#Welcome to FramePath

FramePath is a shot list planner built for filmmakers. Write or import your screenplay, break each scene down into elements, plan every shot, sketch your storyboard, and track your day on set — all from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Whether you are a director preparing a short film, a cinematographer mapping out coverage, or a student learning the craft, FramePath gives you a purpose-built workspace for thinking in shots.

What FramePath Does

FramePath brings every step of pre-production and production into one workspace, organised around three stages:

• Write. Type your scenes directly into FramePath as action, dialogue, transitions, and headings — or import a .fountain screenplay you already have. Track every character in your project.

• Plan. Break each scene into elements (action lines, dialogue, transitions) and build a shot list with size, angle, camera, VFX and SFX flags, descriptions, and "Why" notes. Sketch storyboard frames with Apple Pencil, import reference photos, and review the whole sequence in a Board view.

• Shoot. Lock the app into on-set mode. The shot list becomes read-only with large status controls — tap once to mark a shot as Shooting or Done. A digital clapperboard panel surfaces scene, shot, take, and crew names for every setup.

Across all three stages, you can:

• Generate shots with AI. Select a scene and let FramePath suggest a cinematographic shot list based on the scene text and your character list. Each AI-generated shot includes a "Why" note explaining the reasoning.

• Export for your crew. Share a Fountain file, a Screenplay PDF, a Shot List PDF, or a panel-based Storyboard PDF — straight to the system Share sheet or to the Files app.

• Sync everywhere. Your projects sync automatically via iCloud. Plan on your Mac, review on your iPad, and check off shots on your iPhone.

The FramePath workspace: scenes, breakdown, and shots side by side.

Supported Platforms

FramePath runs natively on Apple platforms:

| Platform | Minimum Version | |----------|----------------| | iPhone | iOS 16 or later | | iPad | iPadOS 16 or later | | Mac | macOS 14 or later |

The workspace adapts to each screen. On Mac and iPad, the Plan stage shows the scene list, screenplay, breakdown, and shot list at once. On iPhone, each tab presents one panel at a time with a segmented picker for switching between Scenes, Elements, Shots, and Script.

Free or Pro

FramePath is free to use with generous limits. FramePath Pro is a one-time purchase that unlocks unlimited projects, unlimited AI generations, storyboard drawing and Storyboard PDF export on Mac and iPad. See FramePath Pro for details.

#Getting Started

This section walks you through your first launch of FramePath and shows you the three ways to start a project.

First Launch

The first time you open FramePath, the app creates a bundled example project for you — a short scene called "Example — Cafe Break-Up Scene" — so you can explore the workspace with real data before adding your own script.

You can:

• Open the example project to see how everything fits together, or
• Tap New Project to start working on your own screenplay right away.

FramePath does not show a multi-screen onboarding modal. Instead, small contextual hints appear next to the controls you encounter for the first time. Each hint dismisses as soon as you interact with the highlighted control or tap elsewhere. Hints are device-specific and only appear once.

If you want to see the hints again, choose Help → Show Tips Again on Mac.

Creating a New Project

To create a new project, tap New Project in the project list toolbar. A sheet appears with three options:

1. Write from Scratch

Use this when you want to start writing in FramePath without importing an existing screenplay.

1. Enter a project name.
2. Tap Write from scratch.
3. FramePath creates a blank project with one empty scene, opens the Write stage, and focuses the new scene so you can start typing.

See Writing Your Scenes to learn how to build a script from typed elements.

2. Import a Fountain Script

Use this when you have an existing screenplay saved in the Fountain format (a .fountain file).

1. Enter a project name.
2. Tap Import a Fountain script.
3. A file picker opens. Select your .fountain file.
4. FramePath parses the script, creates the project, and opens it in the workspace.

See Importing Fountain Scripts for details on the supported elements.

3. Explore the Example

Use this if you want a guided introduction.

1. Tap Explore the example. (No project name needed.)
2. FramePath opens the bundled example project and starts a short five-step guided tour that highlights key parts of the workspace. Tap Next to advance through the tour, or Skip tour at any time.
3. When the tour ends, the app stops showing further contextual hints so you can work without interruption.

The three ways to start a project.

The Project List

The project list is the home screen of FramePath. It shows every project sorted by the most recently modified.

Project Cards

Each row shows:

• Project name — the title of your screenplay.
• Script title — the title from the Fountain file (if imported).
• Shot progress — how many shots are marked Done out of the total.
• Last modified — a relative timestamp (e.g. "2 hours ago").

Renaming a Project

• Mac — right-click a row and choose Rename, or open the project and edit the navigation title inline.
• iPad / iPhone — swipe left on a row and tap Rename, or open the project and edit the title.

Deleting a Project

• Mac — right-click a row and choose Delete.
• iPad / iPhone — swipe left on a row and tap Delete.

A confirmation alert always appears before the project is permanently removed. Deleting a project removes all its scenes, shots, and storyboard data. This cannot be undone.

Renaming and deleting projects from the project list.

Sync Status and Pro Upgrade

Two icons sit in the project list toolbar:

• Cloud icon — shows iCloud sync status. See iCloud Sync.
• Star icon — opens the FramePath Pro upgrade sheet. See FramePath Pro.

#The Workspace

When you open a project, FramePath presents a stage-based workspace. You move through three stages — Write, Plan, and Shoot — depending on what you are doing right now.

The Three Stages

| Stage | What you do here | |-------|------------------| | Write | Browse your story as Scene Cards, open a card to edit its heading, description, and elements, and manage your cast. | | Plan | Read the formatted script, break each scene into elements, build the shot list, and create your storyboard. | | Shoot | Lock the app into on-set mode. Mark shots as Shooting or Done, view the digital clapperboard. |

The workspace remembers the last stage you used and reopens to it next time.

Switching Stages

• Mac / iPad — A segmented control sits in the centre of the toolbar. The Write segment shows a pencil, Plan shows a list, and Shoot shows the clapperboard.
• iPhone — A tab bar at the bottom of the screen shows the same three icons with their labels.

Both controls use the same SF Symbol set so the visual language matches across platforms.

Switch stages from the toolbar (Mac and iPad) or the tab bar (iPhone).

Sprint 22 / PR-182 — Stage navigator icons resized. From Sprint 5 through Sprint 21 the Write / Plan / Shoot icons on Mac and iPad rendered visibly smaller than the other toolbar items, because the segmented picker carried a .controlSize(.small) modifier for an iPad layout reason. PR-182 brings the icons back up to the toolbar's canonical size on every platform — the segmented picker now reads as part of the same row as Export, Project Info, and the other primary actions. If you have older user-guide screenshots that show the smaller icons, they need re-capture.

