Chapter 50 · Getting Work In and Out
Exporting a Typeset PDF
A PDF is the copy that leaves the building. Storskarvia sets it on the server, in real fonts at real measurements, so the page a reader opens is the page you meant. This chapter covers the three layouts it can build, what each one prints and leaves out, and what to do when a download does not arrive.
Where the PDF lives
Open the document and use Export ▾ at the top right of the editor. The PDF entries are:
| Entry | Offered for | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Typeset PDF (.pdf) | Every format | The layout that suits the document: screenplay pages for a script, book pages for prose |
| Manuscript for submission (.pdf) | Novels only | Standard manuscript format for an agent or editor |
| Watermarked draft PDF… | Every format | The typeset PDF with a name stamped across each page |
| PDF with revision stars… | The owner only | The typeset PDF with changed lines marked against a saved version |
| Print / PDF (browser) | Every format | Your browser's print dialog, printing the page as you see it |
The two entries ending in an ellipsis have their own chapter, which follows this one. Print / PDF (browser) typesets nothing: what comes out depends on your browser and printer. Use it when you want the screen as it looks, and the typeset entries when the page count matters.
Every typeset entry saves first. The status bar reads Saving…, your latest edit goes to
the server, and only then is the PDF built from it. The file downloads under the document's title;
a submission manuscript adds (manuscript) to the name.
Screenplay pages
A screenplay is set the way a production expects to count it: 12pt Courier at six lines to the inch, 55 lines of script to a page, on US Letter. The left margin is an inch and a half for the binding, and the other three are an inch. Each element sits at its industry position, measured from the left edge of the paper:
| Element | Starts at |
|---|---|
| Scene heading, action | 1.5 inches |
| Dialogue | 2.5 inches, running to 2.5 inches from the right edge |
| Parenthetical | 3.1 inches |
| Character cue | 3.7 inches |
| Transition | 5.5 inches |
Scene headings, cues and transitions print in capitals. A cue needs room for itself and two
more lines at the foot of a page, or it moves over. A
speech that runs past the bottom breaks with (MORE) and picks up on the next page under
the cue with (CONT'D). Page numbers print top right, with a full stop, from page 2.
A few things behave differently on paper from the screen:
- Outline, summary and note elements do not print. They are your scaffolding,
and Final Draft leaves them out of the printed script too. They stay in the document and in the
.fdx. - Dual dialogue prints side by side, each speech in half the width with both cues on one line, and the pair stays on one page. Word and Final Draft files carry the speeches one after the other; Chapter 16 lists every export.
- Scene numbers from the Scene #s box do not print. Chapter 17 explains why, and covers the title page, locked pages, coloured revision stock and OMITTED scenes, all of which this PDF honours.
- Multi-camera scripts print in the multi-camera layout: centred cues, double spaced dialogue and capitalised action. The switch is on the Home tab, described in Chapter 22.
The title page is the one you fill in with Title Page. If you never saved one, the PDF begins on page one of the script.
Novel pages
For prose, Typeset PDF builds a reading copy: 12pt Times, one-inch margins, a small first-line
indent on each paragraph. A small running head sits top left and the page number top right on
every page. The running head is the owner's account name, or the part of their account email before
the @ if they never gave one, a slash, and the title.
Headings print bold and centred. A heading that arrives in the last quarter of a page starts a
new page; anywhere higher, it gets three blank lines above it. A horizontal rule prints as
* * *. Lists keep their bullets and numbers, block quotes are indented, and each table
row prints as one line with its cells separated by |.
Three things a reading copy does not carry: italics and bold, which print in roman; footnotes; and images. Chapter 14 sets out which formats carry them. If they matter to the person reading, send them Word or the submission manuscript.
A contents page gets real page numbers. When the document holds one, as a compiled book with Table of contents ticked does, Storskarvia lays the book out twice: once to learn where each chapter lands and once to print the numbers. Front matter from a compile prints without a running head or number, but the count carries on underneath, so the number beside chapter one on the contents page is the number on chapter one. Compiling is Chapter 33.
Manuscript for submission
Manuscript for submission (.pdf) is the format agents and editors ask for, and it is stricter than the reading copy:
- 12pt Times, double spaced, one-inch margins on all four sides, a half-inch first-line indent.
- A header at the top right of every page reading surname, a slash, the title in capitals, a slash and the page number. The surname is the last word of your account name.
- Every top-level chapter heading starts a new page, a third of the way down.
- Scene breaks print as a centred
#. - Italics and bold are kept.
- Footnotes become an asterisk in the text, and the notes are gathered on a Notes page at the end.
It always opens with a title page: your name top left, a rounded word count top right (About 85,000 words, or to the nearest hundred for a piece under a thousand), and the title in capitals centred with by and your name beneath. Your account email prints under your name as the contact line only when you are the owner exporting. A collaborator exporting a shared draft gets the page without it, so the owner's address never goes out on someone else's copy. A compile's own title page, dedication and contents are left out.
Plays, audio and video scripts
A stage play has its own typesetter, with a cover page, cast list and act pagination; Chapter 19 covers it. An audio drama and a video script go through the prose writer, so they come out as paragraphs. For a video script's two-lane grid, use Print / PDF; Chapter 21 has the detail. A prose document inside a screenplay project, such as a series bible, prints as prose.
Characters the fonts lack
Courier and Times cover English and most Western European text. Anything else, an emoji or a letter from another alphabet, is drawn in a fallback face for that one character. In a screenplay the substitute still takes exactly one column, so the page count holds. A character the fallback cannot draw prints as a small box, so you can see the loss. Right-to-left text is not reordered and joined scripts are not shaped, so a script written mainly in Arabic or Hebrew will not typeset correctly.
When it goes wrong
| What you see | What happened |
|---|---|
| Not exported, your last change has not reached the server | The save before the export failed, so no file was made rather than one missing your last edit. Check the connection, wait for the status bar to settle, and export again. |
| Not exported: Nothing to export yet | The server holds no text for this document yet. Write something, let it save, and export again. |
| Not exported: no connection | The request never reached Storskarvia. Try again once you are back online. |
| No Manuscript for submission entry | It is offered for novels only. Scripts have their own page format. |
| No PDF with revision stars entry | You are a collaborator. Revision marks compare against the owner's saved versions, which are private to them. |
| A contact line is cut short on the cover | The screenplay title page prints the contact as one line of up to 70 characters. Shorten it in Title Page. |
Stamping a draft with a reader's name is the next chapter. Editable files, in Word, Final Draft, Fountain and plain text, come after it.
Updated 2026-09-26 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?