Recto Writer for Mac, iPhone, and iPad
A quiet place to write a book.
Free. You can tip me in the app, but only if you want.
Features
- The page, the outline, and nothing else
- Your books are Markdown files in your own iCloud or gDrive
- Organize your blurb, dedication, acknowledgements, foreword, and afterword
- For the plotters, maintain your book bible, characters, notes, and darlings beside the manuscript
- Export to EPUB, Word, PDF, Markdown, HTML, or plain text
- Daily word goals, timed sprints, and a thirty-day chart
- Spelling and grammar chekcers can be turned on or off, depending on how distracted you want to be
- Themes to help you build your writing routine
Recto is a word processor for people writing books. It's a simple, quiet app for you to focus on your words and your story.
Recto is a word processor for people writing books. It's a clean, simple, and quiet app for you to focus on your words and your story.
Outlines for the plotters
Are you a plotter? Build your book bible, characters, notes/research, and outline and it sits right next to the manuscript.
The book bible are the facts and circumstances about your story and characters that should never be violated.
Keep your front matter and back matter organized
Keep your blurb, dedication, acknowledgements, foreword, and afterword organized with your manuscript.
Your words stay yours
Every book is a folder of Markdown files in your own iCloud Drive. Open it in any editor.
When the draft is done
Export to EPUB, Word, PDF, Markdown, HTML, or plain text. The EPUB is built to what Kindle Direct Publishing expects.
What else is in here
Darlings: cut a passage and keep it, for this book or the next.
Placeholders: leave a mark for the fact you will look up later, and keep writing.
Daily word goals, timed sprints, and a chart of the last thirty days.
Find and replace across the whole book, spelling and grammar checked on the device, typewriter scrolling, five reading typefaces, and three styles of drop cap.
Free
Recto is free. There is no trial, no subscription, and no in-app purchase beyond an optional tip. You don't even create an account. There's no email to send to me (though, I always love to hear from you). Just write your book.
With thanks
Recto is a native rewrite of NEO, the word processor Hugh Howey wrote and released under the MIT License. Recto's source code is completley original. But a lot of the features (especially the shelf, the maniacal focus on simplicity in the editor, and the easy import and export options) are inspired by Howey's work.
Questions
- What does Recto cost?
- Nothing. Recto is free, with no trial, no subscription, and no in-app purchase beyond an optional tip. Every feature is free.
- Where are my books stored?
- In a folder in your own iCloud Drive, one folder per book. Each chapter is a Markdown file, and book.json and spine.json to hold it all together, the author, and the reading order. Every file opens in any text editor.
- Does my writing go to a server?
- No. There is no Recto server and no Recto account. Your books sync between your devices through your own iCloud account, Mac drive, Dropbox, or gDrive. Recto sends anonymous usage events (which features get used, and crashes) and none of them can carry text. You can turn that off in Settings.
- Which devices does it run on?
- Mac, iPhone, and iPad, on macOS 26 and iOS 26. Android is coming very soon. They're all native apps, so they're fast and smooth.
- What can I export?
- EPUB, Word, PDF, Markdown, HTML, or plain text. The EPUB is built to what Kindle Direct Publishing expects, and the blurb from The Book goes into it.
- What is NEO, and what does Recto owe it?
- NEO is the word processor Hugh Howey wrote for his own books and released under the MIT License. Recto is inspired by Howey's work, but it's not a rewrite. Recto is a completely new app, with completely original source code.
- What is the book bible?
- The top of the Outline. The facts and circumstances about your story and characters that should never be violated: who is how old, what happened in which year, what color somebody's eyes are. It stays with the book and syncs with it.
- What are darlings?
- Passages you cut from the manuscript but want to keep. Select the text, choose Move to Darlings, and it waits in the Darlings tab, named for the chapter it came from, until you copy it back out or delete it for good.
- Are there any AI features?
- No. Recto is not an AI app. The words will always be your own. Recto is just a tool to help you get and stay organized when writing your book. Or, if you're a pantser, skip all the organization and just write. In the future, there may be a few AI tools (for example, identifying areas in your book where you break the continuity, consistency, and rules of your bible), but it will always be optional and default turned off.