The Write Stage

The Write stage is the home view for browsing and editing your story. Its layout differs by device.

Mac and iPad

Two columns side by side:

| Column | Content | |--------|---------| | Sidebar | A collapsible scene list and the Cast disclosure. Tap the chevron beside Scenes or Cast to hide either section independently. On Mac, ⇧⌘C also toggles the Cast disclosure. | | Detail | The Scene Card grid at the top with the Character Filmstrip pinned at the bottom. The grid reflows into more or fewer columns as you resize the window. |

See Managing Scenes for the Scene Card grid and the Scene Detail Sheet, and Working with Characters for the Character Filmstrip.

iPhone

The Write tab hosts the Scene Card grid directly in a navigation stack. The cast lives in a separate Characters sheet opened from a person.2.fill button in the navigation bar — see Toolbar at a Glance below and Working with Characters.

The Plan Stage

The Plan stage is the heart of FramePath's shot planning workflow.

Mac and iPad

Three columns side by side:

| Column | Content | |--------|---------| | Sidebar | The scene list. Tap a scene to select it. | | Centre | The formatted screenplay. | | Detail | Scene breakdown (top) and shot list grid (bottom), with a resizable divider between them. |

The three-column Plan stage on Mac and iPad.

Resizing the breakdown and shot list

A thin horizontal handle separates the breakdown from the shot list. Drag it up or down to change the balance. Your preferred position is saved.

Hiding the script column

The toolbar includes a Script toggle (the document icon). Tap it to collapse the centre column and give the breakdown and shot list more room. Tap again to bring the script back.

iPhone

On iPhone, the Plan tab uses a segmented picker at the top to switch between four panels:

• Scenes — the scene list.
• Elements — the breakdown of the selected scene.
• Shots — the shot list, with a read-only storyboard strip pinned above it.
• Script — the formatted screenplay.

The Plan tab on iPhone uses a segmented picker to switch panels.

The Shoot Stage

The Shoot stage is for on-set use. You can also jump into it directly from Plan by tapping the Go to Set toolbar button.

See Shoot Mode for what changes once you are on set.

Selection Flows Across Panels

In the Plan stage, selection is linked across panels so you can stay oriented:

• Tap a scene in the sidebar → the script scrolls to that scene, and the breakdown and shot list filter to it.
• Tap an element in the breakdown → the shots linked to that element are highlighted in the shot list.
• Tap a shot in the shot list → the script scrolls to the matching scene and the linked element is highlighted in the breakdown.

This bidirectional linking means you can start in any panel and the rest of the workspace follows.

In the Write stage, selection flows from the sidebar's scene list to the Scene Card grid: picking a scene in the sidebar focuses the same scene's card in the grid.

Element-Type Icons (Sprint 20 / Epic 24)

FramePath uses a single set of icons and colours for the three main element types — Action, Dialogue, and Transition — across every surface where elements are visible:

| Element type | Icon | Tint | |--------------|------|------| | Action | figure.run | Blue | | Dialogue | quote.bubble | Orange | | Transition | arrow.right | Purple |

The same icon set appears on Scene Cards (Write stage), Element Cards inside the Scene Detail Sheet, Shot Cards (Plan stage), and the Scene Breakdown panel. Sprint 20 / Epic 24 retired an older pattern that mixed coloured vertical strips on Shot Cards and Breakdown rows with the icon set used on Scene Cards — every surface now reads from the same visual vocabulary, so a glance at a Shot Card and the Scene Card it belongs to no longer requires translation.

No behaviour changed — only the visual indicators. See Scene Breakdown and Managing Shots for how the icons show up on each surface.

Toolbar at a Glance

The workspace toolbar adapts to the platform and the active stage. From left to right (or, on iPhone, in the order they appear in the nav bar):

| Item | What it does | Where it shows | |------|--------------|----------------| | Stage picker (segmented control, centre placement) | Switch between Write, Plan, and Shoot. | Mac / iPad. | | Characters (person.2.fill) | Open the Cast sheet. | iPhone Write tab only. | | Export Script (square.and.arrow.up) | Open the export sheet. While a PDF is rendering, the button is replaced by a progress indicator in the same slot. | All platforms, every stage. | | Project Info (info.circle) | Open the project inspector — project stats and the aspect-ratio picker. | All platforms, every stage. | | Script (doc.text / doc.text.fill) | Show or hide the script column. | Mac / iPad, on the Plan and Write stages only. | | Go to Set (camera.fill) | Enter Shoot mode and switch to the Shoot stage. | Mac / iPad, on the Plan stage. | | End Shoot (xmark.circle, red tint) | Leave Shoot mode and return to the regular Shoot-stage layout. | All platforms while on the Shoot stage. |

Each of the top-right toolbar items carries a 4 pt horizontal padding so adjacent items have visible breathing room and the trailing-most item does not clip against the toolbar edge (Sprint 22 / PR-183). This shows up most clearly on the macOS title-bar border and the iPad nav-bar safe-area inset — a previously cramped row now reads as cleanly spaced.

Sprint 22 / PR-184 — Why Notes toolbar button retired. Earlier builds of FramePath included a Why Notes (eye icon) toggle in the workspace toolbar. The button wrote to an @AppStorage key that no renderer ever read — it had been orphaned since Sprint 4 reorganised the export flow. PR-184 removed the button from every workspace toolbar. The canonical Include Why notes toggle now lives only inside the Export sheet — see Exporting for the Shot List PDF and Storyboard PDF options.

The Pro upgrade star icon is not on the workspace toolbar — it lives in the project list toolbar. See Getting Started and FramePath Pro.

#Writing Your Scenes

The Write stage lets you build a screenplay directly inside FramePath — no Fountain markup required. You assemble each scene from typed blocks of action, dialogue, transitions, and headings.

Opening the Write Stage

Switch to the Write stage from the toolbar (Mac / iPad) or the tab bar (iPhone). The scene list appears on one side, and the editor for the selected scene fills the rest of the screen.

Select a scene to start editing. If your project has no scenes yet, see Managing Scenes to add one.

The Four Element Types

Every scene is built from blocks of one of four types:

| Type | Use it for | How it looks | |------|-----------|--------------| | Action | What happens on screen — description, business, or stage direction | Full-width paragraph with a blue accent bar | | Dialogue | A character speaking | Character name (bold uppercase) above the dialogue text, with a purple accent bar | | Transition | CUT TO:, FADE OUT:, MATCH CUT:, and similar | Right-aligned, uppercase, with an orange accent bar | | Scene Heading | A new location and time within the scene (rare; the scene's main heading is set elsewhere) | Bold uppercase, with a green accent bar |

Each block shows a small label above it (Action / Dialogue / Transition / Heading) and a coloured strip on its leading edge so you can scan a scene at a glance.

