This documentation is mostly complete. If you have questions that aren't answered here, please email us at support@superscript.app.

Get started by downloading a sample script.

• The Bekkoning #2 by Deft Beck © 2020 Michael Kobzik — Read it now
• Skylin #1 by Fred Packard and Josh Valliere © 2017 Charon Comics — Buy the comic
• Shadoworlds #2: The Roots of Glasir by Brian Cole © 2018 Brian Cole — See more from Brian
• ...And a Dog by Brian Cole © 2018 Brian Cole — See more from Brian

Front matter

Everything above the first page of the document is front matter: metadata containing title, author, issue #, contact info, etc.

• The first line of the document is assumed to be the title of the script.
• Written by JP Silva or simply by JP Silva is a shortcut for writer: JP Silva
• Values can be entered right after the key or indented on the following lines.
• You can see what variables are available by pressing the Ctrl + Space keys on a blank line

• address
• characters (see Characters and vocabulary)
• copyright
• draft
• email
• issue
• phone
• series
• title
• vocabulary (see Characters and vocabulary)
• volume
• writer

Page headings

Lines containing just PAGE or PAGES, followed by a number or a range of numbers, are treated as page headings. These headings are automatically set in bold, capital letters, and a page break is inserted above.

When you print or export your script, page headings will be converted into words to follow convention. E.g, PAGE 12 in Superscript will become TWELVE in PDF.

Panel headings

Lines containing just Panel or Panels, followed by a number or a range of numbers, are treated as panel headings.

Automatic numbering

Page and panel headings are automatically numbered for your convenience. Adding or removing page or panel headings will automatically recalculate the heading numbers following them.

• Insert a page: page becomes "PAGE 1". The next page will become "PAGE 2" and so on.
• Insert a range of pages: 5 pages becomes "PAGES 2-6".
• pages 5-9 will automatically be renumbered when you add or remove pages before it, keeping the same range between the numbers.

Page and panel ranges are great for writing splash pages, panel sequences and for writing outlines early on in the script.

The same shortcuts work for panel as well. Panel headings will begin with "1" at the start of each page.

Pro tip: for an even shorter shortcut, type an uppercase "P" and hit enter to create a page heading. Type a lowercase "p" and hit enter to create a panel heading.

An even proier tip: for whatever reason, you might want to specify a page or panel number and not allow it to be set automatically. Suppose you know what you want on page 5, but you haven't written pages 2-4 yet. Just add a period after the number. Type PAGE 5. and autonumbering will leave the page number alone and begin numbering pages again with the following heading (next would be "6"). This period will not be exported or printed.

Character headings

Lines ending in a colon — : — are treated as character headings and automatically set in all-caps. Parenthesized — (WHISPERING) — or bracketed — [WHISPERING] — words may appear after the colon. Anything else after the colon will make the line treated as plain descriptive text.

Character headings are automatically numbered when exporting or using letterer mode, restarting with number 1 for each page. Generally, each new word bubble should have its own character heading, even if the same character is speaking in two consecutive word bubbles.

Pro tip: type : and hit enter to reuse the previous character name. Type :: to reuse the character name before that, and so on. Parentheticals are not duplicated from previous character headings, just the name. You may add a parenthetical while using the shortcut: :: (shouting).

Dialog

Lines indented with two spaces or a tab are treated as dialog. This also includes titles, captions, sounds effect and narration.

Panel count

A panel count is automatically inserted next to the page header when exporting and printing. This may be overridden by placing a parenthetical line following the page heading.

Panel description

All other text is considered descriptive text and left unstyled. Typically, this kind of content is put after panel headings and before characters and dialog, but it could be placed anywhere in the script: just below the page heading, between dialog blocks, etc.

Lists

You can insert lists either by using the format toolbar in the View menu or with basic keystrokes. Begin a line with an asterisk (*) and a space to create a bulleted list item. Begin a line with a numeral, a dot and a space to create an ordered list item. Indent lines with the Tab key for nested lists. Outdent by pressing Shift+Tab.

Supporting Sections

Use Markdown-style headings to add additional, non-script pages to your document to accompany the script. These can be used for outlines, summary, notes to the artist, act breaks, or anything else you find useful.

Start a line with 1-6 hash marks (#) for different heading levels. (1 is the biggest. 6 is the smallest). A heading with 1 hash is used as a page heading, which begins the supporting page. Subheadings (2-6 hashes) are only allowed on these non-script pages. Likewise, panel headings, character headings and dialog are not allowed on non-script pages.

The hash marks are removed when printing and exporting.

Spoken word count

All words in dialog sections are tallied and displayed on the corresponding character, panel and pages headings. To view the word count, select "Toggle Dialog View Count" from the "View" menu.

You can show and set limits for word count per page and per bubble by clicking "Dialog Word Count Settings" in the "View menu".

Character and vocabulary autocompletion

Setting the characters and/or vocabulary front matter variables will give all the entries special powers.

You can add klaatu to the vocabulary variable and later, when you type klaatu, it won't be treated as a misspelled word. What's more: typing kla will make suggestions pop up to autocomplete the word.

Not every script needs these, of course, but they should be immensely helpful for sci-fi and fantasy scripts, where spelling strange words the same way each time can be a challenge.

You can see all available words by pressing down the Ctrl + Space keys anywhere in your script.

Pro tip: you can add any word or phrase in your script to either the character or vocabulary list by selecting it, right clicking and selecting "Add to character list" or "Add to vocabulary list".

Page Navigation

On the left side of the window, you'll find a list of numbered page links. Click on a page link to scroll directly to the top of that page. Hover over the page navigation to see the panel count and word count of each page at a glance (p = panel; w = word). Either double click or right click on a page link to toggle it as bookmark. Bookmarks are saved along with your script, so you can use them later.