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Recto
A quiet place to write a book.
Recto is a word processor for people writing books.
Arrange your projects on your bookshelf. Open one and start writing.
The outline is the book
For pantsers and plotters alike, arrange your outline or infer it from your book. Your outline is always there for you to quickly glance at and jump to that section of your book.
The book bible sits at the top of the outline. It holds the facts and circumstances about your story and characters that should never be violated. Characters and notes get their own tabs, separate from the manuscript.
Front matter that knows what it is
Keep your book's blurb, back cover description, dedication, acknowledgments, and other information in one place so it's easy to export to EPUB.
Your words stay yours
No proprietary files or storage systems. Every book is stored as Markdown so you can open it in any editor. All files are kept in your own iCloud.
What else is in here
Kill your darlings, except you can also keep them and reuse them later in this book or the next book.
Placeholders, for the fact you will look up later. Drop a flag and keep writing.
Daily word goals, timed sprints, and a chart of the last thirty days.
Find and replace across the whole book, spellcheck, typewriter scrolling, five reading typefaces, and three styles of drop cap.
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.
Free
Recto is free. There is no trial, no subscription, and no in-app purchases lurking in the shadows to steal your lunch money.
If it becomes part of how you work and you want to say thank you, you can send me a tip in the app. But it's not necessary. You can also send me a note and just say hi.
With thanks
Recto is a native rewrite of NEO, the word processor Hugh Howey wrote and released under the MIT License. The outline, the scene breaks, and the idea that a writing app should get out of the way are all his. Recto shares none of his code and all of his intent.
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 in testing on Google Play. 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. Recto does include an MCP server that you can connect to your favorite LLM. I use it for backups and syncing with other tools.
Get Recto
Free. You can tip me in the app, but only if you want.