A scene assembled from Action and Dialogue blocks.

Adding an Element

From an empty scene

If the scene has no elements yet, three large buttons appear: Action, Dialogue, and Heading. Tap one to add the first block.

From a scene with content

Scroll to the bottom of the scene and tap the Add Element menu button. Choose:

• Action
• Dialogue
• Transition
• Scene Heading

The new block appears at the end of the list, scrolls into view, and is automatically focused so you can start typing.

Typing in a Block

• Action / Transition / Scene Heading — Type directly into the single text field.
• Dialogue — Type the character name into the top field, then tap into the larger field below and type the line. Parentheticals (such as "(whispering)") can be typed on their own line inside the dialogue field.

All changes save automatically as you type. There is no separate Save button.

Character Name Detection

When you type a character name in a Dialogue block and move focus away, FramePath remembers it. The name is title-cased and added to your project's character list (with case-insensitive deduplication). This makes character data available to the Characters panel and to AI shot generation.

Reordering Elements

You can drag blocks to reorder them:

• Mac / iPad — Click and drag on the block to move it up or down.
• iPhone — Long-press a block, then drag it to a new position.

The new order is saved immediately.

Deleting an Element

• iPhone / iPad — Swipe left on the block and tap Delete.
• Mac — Right-click the block and choose Delete.

There is no confirmation dialog — single-element deletions are easy to redo by typing the content back in.

Working with Multiple Elements

When you need to restructure a scene — move several lines up or down, push a chunk of dialogue into a different scene, or clear out a section — you can act on multiple elements at once instead of one block at a time.

Entering multi-select mode

Tap the Select button (checkmark icon) in the Write stage toolbar. The element list switches to a compact view: each block shrinks to a one-line summary with a checkbox on the left, and the editor fields disappear so taps cannot collide with text input.

Tap each element you want to include — every tap toggles the checkbox on or off. Tap Done (or the checkmark again) to leave multi-select mode. Exiting also clears the selection.

Multi-select mode: each element is a compact, tappable row with a checkbox.

Acting on the selection

With one or more elements selected, the following batch actions become available:

• Move Up — Shifts every selected element up by one position. Disabled when the topmost selected element is already at the top.
• Move Down — Shifts every selected element down by one position. Disabled when the bottommost selected element is already at the bottom.
• Move to Scene… — Opens a picker listing every other scene in the script. Choose a destination and the selected elements are moved there in their existing order. Available only when the project has at least one other scene.
• Remove — Deletes every selected element from the scene. After a successful remove, the selection is cleared and the editor leaves multi-select mode.

These actions appear in two places, whichever is more convenient:

• iPad — Tap the three-dot menu in the toolbar to see the action list.
• Mac — The actions sit alongside the Done button in the toolbar, and right-clicking any selected row also opens the same menu.
• iPhone — The action list is reached from the overflow menu in the navigation bar.

On Mac, right-clicking a row that is not in the current selection narrows the selection to just that row first, then offers the actions — the same convention as Finder or Mail.

Move-Up / Move-Down rules

Move-Up walks the selected elements from the top down, and Move-Down walks them from the bottom up. This guarantees that adjacent selected elements never swap places with each other — they stay in the same relative order as they move through the list.

Viewing the Formatted Script

While writing, you can preview how the scene reads in standard screenplay format. From the Write stage toolbar, tap Show Script to open a side panel that renders the scene with industry-standard typography — centred dialogue, right-aligned transitions, bold scene headings.

Edits in the Element editor are reflected in this view immediately. See Reading the Script for more on the formatted display.

Tips

• Keep dialogue blocks one character at a time. When two characters trade lines, use a new Dialogue block for each.
• Use Action for stage direction inside a dialogue exchange. A short Action block between two Dialogue blocks reads cleanly in the formatted view and in any exported screenplay.
• You do not need a Heading block per scene. The scene's main heading is set when you create or rename the scene (see Managing Scenes). Use a Heading block only when the same scene shifts to a new sub-location, like INTERCUT — BEDROOM.
• You can export everything you write. Both the Fountain export and the Screenplay PDF export read directly from your typed elements. See Exporting.

#Managing Scenes

Scenes are the top-level structure of every project. Whether you imported a Fountain script or are writing from scratch, the Write stage's Scene Cards are where you create, browse, reorder, and open scenes — and the Scene Detail Sheet is where you write into a single scene.

The Plan stage still uses a sidebar scene list for breakdown and shot work (see The Workspace). This section focuses on the Write stage's card-based view.

Where the Scene Cards Appear

On every platform the Write stage's centre column is the Scene Card grid.

| Platform | Layout | |----------|--------| | Mac | A two-column layout with a collapsible scene-list sidebar on the left and the Scene Card grid in the detail column. The Character Filmstrip sits below the grid. | | iPad | Same as Mac. | | iPhone | The Write tab is a navigation stack hosting the Scene Card grid directly. A Characters button (person.2.fill) in the navigation bar opens the Characters sheet. |

The Plan stage's sidebar scene list is still available for breakdown and shot work and behaves the same as before.

The Scene Card Grid

The grid adapts to the available width — cards reflow into more or fewer columns as you resize the window. Each card is sized to a 10:13 aspect ratio so the row of cards reads as a visual contact sheet of your story.

The Scene Card grid — the Write stage's home view.

What a Scene Card shows

Top to bottom, each card carries:

| Region | Content | |--------|---------| | Slugline row | The large scene number, the location parsed from the heading (e.g. COFFEE SHOP), and badges for the scene's interior/exterior tag (INT. / EXT. / INT./EXT.) and time of day (DAY / NIGHT / MORNING…). | | Thumbnail | The scene's first storyboard frame (or a thumbnail you've picked manually — see Changing the thumbnail below). Scenes with no frames show a dashed Add Scene Thumbnail placeholder. | | Production-field row | A leading status-tag dot followed by element count badges for Action, Dialogue, and Transition elements. | | Avatar row | Up to five small character avatars of the characters who appear in this scene — derived from the speakers in dialogue, plus @-mentions in action and the scene description. | | Description | The scene description text, clamped to three lines. Tap the chevron at the bottom-right of the card to expand or collapse. |

Anatomy of a Scene Card.

The status-tag dot

The small dot on the left of the production-field row is the scene's status tag. Tap it to open a colour picker with eleven preset colours — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Mint, Teal, Cyan, Blue, Indigo, Purple, Pink — plus Clear. Pick a colour to tint the dot and label this scene at a glance; pick Clear to remove the tag.

A useful convention: pick a colour family per status (e.g. green for ready to shoot, yellow for waiting on rewrites, red for needs a location decision). The colour is per-scene and saved with the project.

