A Fountain primer

Fountain is a plain-text way to write a screenplay. A Fountain file reads like a script in any text editor, and Cold Open lays it out as a script. It’s Cold Open’s own format, so you never need to know it: Cold Open writes it for you. But it’s simple, and knowing it helps when you open a script in another program, paste text in, or ask an AI agent to write.

This is a short tour. The Fountain syntax page has the whole of it, and Cold Open follows all of it.

The elements

INT. LIGHTHOUSE - NIGHT

The lamp turns. Waves break below.

NORA
Still turning. Still here.

ELI
(from below)
Come down, Nora.

CUT TO:

• A scene heading is a line that starts with INT., EXT., EST., INT./EXT. or I/E, with a blank line before it. Start any line with . to make it one anyway: .FLASHBACK. A number between # signs at the end is its scene number: INT. HOUSE - DAY #12A#.
• Action is any ordinary paragraph.
• A character is a line in capitals with a blank line before it and text right after it. That text is the dialogue. A line in brackets inside a speech is a parenthetical. Start a name with @ to use lower case: @McCLANE.
• A transition is a line in capitals ending in TO:, or any line starting with >.
• Centered text goes between > and <: > THE END <.
• Dual dialogue: put ^ after the second character’s name, and the two speeches print side by side.
• Lyrics start with ~.
• A page break is a line of three or more =.

Emphasis

*italic*, **bold**, ***bold italic*** and _underline_. A backslash before a star or underscore prints it as it is: \*.

What doesn’t print

• Notes: [[like this]], anywhere, even inside a line.
• Boneyard, for cut material: /* to */, over as many lines as you like.
• Sections, for acts and sequences: lines starting with #, ## and so on.
• Synopses: lines starting with =.

Cold Open keeps all of these, shows them in the margin, and never prints them.

The title page

A Fountain file can begin with Key: value lines:

Title: The Lighthouse Keeper
Credit: Written by
Author: Jo Lee
Draft date: 2 November 2026
Contact:
    jo@example.com

A blank line ends the title page. In Cold Open, Edit title page… (Mod+Shift+T) edits it: see The title page.

Why Fountain

• It’s yours. Any text editor on any computer reads it, today and in fifty years.
• It works with version control. Git and similar tools show exactly which lines changed between drafts.
• AI agents read it well. It’s plain text that looks like a script.

What Fountain can’t hold, such as tracked changes or revision marks, a Cold Open project keeps.