Laternist
A writing and storyboard studio for screenwriters and storytellers. Write your scene, tap Light it and watch it become a black-and-white storyboard.
Before cinema, lanternists told stories by projecting painted glass slides in a dark room. Laternist does the same in your pocket: you write the scene, it draws it.
Screenplays, series, novels, comics and branching game stories in one workspace. Writing works offline.
Highlights
Write in industry format
Scene headings, action, characters, dialogue, parentheticals and transitions format themselves as you type. Scene navigator, character name completion, page view and a distraction-free focus mode.
Light it: your scene as a storyboard
One tap turns a scene into black-and-white storyboard slides, and your characters look the same in every panel. Speech balloons are real text you can edit any time.
Storyboards without AI, too
Every scene gets a blocking storyboard made on your device, free and unlimited. You can turn all AI features off in Settings.
A whole story workspace
Character and location cards, notes in folders, quick ideas and voice notes. Corkboard, outline, and three-act, Save the Cat and Hero's Journey templates.
Director tools
Shot lists drafted from your storyboard, shot sizes and camera angles; script breakdown, props and costume lists and PDF reports. On iPad and tablets, script, storyboard and shot list side by side.
Open formats
Import Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain and Word (.docx); export PDF, Fountain, FDX, Word, storyboard PDF and PNG, and comic pages.
How it works
Write
Write your scene; the formatting takes care of itself. No internet needed.
Tap Light it
The scene becomes storyboard panels. The first time, you're asked before anything is sent.
Edit and share
Edit the balloons, draft the shot list and export as PDF or PNG.
Free and Laternist Pro
Free
- The full editor
- Two active projects
- Free, unlimited blocking storyboards
- PDF and Fountain export
Laternist Pro
- Unlimited projects and every project type
- Word import; FDX and Word export; watermark-free PDFs
- The full Director tools
- AI storyboards with lights every month (1 panel = 1 light)
- Sync between your devices of the same platform, through your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive account
Try Pro free for 7 days with 15 lights. Studio gives heavy users more lights, and light packs never expire. Pro bought on iOS doesn't carry over to Android, and vice versa.
Where your script stays
Your full script never reaches our servers. Everything you write is stored on your device, and writing works offline. You don't create an account with us; the app uses an anonymous identifier.
If you use AI storyboards, only short panel descriptions and character cards are sent to OpenAI through our server functions, and you're asked once before anything is sent. If you turn on sync (Pro), your projects go to your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive account, not to us. No ads, no tracking.