The status-tag colour picker.

Changing the thumbnail

By default a Scene Card uses the first storyboard frame from the first shot in the scene. To pick a different frame:

1. Mac — Right-click the card and choose Change Thumbnail.
2. iPad / iPhone — Long-press the card and choose Change Thumbnail.
3. Pick a specific shot's frame from the submenu, or choose Use Default to clear the override and fall back to the first frame.

If the scene has no storyboard frames yet, the submenu shows "No storyboard frames yet." Tap the dashed Add Scene Thumbnail placeholder on the card to be reminded that you need a shot first — see Managing Shots and Storyboarding.

Opening a Scene

Tap a Scene Card to open the Scene Detail Sheet. The card morphs into the sheet's hero header in one fluid gesture on iPhone and iPad; on Mac the sheet opens with the standard sheet chrome.

The Scene Detail Sheet

The Scene Detail Sheet is where you edit a single scene's heading, description, and elements without leaving the Write stage.

The Scene Detail Sheet on iPad.

Hero header

The top of the sheet is a fixed-height hero showing:

• The scene's thumbnail as a full-bleed background with a subtle dark gradient for legibility.
• A small Scene N caption.
• The scene heading (e.g. INT. COFFEE SHOP — DAY) rendered as a large bold title.

When no thumbnail is set the hero falls back to a neutral chrome fill.

On iPhone, a known padding issue is currently being investigated for the hero title block — it can read flush against the screen's leading edge in some builds. Tracked as PR-189; iPad and Mac render the inset as designed.

Description editor

Below the hero, the description editor is an inline text editor for sceneDescription. It grows vertically as you type, with a chevron to expand to a roomier layout when you want to write more.

The description editor supports @-mentions: type @ followed by a character name to bring up a picker. Pick an existing character or create a new one on the fly — the chosen name is spliced into the description and the character's avatar joins the Scene Card's avatar row automatically. See Working with Characters for the full mention workflow.

The element editor

Below the description the sheet hosts the same inline element editor used in the Write stage — every Action, Dialogue, Transition, and Scene Heading block belongs to the scene and can be added, edited, reordered, multi-selected, and removed inline. See Writing Your Scenes for the full element editor walkthrough.

The element list inside the sheet is the same content you see in the Plan stage's Scene Breakdown panel — both surfaces read from the same scene.

Dismissing the sheet

| Platform | Gestures | |----------|----------| | iPhone / iPad | Swipe right from the leading edge of the screen. Pull down from the top of the scroll view past a short threshold. Tap the × button in the compact title bar. | | Mac | Tap the chevron-left back button in the toolbar, or press Esc. |

Dismissal animates back into the Scene Card on iPhone and iPad via the same matched-geometry morph. The sheet also dismisses automatically if the scene is deleted from another surface (e.g. a cascade from a sync update).

Creating a Scene

Two entry points create a scene at the end of the project:

• The trailing + New Scene card at the end of the Scene Card grid. A dashed-border placeholder — tap it to add a new scene.
• The empty state. If your project has no scenes yet, the grid shows a "Start your first scene" card with a New Scene button.

The new scene is added with a placeholder heading ("Scene N") and automatically becomes the selected scene. To start writing into it, tap the new card and the Scene Detail Sheet opens with the element editor ready.

Tap the trailing "+ New Scene" card to add a scene.

Renaming a Scene

The scene heading (for example, "INT. COFFEE SHOP — DAY") is what appears in the screenplay and in exports.

From the Scene Card

1. Mac — Right-click the card and choose Rename Scene.
2. iPad / iPhone — Long-press the card and choose Rename Scene.
3. A Rename Scene alert appears with a text field pre-filled with the current heading.
4. Type the new heading and tap Rename, or tap Cancel to keep the old name.

Empty headings are not allowed — leave the field blank and the previous heading is kept.

From the Plan-stage sidebar

If you are working in the Plan stage, the sidebar still supports inline rename on Mac and iPad (double-click the row) and swipe-rename on iPhone. See The Workspace for the Plan-stage layout.

The Rename Scene alert.

Reordering Scenes

You can drag Scene Cards to change their order.

• Mac and iPad — Click and hold a card, then drag it over another card. The grid reflows as you drag; release to commit the move.
• iPhone — Long-press a card, then drag it to a new position.

While you drag, a live preview of the card follows your finger or cursor at the grid's current column width.

When you reorder, FramePath automatically:

• Updates every scene's number (Scene 1, Scene 2, and so on).
• Updates every shot's number to match the new scene order. A shot called "3A" (the first shot of Scene 3) becomes "2A" if its scene moves up to position 2. The letter suffix is kept — the order of shots within a scene does not change.

The change saves immediately and syncs to your other devices.

Deleting a Scene

Deleting a scene also deletes all its elements and all the shots that belong to it. The action is permanent (other than restoring from a synced device), so FramePath always asks you to confirm.

1. Mac — Right-click the card and choose Delete Scene.
2. iPad / iPhone — Long-press the card and choose Delete Scene.
3. A confirmation alert appears. Tap Delete to remove the scene, or Cancel to keep it.

The confirmation message tells you how many shots will also be deleted, for example: "Delete 'INT. COFFEE SHOP — DAY'? All 6 shots in this scene will also be permanently deleted."

If you delete the scene that is currently selected, the next remaining scene is selected automatically.

The Delete Scene confirmation alert.

You can also delete from the Plan-stage sidebar with swipe-left (iPhone / iPad) or right-click (Mac) — the same confirmation appears.

Tips

• The grid is a contact sheet. A Scene Card's thumbnail, status-tag colour, character avatars, and element counts are designed so you can take in the whole project at a glance — useful when scenes start to multiply.
• Pick a thumbnail that frames the scene. A wide establishing shot or a key dramatic frame tells you at a glance what the scene is about. Use Change Thumbnail to override the default first-frame choice.
• Tag your scenes by status. The eleven-colour palette is enough to encode several status families — "ready / blocked / in revision", or "exterior / interior / vehicle", or "Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3" on a shooting schedule.
• Mention characters in the description. A @-mention in the scene description adds that character to the avatar row on the card — your story's cast at a glance.
• Re-importing a Fountain file resets the order. If your scenes came from a Fountain import, any drag-to-reorder you do inside FramePath is independent — re-importing the same file would restore the original order.
• There is no undo for a deleted scene. If you have iCloud sync enabled and another device has not yet synced, you may be able to recover the data by closing FramePath on the other device before it pulls down the deletion.

