How to Convert Fountain to FDX (Fountain to Final Draft)

To convert Fountain to FDX, drop the .fountain file into the free Fountain converter in your browser, or import it into Zen Writer and export FDX. Scene headings, action, cues, dialogue, parentheticals and transitions map one to one; notes, boneyard, sections and synopses have no Final Draft equivalent and are stripped, so check the result before you send it.

Updated 2026-09-22 · About 7 sections · 5 answered questions

How to convert Fountain to FDX in one minute

A Fountain file is plain text with a handful of conventions; an FDX file is Final Draft's XML with an explicit type on every paragraph. Converting one to the other means reading each Fountain block, deciding which screenplay element it is, and writing it out as a typed <Paragraph>. Two free ways to do that:

In the browser. Open the Fountain to FDX / PDF converter, drop the .fountain (or .txt) in, download the .fdx. No account.
On your device. Import the Fountain file into Zen Writer on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Android and export FDX from the same document. Useful when you want to keep editing after the conversion.

Both produce a file that opens in Final Draft and in every app that reads FDX. The rest of this guide is about what the conversion can and cannot carry, because Fountain has a few features that Final Draft simply has no slot for.

What maps cleanly from Fountain to Final Draft

The six core elements convert one to one, because both formats agree exactly on what they are. Given this Fountain:

INT. HARBOUR OFFICE - NIGHT #12#

A single desk lamp. DEV counts cash into a tin, twice.

DEV
(not looking up)
You're late, and you're wet.

RUTH (V.O.)
Ferry's cancelled.

CUT TO:

the converter writes:

<Paragraph Type="Scene Heading" Number="12"><Text>INT. HARBOUR OFFICE - NIGHT</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Action"><Text>A single desk lamp. DEV counts cash into a tin, twice.</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Character"><Text>DEV</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Parenthetical"><Text>(not looking up)</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Dialogue"><Text>You're late, and you're wet.</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Character"><Text>RUTH (V.O.)</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Dialogue"><Text>Ferry's cancelled.</Text></Paragraph>
<Paragraph Type="Transition"><Text>CUT TO:</Text></Paragraph>

Fountain	FDX	Fidelity
Scene heading (`INT.`/`EXT.` line, or forced with `.`)	`Scene Heading`	Exact
Scene number `#12#`	`Number` attribute on the heading	Exact
Action (or forced with `!`)	`Action`	Exact
Character cue, with `(V.O.)` / `(O.S.)` extensions	`Character`	Exact
Parenthetical	`Parenthetical`	Exact
Dialogue	`Dialogue`	Exact
Transition (`TO:` line, or forced with `>`)	`Transition`	Exact
`italic`, `bold`, `_underline_`	`Style` attribute on the text run	Good; check a sample
Page break `===`	Forced page break on the next paragraph	Good
Title page keys	`<TitlePage>` block	Text arrives; layout is rebuilt

If your file is the everyday kind — headings, action, people talking — the conversion is effectively lossless, and the only thing to verify is the page count.

What does not map: notes, boneyard, sections, synopses, centered text, dual dialogue

Fountain was designed for writing, and it carries a layer of material the reader is never meant to see. Final Draft's file format has no home for most of it. Know what disappears before you convert:

Notes [[like this]]. Fountain notes are stripped from any rendered output by design. Some converters write them as Final Draft script notes attached to the paragraph; most drop them. Assume they are gone, and copy any you need into a separate file first.
Boneyard /* … */. Commented-out scenes, alternate lines, deleted material you are not ready to delete. Fountain hides it; the conversion discards it. Nothing in FDX represents "text that is not in the script".
Sections # Act One, ## Sequence. Outline headings that structure the file without printing. They do not become anything in FDX. If you rely on them, keep a Fountain copy as your outline.
Synopses = One-line summary. Same story: outline material with no printed form. Dropped. If your app has scene synopses of its own, re-enter the important ones there after import.
Centered text > THE END <. FDX can center a paragraph, but converters differ: some emit a centered action paragraph, some emit ordinary action. Check THE END and any centered titles by eye.
Dual dialogue ^. The caret after the second cue tells Fountain to set two speeches side by side. FDX has an explicit dual-dialogue wrapper, so this can map — but support on both ends varies. Find every ^ before converting and check each one after.
Lyrics ~. Fountain sets a line starting with ~ as lyrics, usually italic. FDX has no lyric element, so expect italic dialogue or action.

A quick way to see what you are about to lose: search the Fountain file for [[, /*, a line starting with # or =, and ^. The full Fountain syntax guide lists every mark and what it does.

Step by step: the free Fountain to FDX converter

Open the Fountain converter in any browser. It reads .fountain and .txt.
Drop the file in, or paste the text. The tool parses the Fountain and previews the result as a formatted screenplay: headings in caps at the margin, cues indented, dialogue beneath.
Look at the preview for the failure signatures. A speech that has become action means the cue was not fully uppercase (force it with @). A heading that has become action means it did not start with INT., EXT., EST. or I/E (force it with a leading period). Fix these in the source and re-run rather than in the FDX.
Choose FDX and download. The same page also exports a PDF if all you need is something to read; the FDX to PDF article covers what a correct one looks like.
Open the FDX in Final Draft, Fade In, WriterDuet or the free FDX viewer and run the checks in the next section but one.

