“The biggest software advance for writers since the word processor.” —Michael Marshall Smith, bestselling author
Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines all the writing tools you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.
Tailor-made for creating long manuscripts, Scrivener banishes page fright by allowing you to compose your text in any order, in sections as large or small as you like. Got a great idea but don’t know where it fits? Write when inspiration strikes and find its place later. Grow your manuscript organically, idea by idea.
Whether you plan or plunge, Scrivener works your way: meticulously outline every last detail first, or hammer out a complete draft and restructure later. Or do a bit of both. All text sections in Scrivener are fully integrated with its outlining tools, so working with an overview of your manuscript is only ever a tap away, and turning Chapter Four into Chapter One is as simple as drag and drop.
Need to refer to research? In Scrivener, your background material is always at hand. Write a description based on a photograph. Reference a video or PDF. Check for consistency with an earlier chapter. On the iPad, open two documents side-by-side; on the iPhone, flip between research and writing with just two taps.
Once you’re ready to share your work with the world, simply compile everything into a single document for printing, or export to popular formats such as Word, PDF, Final Draft or plain text. You can even share using different formatting, so that you can write in your favorite font and still keep your editor happy.
FEATURES
Get Started
• Interactive tutorial project
• Keep each manuscript and supporting materials in a self-contained project
• Import Word, RTF, Final Draft and plain text files
• Easily split imported text into separate sections
Get Writing
• Write your manuscript in sections of any size
• View all sections as a single text using the “Draft Navigator” (iPad only)
• Quickly navigate sections using the “binder” sidebar
• Format with fonts and presets
• Comments, footnotes, links and highlights
• Simple bullets and lists
• Insert images
• Pinch-zoom to resize text
• Full-screen mode (iPad only)
• Typewriter scrolling mode keeps typed text center-screen (iPad only)
• Write a screenplay using scriptwriting mode
• Live word and character counts
• Set word and character count targets
• Find and replace
• Customizable keyboard row provides quick-access buttons for formatting, navigation and punctuation
• Comprehensive keyboard shortcuts for external keyboard users
• Dark mode
Find Your Structure
• Write in any order and reorganize later
• Write a synopsis for any text section and see it in the outline
• Expand, collapse and drill down into sections of your project
• Rearrange sections as index cards on the corkboard (iPad only)
• Project-wide search
• Track ideas using labels and status
• Apply custom icons to your sections
Refer to Research
• Import research material such as image, PDF and media files
• View research files or other sections right alongside your writing (iPad only)
• Every section has its own notes area for jotting down ideas
• Supports multitasking split screen mode (supported devices only)
Share Your Work
• Compile to a single document for sharing or printing
• Use different formatting in your exported or printed document
• Export to Word, RTF, Final Draft, PDF or plain text
• Convert rich text to Markdown for sharing with Markdown apps
• Create and email zipped backups of your projects
Work Anywhere
• Use Dropbox to sync between devices and with the macOS and Windows versions of Scrivener*
• Copy projects between devices via iTunes
* Requires a Dropbox account (not compatible with iCloud).
SUPPORT
You can contact us at ios.support@literatureandlatte.com, visit our forums at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum, or find us @scrivenerapp on Twitter.
Product Positioning & Context
Related Ecosystem & Alternatives
Discover adjacent products, open-source repositories, and developer tools sharing similar technical architecture.
Deep-Dive FAQs
What is Scrivener?
Scrivener is a digital product or tool described as: Literature & Latte
Where did Scrivener originate?
Data for Scrivener was aggregated directly from the Apple App Store community ecosystem, representing raw developer and early-adopter sentiment.
When was Scrivener publicly launched?
The initial public indexing or launch date for Scrivener within our tracked developer communities was recorded on July 20, 2016.
How popular is Scrivener?
Scrivener has achieved measurable traction, logging over 2,563 reviews and facilitating 4 recorded discussions or engagements.
Which technical categories define Scrivener?
Based on metadata extraction, Scrivener is categorized under topics such as: Productivity, Books.
What are some commercial alternatives to Scrivener?
Our semantic intelligence engine identifies potential commercial alternatives in the SaaS space, such as Forgeon, which offers overlapping value propositions.
How does the creator describe Scrivener?
The original author or development team describes the product as follows: "“The biggest software advance for writers since the word processor.” —Michael Marshall Smith, bestselling author
Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines all the writing tools you ne..."
Community Voice & Feedback
why did i literally spend money on an app when i can’t even change the font size bc it keeps glitching
Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVE Scrivener…on my laptop. Whatever this is…it ain’t Scrivener. Looks and behaves nothing like the windows/Mac version…NOTHING. I absolutely hate it and you will too. The fact that they’re charging for this bogus attempt is what pushed me over the edge. I asked for my money back, but they, of course, refused. I honestly think a third party could make a much better application for them…this is AWFUL. It’s practically unusable. Listen to me…if you love Scrivener on your computer, YOU WILL HATE THIS. Don’t buy it…no matter what other reviews say. It sucks. And developers…you should be ashamed of yourselves. Pull this garbage and put a real app out.