#Working with Characters

FramePath keeps a single, project-scoped list of every character — the Cast — and surfaces it as a horizontal filmstrip on the Write stage, as a dedicated sheet on iPhone, and through a rich detail sheet that you open from any card. Characters power the avatar rows on Scene Cards, @-mention linking in your scenes, and the context FramePath sends to AI shot generation.

Where the Cast Lives

| Platform | Where to find the Cast | |----------|------------------------| | Mac | The Character Filmstrip sits at the bottom of the Write stage's detail column, beneath the Scene Card grid. A disclosure header labelled Cast with a count badge expands or collapses the strip; press ⇧⌘C to toggle. | | iPad | Same as Mac — the filmstrip pins to the bottom of the Write stage detail column. | | iPhone | The Write tab's navigation bar shows a Characters button (person.2.fill). Tap it to open the Cast sheet — a vertical list of full Character Cards. |

On every platform, characters are sorted by role priority — Protagonist, Antagonist, Supporting, Minor, then any with no role — and alphabetically within each role band.

How Characters Get Added

Characters appear on the Cast in four ways:

1. By writing dialogue. Type a character name into a Dialogue block's character field. The name is remembered, title-cased, and added to the Cast (case-insensitively deduplicated).
2. By @-mentioning a character in an Action element, in a Dialogue block, or in the scene description. If the typed name isn't on the Cast yet, the mention popup offers a Create '{Name}' row that adds the record on the spot. See Mentioning a character below.
3. By importing Fountain. Every unique speaker in an imported screenplay is seeded into the Cast when the project is created. Once seeded, the Cast becomes the authoritative source — deleting a character does not resurrect them on re-import.
4. By tapping the trailing + New card at the end of the filmstrip, or the + toolbar button on iPhone's Cast sheet. A blank character is inserted and the detail sheet opens for inline editing.

All four paths feed the same list.

The Character Filmstrip

The filmstrip is a horizontal scroll of compact character cards on the Mac and iPad Write stage.

The Character Filmstrip pinned at the bottom of the Write stage.

Each filmstrip card shows:

• A 64 pt rounded-square avatar drawn from the character's Avatar Library selection, uploaded image, or initials fallback.
• The character's name (single-line, truncated).
• A non-interactive role chip in pill style — the character's current role.

A trailing dashed-border + New card appends a character. The disclosure header above the strip shows the total cast count; tap it (or press ⇧⌘C on Mac) to collapse the strip when you need more vertical room for your scenes.

The empty-state nudge inside the disclosure reads "Add a character or type @ in your scene to create one."

The Character Card (iPhone Cast Sheet)

iPhone's Cast sheet replaces the filmstrip with a full vertical list of Character Cards. Each card shows:

| Region | Content | |--------|---------| | Name | Uppercase large-title bold, leading aligned. | | Avatar | Rounded-square avatar — the matched-geometry source for the detail sheet morph. | | Appearance counts | Action and Dialogue element counts for this character across the whole project, with a reserved tag-placeholder dot on the leading edge. | | Role chip | Pill — current role. | | Gender chip | Pill — current gender (or Custom free text). | | Age | Conditional row — shown only when the character has an age range. |

The Cast sheet on iPhone.

Tap a card to open the Character Detail Sheet. The avatar morphs into the sheet's hero header.

The Character Detail Sheet

The Character Detail Sheet is the editor for a single character. It opens with a matched-geometry morph from the tapped filmstrip card (Mac / iPad) or full Character Card (iPhone).

The Character Detail Sheet on iPad.

Hero header

The hero shows the character's avatar and name. Tap the avatar to open the Avatar Interaction Menu — see Choosing an avatar below.

Fields

| Field | What it's for | |-------|---------------| | Name | Required. The character's name as it appears in dialogue and @-mentions. | | Role | A chip picker: None, Protagonist, Antagonist, Supporting, Minor. The selection animates between chips. | | Gender | A chip picker with five canonical chips plus Custom. Picking Custom reveals an inline text field — you can type any free-text value, and FramePath remembers the prior custom value if you toggle back and forth between canonical chips and Custom. | | Age range | Free text — for example, "mid-30s", "50–60". | | Physical Description | Multi-line editor that grows as you type. | | Notes | Multi-line editor that grows as you type. Use it for anything you'd want to remember on set — costume cues, character beats, references. |

All field edits save automatically. There is no Save button.

On iPhone, every editor in the sheet uses the system keyboard. A Done button in the keyboard accessory bar (added back in Sprint 22 / PR-188) dismisses focus and the keyboard. Tap the × in the sheet's title bar to dismiss the whole sheet.

Dismissing the sheet

| Platform | Gestures | |----------|----------| | iPhone / iPad | Swipe right from the leading edge of the screen, pull down from the top of the scroll view past a short threshold, or tap the × in the compact title bar. | | Mac | Tap the chevron-left toolbar button, or press Esc (works even when a text editor inside the sheet has focus). |

The sheet also dismisses itself if the character is deleted on another device while the sheet is open.

Choosing an Avatar

Tap the hero avatar to open the Avatar Interaction Menu. The entries shown depend on your platform.

| Entry | Platform | What it does | |-------|----------|--------------| | Take Photo | iOS, when a camera is available | Opens the camera; the captured photo runs through the avatar pipeline. | | Choose Photo | iOS | Opens the Photos picker. | | Choose File… | Mac | Opens a system file importer filtered to image types. | | Select from Library | All platforms | Opens the bundled Avatar Library picker — see The Avatar Library below. | | Remove Reference | All platforms — only shown when an avatar is set | Clears the avatar, falling back to the character's initials. |

Every uploaded image is funnelled through the avatar pre-processing pipeline:

1. Centre-cropped to a square.
2. Resized so the longest edge is 512 px.
3. JPEG-encoded at 0.85 quality.

A typical resulting avatar is 50–100 KB, sized for fast iCloud sync. The original photo is not stored.

Upload limits

FramePath accepts decoded images up to 256 MB before resize — comfortably enough for every current iPhone, iPad, or DSLR capture, including 48 MP camera output. Pathological inputs (multi-hundred-megapixel panoramas, multi-gigapixel raws) are rejected with a polite alert explaining the specific failure mode.

This 256 MB cap was raised from a much smaller 8 MB cap in Sprint 22 / PR-175 — that older cap was rejecting most real-world phone photos. If you ever see an upload error, the message is now actionable (decode failure / size cap / resize failure / encode failure).

The Avatar Library

The bundled Avatar Library ships 27 portraits across three categories:

• Masculine — 9 portraits.
• Feminine — 8 portraits.
• Neutral — 10 portraits.

The Avatar Library picker.

The picker presents the three categories as a segmented control. Tap a tile to assign it; the selected tile is outlined with a 2 pt accent border. Cancel dismisses without changing the selection.

