The Complete Screenplay Formatting Guide
Every margin, indent, and element explained. The format rules Scene Forges handles for you.
Why formatting matters
A reader can spot an unformatted script in seconds and will often stop reading. Correct formatting tells them you know the craft. Scene Forges handles the rules automatically so you always look professional.
The standard format
- Font: Courier 12-point (Courier Prime in Scene Forges).
- Page size: US Letter.
- Margins: 1.5 inches left, 1 inch right, 1 inch top and bottom.
- One page is roughly one minute of screen time.
Element indents
Each element type has its own indentation:
| Element | Left indent | Width | |---------|------------|-------| | Scene Heading | 0 | Full width | | Action | 0 | Full width | | Character | ~2.2 inches | Centered | | Parenthetical | ~1.6 inches | Narrow | | Dialogue | ~1 inch | ~3.5 inches | | Transition | Right-aligned | Auto |
Scene Forges applies these automatically. You just type.
ALL CAPS
Scene headings, character names, and transitions are always in ALL CAPS. The first time a character appears in action, write their name in caps too, like VINCENT (30s) enters.
Page breaks
Scene Forges breaks pages at scene boundaries when possible, keeping scene headings with their first few lines of action. For production, you can lock page breaks so revisions don't reflow the script.
Title page
Your script starts with a title page: title, "written by", your name, and contact info. Scene Forges includes it in your PDF export automatically.
Ready to write?
Open Scene Forges and the formatting is handled for you. Export a clean PDF to see the result.
Try it yourself.
Open Scene Forges and practice this directly in the screenplay editor.