If your text is not really Fountain — a script typed in a notes app with no consistent conventions — use the plain text screenplay formatter instead. It classifies lines by case and context rather than strict Fountain rules, and outputs FDX, Fountain or PDF.

Import Fountain into Zen Writer and export FDX

If the conversion is a step on the way to more writing, import the Fountain into a screenwriting app instead of round-tripping files. Zen Writer imports .fountain and .txt directly and exports FDX, PDF, Fountain and plain text from the same document, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android. Nothing is uploaded; the parse happens on the device.

Share or open the .fountain file into the app from Files, Mail, a cloud drive or AirDrop.
Scroll the imported script. The scene navigator lists every heading it found, which is the fastest way to spot a slugline that came through as action. The characters list does the same for cues.
Fix by retagging, not retyping. Tap into a mis-typed line and change its element. Smart Enter then moves you through the rest of the speech correctly.
Export FDX when it is going to a Final Draft user, or PDF when it is going to a reader.

This is also the workflow for writers who draft in Fountain on a phone because plain text is fast, then need a Final Draft file for a producer: the phone screenwriting workflow article covers it end to end, and the Zen Writer download is free with no account.

Checking the converted FDX before you send it

Count the scene headings. Count lines starting with INT. or EXT. in the Fountain file, and compare with the scene list in the FDX. A shortfall is a heading that failed to parse.
Check the character list. A name that appears twice with different spellings, or a cue missing entirely, means a lowercase letter in a cue turned it into action. McKENZIE is the classic: force it with @McKENZIE in the source.
Find every ^. Confirm each dual-dialogue pair is still side by side, or re-flag it in the app.
Find every forced element. Lines you forced with !, @, . or > should have lost their marker in the FDX. A stray > at the start of a transition means the converter did not recognise the force.
Read the title page. The keys arrive as text, but the layout is rebuilt by the app. Fix the centering and the contact block.
Compare the page count with the PDF your Fountain app produces. Fountain stores no layout, so page count depends entirely on the renderer; two apps can differ by a few pages on the same script, and that is normal. If a page limit is load-bearing, check it in the file you are actually sending.
Do a round trip if it matters. Export the FDX back to Fountain and diff it against your source. Anything that vanished is a loss you now know about.

Common mistakes when converting Fountain to FDX

Converting the only copy. Keep the Fountain. It is your diffable, future-proof master, and the FDX is the deliverable. FDX vs Fountain explains why most writers keep both.
Leaving notes and boneyard in, expecting them to survive. They will not. Move anything you need out first.
Cues with lowercase letters. DeVERE, McKENZIE, O'BRIEN is fine but o'BRIEN is not. Force with @.
A missing blank line before a cue. Fountain needs an empty line before a character name. Without it the cue and the speech merge into the preceding action.
Two spaces or a tab at the start of action. Fountain preserves leading whitespace in action, so indented lines come through indented in the FDX.
Trusting the Fountain app's page count. The FDX will be repaginated by whatever opens it. Check the count where it counts.
Title page not at the very top. The Title: block must be the first thing in the file, followed by a blank line, or it is parsed as action.

The reverse direction — FDX to Fountain — is a single drop into the free FDX to Fountain converter, and the rest of the FDX guide covers opening, editing and converting the format on every device.

Frequently asked questions

Can Final Draft open a Fountain file directly?

Some recent versions of Final Draft can import a .fountain file; older ones cannot, and support for notes, sections and dual dialogue varies. The dependable route is to convert to FDX first with a free converter and open that, which works in every version that reads FDX.

Does converting Fountain to FDX keep my notes?

Usually not. Fountain notes in double brackets are stripped from rendered output by design, and most converters drop them rather than writing Final Draft script notes. Copy any notes you need into a separate file before converting, and keep the Fountain source.

Why did a character cue become action after conversion?

Fountain only recognises a cue if the line is entirely uppercase and preceded by a blank line. A lowercase letter in a name like McKENZIE, or a missing blank line, turns the cue and its speech into action. Force it with an @ in front of the name and convert again.

Will the page count match after converting to FDX?

Not necessarily. Fountain stores no page layout, so the count comes entirely from whichever app renders it, and Final Draft, a phone app and a browser converter each compute breaks from their own font metrics. A difference of a few pages is normal; check the count in the file you send.

Is there a free Fountain to FDX converter?

Yes. The Fountain converter at /tools/ runs in the browser with no login and outputs FDX or PDF, and Zen Writer imports Fountain and exports FDX on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android for free.

Ready to turn this idea into a screenplay?

Zen Writer imports .fountain files and exports FDX from the same document, so you can draft in plain text on your phone and hand Final Draft users a file that opens cleanly.

Import Fountain in Zen Writer

Free on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android.

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FDX & Final Draft Files

How to Convert Fountain to FDX (Fountain to Final Draft)

How to convert Fountain to FDX in one minute

What maps cleanly from Fountain to Final Draft

What does not map: notes, boneyard, sections, synopses, centered text, dual dialogue

Step by step: the free Fountain to FDX converter

Import Fountain into Zen Writer and export FDX

Checking the converted FDX before you send it

Common mistakes when converting Fountain to FDX

Frequently asked questions

Ready to turn this idea into a screenplay?

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