How library and upload coexist

Each character has either a library identifier or an uploaded image — never both. Picking a library portrait clears any prior upload; uploading a new image clears any prior library identifier. The order of writes was tightened in Sprint 22 / PR-191 so the avatar never briefly shows a stale upload while a library pick is in flight on iPad.

What stays put across builds

Once a library identifier ships in any released build of FramePath, it stays in the catalogue forever — your character keeps the same portrait across app updates. The imagery under each identifier may be re-illustrated in a future build, but never removed or repurposed.

Mentioning a Character

The @-mention popup is the fastest way to link an existing character into your scene text, or to create a new one on the fly.

Type @ in any of these editors:

• A Dialogue block's body text.
• An Action element's body.
• The scene description in the Scene Detail Sheet's description editor.
• The character's own Physical Description or Notes editor inside the detail sheet.

As you type, a floating popup appears with character matches.

The @-mention popup over an Action element.

How the popup behaves

• Prefix match. The popup filters project.characters by case-insensitive prefix on the name, sorted alphabetically.
• Empty query. Right after you type @, every character is listed. The Create row is suppressed — there's nothing to create from an empty token.
• Non-empty query with matches. Matching characters list first; a Create '{Query}' row appears as the last entry.
• Non-empty query with no matches. The Create row is the only entry.
• Keyboard. Up / Down to move the highlight, Return to select, Esc to dismiss. The popup is focusable so key events route to it directly.
• Background. The popup uses an opaque system background after Sprint 22 / PR-177 — previously the semi-transparent material made dialogue text show through and could obscure matches.

Selecting a row splices the chosen character's name in place of the @query token. Selecting the Create row title-cases the typed query, inserts a new character into the project, and splices the name into the source text — the new character appears immediately on the Filmstrip, the Cast sheet, and the relevant Scene Cards' avatar rows.

When the mention popup creates a character from the iPhone Write tab, the new record is published through CharacterCreationRouter so the Cast sheet auto-opens that character's detail sheet for inline editing. On Mac and iPad the persistent filmstrip already surfaces the new character, so no auto-present is necessary.

Scene Appearances

Inside the Character Detail Sheet, the Appears In section lists every scene the character appears in.

A scene "contains" a character when any of the following is true:

• The character speaks dialogue in the scene.
• The scene's action elements include an @-mention of the character.
• The scene description includes an @-mention of the character.

The Appears In list expanded, with the Jump to Scene menu open.

When collapsed, the section shows just "N scenes". Tap the chevron to expand the full list.

Each row shows the scene's thumbnail, scene number, and heading. Right-click on Mac, or long-press on iPhone / iPad, to open the row's context menu — currently a single entry, Jump to Scene.

Jump to Scene

Picking Jump to Scene (Sprint 22 / PR-186) does two things:

1. Dismisses the Character Detail Sheet.
2. Presents the matching Scene Detail Sheet on the Write stage's host view — Scene Card grid on Mac and iPad, the compact Write tab on iPhone.

This is the fastest way to jump from "who is this character?" thinking back to "what does this scene look like?" thinking. The Scene List is read-only — Jump to Scene doesn't change the character record or the scene.

If a character has no scene appearances yet, the section shows a friendly nudge: "{Character} doesn't yet appear in any scenes. Type @{Character} in an Action, Dialogue, or Scene description field to link them."

Deleting a Character

The Character Detail Sheet's footer has a destructive Delete Character button.

• If the character has no scene appearances, deleting is immediate.
• If the character has appearances, a confirmation alert tells you how many scene mentions and dialogue blocks will lose their link.

Deleting a character does not remove the dialogue or action text that referred to them — it just removes the project-level record. If you delete a character by mistake, retype the name (the next @-mention or dialogue block will offer the Create row), and the record is recreated. Re-importing the original Fountain file does not resurrect deleted characters once the project has been seeded.

How Characters Help with AI Shot Generation

When you generate shots with AI for a scene, FramePath includes your Cast as context. For every character with a name, the prompt sends the role, physical description, and notes you've filled in. The AI is asked to reference characters by name in its shot descriptions and Why notes.

The more detail you add to a character, the more grounded the AI suggestions tend to be. A name-only entry is fine; even a one-line description for the lead character measurably improves shot specificity.

See AI Shot Generation for the generation flow.

Tips

• Mention liberally in scene descriptions. A @-mention in the Scene Detail Sheet's description adds the character to the Scene Card's avatar row — your story's cast at a glance.
• Use the role chip as your character-importance signal. Protagonist and Antagonist sort to the front of the filmstrip; Supporting and Minor sit behind them. A glance at the strip tells you who's driving the story.
• Tap the avatar early. Even a placeholder Avatar Library portrait makes the filmstrip readable. Upload a real reference photo when you have one — the upload pipeline downsamples aggressively, so picking a 4K headshot is just as cheap as picking a thumbnail.
• Custom gender is free text. The Custom chip lets you write anything — "non-binary", "pre-transition", "alien" — and it's surfaced in the Gender chip pill on the Cast cards.
• Jump to Scene is faster than searching. When you're editing a character and want to confirm a moment in a specific scene, Jump to Scene is one tap to the morphed Scene Detail Sheet.
• The Cast is per-project. Characters from one project don't appear in another, and the Cast doesn't sync across projects.

#Reading the Script

FramePath shows your screenplay with the same typography you'd see on a printed page — bold scene headings, centred dialogue, right-aligned transitions. The formatted display is available in the Plan stage and as an inspector panel in the Write stage.

Where the Script Appears

| Stage | How to view the script | |-------|------------------------| | Plan (Mac / iPad) | The script fills the centre column by default. Use the document icon in the toolbar to hide or show it. | | Plan (iPhone) | Switch the segmented picker at the top to Script. | | Write (Mac / iPad) | Tap Show Script in the toolbar to open the formatted view as a side panel. |

The same screenplay content is rendered everywhere. Edits made in the Write stage's Element editor appear immediately in the formatted view.

How Elements Are Formatted

| Element | Appearance | |---------|-----------| | Scene heading | Bold and uppercase, with the scene number on both margins. | | Action | Left-aligned in standard format, full content width. | | Dialogue | Centred character name (uppercase) above indented dialogue text. | | Parenthetical | Italic, indented between the character name and the dialogue. | | Transition | Right-aligned and uppercase (for example, CUT TO:). | | Section heading | Used as a structural marker; rendered as a centred or left-aligned label. | | Synopsis | Displayed in teal so it stands apart from the action text. | | Note | Displayed in gray. |

The script uses a monospaced Courier font at a fixed content width to match the look of a printed screenplay page.

