

Across all platforms, the library supports multiple storage locations, and the writing environment itself remains as spartan as can be: a page, a keyboard, and a blinking blue cursor. Where previous years saw them whittling rough edges off to reveal the underlying shape, the past few months have been about bridging that gap between smoothness and polish.Īesthetically, the app has returned to a more conventional layout with version 5, particularly in the case of its iOS app, which-after a brief diversion featuring an actual File menu and other oddities-now has a normal sidebar library view and familiar tools. IA Writer has broken out the fine grained sandpaper this year.
#IA WRITER CLASSIC SOFTWARE#
After the basic form has been fashioned, every item goes through half a dozen phases of sanding-by hand-each with a progressively softer paper grain.īy the end, one might wonder how much of a difference it makes.īut anyone who’s experienced the end result will know that in stone carving and software design alike: there’s a difference between smooth and polished. I was in Tanzania recently, and while there I watched the process of carving a beautiful sculpture at a local soapstone workshop. Writer’s modern incarnation is somehow both very similar and very different from the app’s original vision. They’ve also made their way to Android, and are currently contemplating a web version too.
#IA WRITER CLASSIC PRO#
It started as a single app, became two apps, and then merged back into one app that brought together the best aspects of the former Classic and Pro variants. With that out of the way, let’s see what’s new in each of the two apps. In its place, I would put something that’s become increasingly important to me as I’ve accumulated (and migrated) more writing work over time:Ī powerful, easy way to manage and manipulate text items, whether they be articles, snippets, notes, sections, or any other arbitrary text unit. Nowadays, I publish this site via Blot, or to plain markdown files for magazine work, so the third point in my original list is no longer that relevant to my needs. Sometimes, I write for print, and I keep a few fiction projects on the go as well for when I have the time and energy to develop them. I write primarily non-fiction, mostly for online consumption in the form of articles (like this one!) and photo essays ( like this one!). When I last compared these two, I identified my criteria as follows:

To make it easier to follow along with my impressions, it helps to understand where I’m coming from as a writer and what my priorities are. With everyone sharpening their digital pencils, I figured it was time to dive in and see how their respective changes have improved the experience of using and trusting them with our words. And each of them has come a long way in the intervening years.

These continue to be, in my estimation, the finest plain-text writing environments out there. Visit ia.It’s novel season, which has me thinking about the ways we write and the tools we use to get it done.Ī few years ago, I compared the two front-runners: iA Writer and Ulysses. Visit ia.net/writer for more information Spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, repetitive nouns, false conjunctions and clean your text of the usual rumble.Ĭustomize your templates and export to WordPress or Medium, HTML, Microsoft Word (.docx), or PDF.Įmbed links, pictures, tables and text files in plain text and see them in preview. IA Writer includes an inverted light-on-dark-mode, perfect for working day and night. It lives in the keyboard so it’s always close at hand. You can open documents and launch frequent actions in no time with the new Quick Search. Rearrange your keys, or pick new ones from the extensive list. When you tap and hold a key in the command keyboard, you’re given the chance to choose your own layout.

Search, sort, and quickly swap between documents from different clouds. Giving you a calm, focused, writing space, so you can express yourself clearly.įocus Mode dims everything but the current sentence or paragraph, helping you stay in the flow.ĭon’t worry about the format. “iA Writer is all about textual production-writing this phrase, this sentence, this word at this moment.” -WIRED “iA Writer is an example of how powerful simplicity and accessibility can be.” -The Guardian “iA Writer creates a clean, simple and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words.” -The New York Times To me, it’s the gold standard for Markdown syntax styling. “My favorite iOS app for writing in Markdown, without question, is iA Writer. “Leaving life’s mess for an ideal realm of words.” -The New Yorker
