page	true/false	break page after a scene
font_family	Courier, CourierPrime, CourierPrimeCyrillic, Kosugi	font

Provide config as attribute

You can also provide settings (or override settings loaded from the config file) by using --setting NAME=VALUE attribute:

> node awc.js --source screenplay.fountain --pdf --config config.json --setting print_title_page=false --setting scenes_numbers=both

Snippets

In your config file you can add reusable snippets. Each time you use a snippet in your script it will be replaced with a specified text. It might be useful if you are not sure about names for your characters. Example:

The config file:

{
	"embolden_scene_headers": false,
	...
	"each_scene_on_new_page": false,
	"snippets": {
		"protagonist": "$bond.last",
		"antagonist": "Dr. Julius No",
		"location": "room",
		"bond": {			
			"first": "James",
			"last": "Bond",
			"name": "$bond.first $bond.last"
		}
	}
}

The script:

INT. $LOCATION - DAY

$PROTAGONIST enters the $location. $Antagonist attacks him.

$ANTAGONIST
Aaaaa!

$Protagonists kills $Antagonist.

$BOND.LAST
My name is $bond.last, $bond.name.

The output:

INT. ROOM - DAY

BOND enters the room. Dr. Julius No attacks him.

DR. JULIUS NO
Aaaaa!

James Bond kills Dr. Julius No.

BOND
My name is Bond, James Bond.

The simplest way of using snippets is by defining corresponding text:

"snippets": {
    "protagonist": "Bond",
    "antagonist": "Dr. Julius No"
}

To use your snippet in the script just simply put a $ sign before it. There are three ways of injecting a snippet:

• $snippet - snippet injected as defined in the conifg
• $SNIPPET - upper cased snippet
• $Snippet - capitalized snippet

You can nest snippets:

"snippets": {
    "name": "$first $last",
    "first": "John",
    "last": "Doe"
}

If you need to organize your snippets you can put them in a hierachy:

"snippets": {
"bond": {
    "first": "James",
    "last": "Bond",
    "name": "$bond.first $bond.last"
    }
}

That hierachy will be converted to a flat list of snippets equivalent to:

"snippets": {
    "bond.name": "James Bond",
    "bond.first": "James",
    "bond.last": "Bond"
}

Custom fonts:

Custom fonts can be passed to CLI via a JS file with PDF fonts. The JS file can be generated by running:

> aferwriting-fonts --regular MyFontRegular.ttf --italic MyFontItalic.ttf --bold MyFontBold.ttf --bolditalic MyFontBoldItalic.ttf --output my-font.js

Or if you're running the CLI from sources: node tools/fonts-converter ...

Only the regular style of the font is required so it's enough to pass:

> afterwriting-fonts -r ./RegularFont.ttf -o my-font.js

The generated file (my-font.js in the example above) can be passed to CLI with --fonts param (can be without .js extension):

> node awc.js --source screenplay.fountain --pdf --fonts ./my-font.js

Note: Monospaced fonts are recommended. It is not guaranteed that all fonts will render equally well due to differences is character height and width, so please test your configuration prior to distribution or printing.

Known issues

• converting directly from the .fdx files doesn't work (use web based app to convert from FinalDraft)