Emphasis Markup

When your screenplay contains Fountain emphasis markup, FramePath renders it inline:

| Markup | Result | |--------|--------| | *italic* | italic | | **bold** | bold | | ***bold italic*** | bold italic | | _underline_ | underline | | [[ note ]] | rendered as an inline gray note |

A scene rendered with standard screenplay formatting.

Navigating the Script

• Tap a scene in the scene list and the script scrolls to that scene.
• The selected scene is highlighted with a subtle background tint in the script panel so you always know where you are.

Element Highlighting

When you select an element in the scene breakdown or a shot in the shot list, the corresponding lines in the script are marked with margin indicators:

• A solid margin line marks the element that is directly selected.
• A dashed margin line marks the gap between two selected elements when more than one is chosen.

This visual feedback updates automatically as you move between elements and shots — useful when you want to see exactly which line of the screenplay a shot covers.

#Scene Breakdown

The scene breakdown is where you turn a scene into a checklist of moments to cover. It lists every element in the selected scene — action lines, dialogue, transitions — so you can quickly add shots for the parts that matter.

The breakdown appears in the top portion of the Plan stage's detail column on Mac and iPad, and in the Elements panel on iPhone.

What the Breakdown Shows

When you select a scene, the breakdown panel displays:

• Scene header — the scene number (large), the scene heading (for example, "INT. COFFEE SHOP — DAY"), and the line range from the script.
• Element list — every action block, dialogue exchange, transition, parenthetical, synopsis, or note in the scene, listed in script order.

Each row shows:

| Visual element | Meaning | |----------------|---------| | Kind badge | A coloured label indicating the element type: Action, Dialogue, Transition, and so on. | | Shot count badge | If shots are linked to this element, a badge shows the number completed out of the total (for example, "1/3"). | | Speaker name | For dialogue elements, the character name appears in bold. | | Content preview | The first few lines of the element text, truncated to three lines. | | Add shot button (+) | Creates a new shot linked to this element. |

The scene breakdown with element kind badges and shot count badges.

Selecting Elements

• Single tap an element to select it.
• Shift-click or Cmd-click (Mac) to select multiple elements.

When one or more elements are selected, all shots linked to those elements are highlighted in the shot list below. This lets you quickly see which shots cover a specific moment in the scene.

Adding a Shot from an Element

To create a shot tied to a specific moment:

1. Find the element in the breakdown list.
2. Tap the + button on the right side of the element row.
3. A new shot appears in the shot list, linked to that element.

The new shot is automatically assigned the next available shot number for the scene. For example, if the scene already has shots 3A and 3B, the new shot becomes 3C. Each scene supports up to 26 shots, A through Z.

Tap the "+" button on an element to create a linked shot.

How Linking Works

A shot's link to an element is what determines its position in the shot list. Shots are sorted by the element they belong to, in script order, so the shot list naturally follows the narrative flow.

If a shot is not linked to any element (for example, because the element was deleted), the shot still exists but sorts to the end of its scene.

Element Types You'll See

| Type | Notes | |------|-------| | Action | A descriptive paragraph. The most common source for shots. | | Dialogue | A character's line — the speaker name is shown in bold. | | Transition | CUT TO:, FADE OUT:, and similar. | | Parenthetical | A delivery cue inside a dialogue block (such as "(whispering)"). | | Synopsis | A short summary added by the writer; teal in the script. | | Note | A free-form note from the writer; gray in the script. | | Slugline | A sub-heading inside a scene (rare). |

Actions, dialogue, and transitions are the most useful starting points for shots. Notes and synopses are usually skipped — they describe the screenplay rather than the action on screen.

#Managing Shots

The shot list is the centrepiece of your planning work. It is an inline-editable grid of shots, linked to elements in your screenplay, that you build up scene by scene.

The shot list appears in the bottom portion of the Plan stage's detail column on Mac and iPad, and in the Shots panel of the Plan tab on iPhone.

Creating Shots

You can add a shot in two ways:

• From an element in the breakdown. Tap the + button on an element row in the scene breakdown. The new shot is linked to that element. See Scene Breakdown.
• With a keyboard shortcut on Mac. Press Cmd + N to create a shot in the currently selected scene, linked to the selected element (or the first actionable element if none is selected).

Shots are numbered as "{scene number}{letter}" — for example, 3B is the second shot of Scene 3. Each scene supports up to 26 shots (A through Z).

The Shot Grid

Each shot is a row in a grid with the following columns. Tap any cell to edit it inline — there is no separate edit screen.

An annotated shot card showing each part of the grid.

| Column | Description | |--------|-------------| | Status | Picker: Planned, Shooting, or Done. Tap to cycle through (iOS) or pick (Mac). | | Shot # | Read-only label (e.g. 3B). Highlights when the scene or element is selected. | | Board | Tap to add or preview the storyboard image. Shows an 88×60 thumbnail when an image is attached. See Storyboarding. | | Setup | A numeric field. Use it to group shots that share the same camera setup. | | Camera | A single letter (A–Z) designating the camera. | | VFX | Three-state picker: blank, Yes, or No. | | SFX | Three-state picker: blank, Yes, or No. | | Size | Shot size: ECU, CU, MCU, MS, MLS, LS, or ELS. See the table below. | | Angle | Camera angle: EL, OTS, POV, LO, HS, or DA. See the table below. | | Headline | A short, scannable label for the shot — for example, "Wide establishing" or "CU reaction". | | Description | Longer notes about the shot, up to 500 characters. Wraps over multiple lines. |

A small Why note can sit below the description on AI-generated shots — see AI Shot Generation.

Production-field row layout

The production fields — Setup, Camera, Size, Angle, VFX, and SFX — sit in a single row beneath the status dot and shot number. They distribute evenly across the card's width with a guaranteed minimum 4 pt gap between adjacent fields, and each field carries a 44 pt minimum touch target so finger taps land reliably on iPad and iPhone (Sprint 22 / PR-187). Selecting a value in any field no longer changes the field's width, so the row stays visually stable as you populate it — earlier builds reflowed the row whenever Size or Angle changed selection.

The shot list grid with status, shot number, storyboard, and production fields.

Shot Size Reference

| Code | Full name | Frame | |------|-----------|-------| | ECU | Extreme Close-Up | Tight on a detail (eyes, hands, an object) | | CU | Close-Up | Head and shoulders | | MCU | Medium Close-Up | Chest and above | | MS | Medium Shot | Waist and above | | MLS | Medium Long Shot | Knees and above | | LS | Long Shot | Full body in frame | | ELS | Extreme Long Shot | Subject small inside a wide environment |

Camera Angle Reference

| Code | Full name | Description | |------|-----------|-------------| | EL | Eye Level | Camera at subject's eye height | | OTS | Over the Shoulder | Camera behind one character looking at another | | POV | Point of View | Camera shows what a character sees | | LO | Low Angle | Camera below subject, looking up | | HS | High Shot | Camera above subject, looking down | | DA | Dutch Angle | Camera tilted on its axis |

Editing Shots

Every cell is editable inline. Changes save automatically as you type or pick a value.