This app has excellent options for sorting documents, literal lifesaver. I've got folders within folders within folders. My dream come true! I use this for my fic writing, my novel wips, and any fun little side projects I whip up! Genuinely a godsend. HIGHLY RECOMMEND !!!!! (Though, I still have no clue how the corkboard works. lol)
I never write reviews for apps, but this one is so helpful for me as an author and I love that I can have all my notes for my books in one place! I also find that writing on my phone helps me turn off my perfectionism.
I really appreciate this software and the uses for it, but I think it would be much better if it had the templates like the desktop version other than that it’s great.
I love the app, it feels awesome to use. My only issue actually has to do with the keyboard function, as it tends to pop-up whilst selecting texts. As a result, I am unable to alter the scripts, as it overlays the command interface.
Hopefully this helps.n
Hopefully this helps.n
I’ve been using Scrivener on my desktop for ages and it’s great for screenplays, but I have all my files saved to OneDrive and I really wish this app supported a standard File > Open dialog that let me browse to my Scrivener files in cloud storage using the built-in Files app like all my other iPad tools.
Entirely broken at this point. Can’t edit because it is bugged out.
Doesn’t work well in dark mode. Using the app in dark mode means that you can’t see the changes in font color and highlight. Also, the text editor doesn’t appear cream unless you turn dark mode off. Lastly, I wish you could change the default settings for the other paragraph/heading options.
So far, the other features work well. It’s easy to keep everything organized and in sync with Dropbox.
So far, the other features work well. It’s easy to keep everything organized and in sync with Dropbox.
I really wanted to like this app, but the syncing issues make it unreliable for real work.
The entire purpose of having Scrivener on iPad is to continue writing when you’re away from your Mac. Unfortunately, that simply doesn’t work consistently. Projects that open perfectly fine on the Mac show up as “invalid project” on iPad, even when the binder file exists and Dropbox reports everything fully synced.
I followed every troubleshooting step provided by support: clearing the sync cache, reinstalling the app, verifying the binder file, closing projects before syncing, testing new projects, and confirming that all files were available offline. The problem still persists across multiple projects and multiple iPads.
The most concerning part is that the iOS app has not been meaningfully updated in years. Meanwhile, Dropbox, macOS, and iPadOS continue to evolve. When a core feature like syncing becomes unreliable, the app stops being practical for writers who need to move between devices.
Scrivener itself is powerful software on Mac. But if you are buying the iOS version expecting a seamless writing workflow between your Mac and iPad, you should know that syncing problems are still very real.
Until the iOS version receives active development and reliable syncing, it’s difficult to recommend.
The entire purpose of having Scrivener on iPad is to continue writing when you’re away from your Mac. Unfortunately, that simply doesn’t work consistently. Projects that open perfectly fine on the Mac show up as “invalid project” on iPad, even when the binder file exists and Dropbox reports everything fully synced.
I followed every troubleshooting step provided by support: clearing the sync cache, reinstalling the app, verifying the binder file, closing projects before syncing, testing new projects, and confirming that all files were available offline. The problem still persists across multiple projects and multiple iPads.
The most concerning part is that the iOS app has not been meaningfully updated in years. Meanwhile, Dropbox, macOS, and iPadOS continue to evolve. When a core feature like syncing becomes unreliable, the app stops being practical for writers who need to move between devices.
Scrivener itself is powerful software on Mac. But if you are buying the iOS version expecting a seamless writing workflow between your Mac and iPad, you should know that syncing problems are still very real.
Until the iOS version receives active development and reliable syncing, it’s difficult to recommend.
The app does not allow editing, for example clicking the highlight button briefly pulls up the tool but then goes away abruptly within a second.
The app has been great but the find/replace is now broken.
It crashes when you try to use find and replace feature every time. Please fix this. Add sync for other services besides Dropbox! Also update it! It hasn’t been updated in over two years!
I initially purchased the app because it does not collect data. Then I began to use it. It worked very well for my needs. Either the latest update I can no longer change the size of the font. Every time I open the text formatting tab it closes immediately. So frustrating!
I got this to be able to write scripts on the go. It’s not self evident how to do that despite Scrivener advertising screenwriting as a template. Unless you just do all the formatting as you write. For novels and short stories, this would be just fine. But screenwriting is advertised.
Discovery Source
Apple App Store Aggregated via automated community intelligence tracking.
Tech Stack Dependencies
No direct open-source NPM package mentions detected in the product documentation.
Media Tractions & Mentions
No mainstream media stories specifically mentioning this product name have been intercepted yet.
Deep Research & Science
No direct peer-reviewed scientific literature matched with this product's architecture.
SaaS Metrics