I love iA Writer. I mostly use the Mac version, but they also have an iPad version. It’s a great example of focusing on the right things and executing them carefully and thoughtfully.
Equally impressive is the video that promotes iA Writer. It’s flat-out fantastic. There’s an idea, a vision, a storyline, and flawless execution. I love how it playfully picks a fight with bloated word processors and then uses the interface to explain itself.
There are a million ways to make a boring video about software that lets you type, write, format, and save a document. They went in the other direction.
I aspire to be able to produce something this good. Well done.
iA Writer for Mac from Oliver Reichenstein on Vimeo.
Grant
on 23 Jun 11I love this app. Brilliant video.
Jess
on 23 Jun 11The only thing that confuses me is that it says “No formatting … One font, one size”.
Then later is does auto-markdown and changes the formatting and font .
Graham Peel
on 23 Jun 11You can run MS Word in “Full Screen Reading” mode to achieve this same effect (no tool bars, can’t easily change fonts, etc). And I found this video to be kind of annoying.
Buster
on 23 Jun 11A HTML form field, like this comment box I’m typing in now (below) would effectively be the same as this app.
No?
Martin Edic
on 23 Jun 11Demo videos are a bit of an art form with most of them simply awful. I’ve done a few and it takes a lot of effort to get the information across in less than two minutes (the effective maximum IMHO). This one is one minute which is great. I use the app for first drafts when formatting, etc., is completely irrelevant.
Michael
on 23 Jun 11Anouther douchey anti-Microsoft Mac fanboy video. I am so sick of this hipster shit. This video makes me NOT want to give this software a second glance.
Des
on 23 Jun 11I use and love this application. The only competitors to it in my opinion are WriteRoom & Ommwriter. It’s better than both of those, because of Focus mode. (It’s a close call with Ommwriter, which I also love)
It’s not for everyone, but for me I’d pay $99 for it now having used it. The tranquility and focus it gives me when writing has improved my writing. It’s actually a place on my desktop that I “like going to”. I do a lot of work, design some stuff, and then when I’m ready to write up I actually enjoy booting Writer and leaving the world behind.
Could I achieve this with full screen word or pages? Maybe, but those apps have been around for ever and never have I used them that way.
In short it’s not for everyone. When I write on paper I care about the pen I use and the paper I use. When I sketch I care what markers I use. When I write on screen, I care about what software I use. And this is the good stuff.
Luis
on 24 Jun 11I purchased the iPad version when it first came out and loved it. The extra keyboard row with navigation and frequently used keys is awesome. Then the Mac version came out and I debated spending the $17.99. I thought it was pricey, but I won’t get into that…many articles are already written, specifically about iA Writer’s price. Regardless of that, I love it.
It’s my main drafting app. I jump between the iPad and Mac versions, syncing to Dropbox, building my articles word by word. The interface is clean, there’s just something about it. Like Des said about caring about pen and paper, I love Moleskine notebooks. Sure, many think they’re just another notebook, yet, there’s something about them that make writing more pleasurable.
For those who want the option of displaying different fonts, light or dark-mode backgrounds, slightly greater Markdown markup capabilities and export options, may want to check out Byword.
I have to say, it really does help me focus. Not having all the bells and whistles of the full-fledged word processors means I’m left to the task of actually writing. Who knew.
Jeff
on 24 Jun 11Great video; I had to watch it twice. Let the haters hate!
Anonymous Coward
on 24 Jun 11Dear ia Writer,
Two people in a thousand don’t like your video. How will you survive?
Sincerely,
Everything to everyone or nothing at all
Oliver Reichenstein
on 24 Jun 11Jason,
Thank you for your kind words. What goes around comes around: We’ve been learning from you guys. :-)
What we built so far is iA Writer’s core. There will be performance improvements and more file handling logic to it soon (of course, we’ll continue to work the upcoming modules into the interface, and try to keep avoiding the old cheap settings trick).
Hope that you’ll like what comes next as much as we do. I’d be a pleasure to have you on the beta tester list.
Best
O.
Matt
on 24 Jun 11I love Writer on both Mac and iPad. As Des says, it’s glorious for drafting documents, even those that eventually end up being stuffed into Word (or Pages, lest I get accused of being an anti-Microsoft Mac fanboy). Well worth the small amount of money the apps cost on the two platforms.
And the video is clever, I agree. It’s hard to get your message across in that short a space of time. Well done.
jean
on 24 Jun 11xPad (http://getxpad.com/) FTW
Tor Løvskogen Bollingmo
on 24 Jun 11But it doesn’t remove the fact that iA Writer is a superfluous product in OS X. This is the OS X TextEdit with plain text: http://cl.ly/7t9r – you already got this.
iA Writer is beautiful. But it plays on the minimalist mindset, a mindset it’s the opposite of. It’s a good market for “minimalists”, and this app exploits it, for the better or worse.
Radex
on 24 Jun 11Wow. I loved OmmWriter, but it forced me to focus on writing too much (because of full screen, its ambient music etc). This is more awesome.
Derek
on 25 Jun 11Someone please tell me why I should pay upwards of $10 for this when Byword does the same thing for much less. Sorry, iA, you’re not worth it.
Anonymous Coward
on 25 Jun 11Derek: Byword is $10 too. What’s your point?
Martial
on 28 Jun 11Wife got iA Writer for her iPad. We just spent two days driving up the East Coast and I was able to write – in the car – for several hours. Finished two articles that I expected to work on this week. It was different and better than any other travel writing I’ve ever done. Just “wow”.
Michael Buffington
on 28 Jun 11Regardless of price, I’d love to see a “saving disabled” trial of iA Writer. Not because I’m cheap (I’m not – I’m happy to pay good money for good tools). It’s because I don’t want to spend money (regardless of the amount) on tools that aren’t for me.
RS
on 28 Jun 11I’ve been missing that on the Mac App Store. It feels like trials should be part of the story.
This discussion is closed.