• Headline / Description — Tap the cell and start typing. The headline grows to up to 5 lines; the description grows to up to 10 lines.
• Pickers (Size, Angle, Status, VFX, SFX, Camera) — Tap to open a menu and choose a value.
• Setup, Camera — Tap to type a value.
• Board — Tap an empty slot to add a storyboard image, or tap a thumbnail to preview, replace, or remove it.

A shot card with the headline and description expanded.

Shot Status

Every shot has a status indicated by a coloured marker:

| Colour | Status | Meaning | |--------|--------|---------| | Gray | Planned | The shot has not yet been filmed. | | Red | Shooting | The shot is currently being filmed. | | Green | Done | The shot is complete. |

Tap the status (a picker on Mac, a circle on iOS) to change it. New shots default to Planned.

For on-set use, see Shoot Mode — the status control becomes a large 56-point circle and switching a shot to Shooting opens the clapperboard panel automatically.

Shot status vs Scene status tags. Don't confuse the three-state Shot Status above with the Scene status tag on each Scene Card. Scene status tags use an eleven-colour palette (Sprint 22 / PR-170) that you assign per scene for any purpose you like — production-day grouping, location families, blocked-vs-ready flags — and they tint only the dot on the Scene Card. Shot status is Planned / Shooting / Done and is fixed to the production lifecycle. See Managing Scenes for the Scene status tag.

Selecting Shots

• Single tap a shot to select it.
• Shift-click or Cmd-click (Mac) to multi-select.
• Tap an empty area of the list to deselect.

Selecting a shot also:

• Highlights the matching scene in the sidebar.
• Scrolls the script to the shot's linked element.
• Auto-scrolls the shot list to bring the selection into view.

Two shots selected at once.

Deleting Shots

• Mac — Right-click a shot and choose Delete, or select shots and press the Delete key.
• iPad / iPhone — Right-click (long-press) a shot and choose Delete, or use the toolbar Delete button when shots are selected.

A confirmation alert appears before shots are permanently removed.

Grouping the Shot List

Tap the Group By menu in the shot list toolbar to organise shots into sections:

The Group By menu with the available grouping options.

| Option | Groups shots by | |--------|----------------| | None | No grouping — a flat list. | | Scene | Scene heading (default when viewing all scenes). | | Setup | Setup number. | | Camera | Camera letter. | | VFX | VFX status (Yes / No / blank). | | SFX | SFX status (Yes / No / blank). | | Status | Shot status (Planned / Shooting / Done). |

When a grouping is active, dark header bars span the width of the grid, labelling each group. The choice is saved per project.

The shot list grouped by scene.

Sort Order

Shots within a scene are sorted by the position of their linked element in the screenplay, then by creation order if multiple shots share an element. This means the shot list always reads in the same order as the script.

There is no manual drag-to-reorder for shots — to change the order, link the shot to a different element, or reorder the scenes themselves (see Managing Scenes).

Keyboard Navigation on Mac

When the shot grid has focus, the keyboard shortcuts in Keyboard Shortcuts let you tab between cells, move row-to-row, and create new shots with a single key.

#Storyboarding

FramePath lets you sketch storyboard frames with Apple Pencil, import reference photos, organise multiple frames per shot, and review the whole sequence as a Board. Storyboard creation is a FramePath Pro feature on Mac and iPad. iPhone users (and free-tier users) can view storyboard thumbnails read-only.

Setting Your Project's Aspect Ratio

Before you start drawing, set the aspect ratio of your project so frames are sized correctly.

1. Open the project inspector from the project list or the workspace toolbar.
2. Tap the Aspect Ratio menu and choose one:
   • 16:9 (widescreen — the default)
   • 2.39:1 (anamorphic)
   • 1.85:1 (standard widescreen)
   • 4:3 (classic)
   • 1:1 (square)
   • 9:16 (vertical)

Every drawing canvas, Board panel, and exported Storyboard PDF respects this ratio.

You can change the aspect ratio at any time. Existing drawings are kept exactly as you drew them — they may appear cropped if you switch to a narrower ratio after drawing in a wider one.

The Two Views

FramePath gives you two ways to look at your storyboard:

• List view — the regular shot grid, with a thumbnail in the Board column for each shot. This is the default.
• Board view — a grid of larger panels, one per shot, designed for reviewing the whole scene visually.

Switch between them with the List / Board segmented picker in the shot list toolbar on Mac and iPad. (iPhone shows a read-only Board strip pinned above the shot list — see iPhone Board strip below.)

Board view on Mac and iPad.

Opening the Drawing Sheet

To start drawing or to add a photo to a shot, open the drawing sheet:

• From the shot list (List view) — Tap the Board cell on a shot card.
• From the Board view — Tap any shot panel.
• From the frame strip at the bottom of the drawing sheet — Tap a frame thumbnail to switch to it.

The drawing sheet shows the canvas at your project's aspect ratio, a toolbar across the top, and a frame strip at the bottom.

Drawing a Frame

On iPad

1. Open a shot's drawing sheet.
2. The standard PencilKit tool picker appears, giving you pen, pencil, marker, eraser, lasso, ruler, and a colour picker.
3. Draw directly on the canvas using Apple Pencil or your finger.
4. Tap Done in the top-right corner of the sheet to close it. Your drawing saves automatically.

On Mac

PencilKit's drawing tools are built for iOS, so the macOS canvas uses a simpler toolset that runs natively:

1. Open a shot's drawing sheet.
2. A tool bar below the canvas shows a Pen / Eraser picker, a colour well, and a width slider (1–20 pt).
3. Draw with the mouse or trackpad.
4. Tap Done to close the sheet.

Drawings made on iPad and Mac are interchangeable through iCloud — strokes round-trip cleanly between devices.

Undo and clear

• The drawing sheet toolbar includes Undo to step back one stroke at a time.
• Clear removes every stroke from the active frame.

The drawing sheet on iPad with the PencilKit tool picker.

Adding a Photo as a Reference or as a Frame

You can pull a photo into the drawing sheet either as a reference layer (something to trace over) or as a standalone frame.

Importing a photo

1. In the drawing sheet, tap the Photo Reference button in the toolbar.
2. iPad / iPhone — the Photos picker opens.
3. Mac — a system file picker opens, filtered to image types.
4. Choose an image. FramePath crops it to the project's aspect ratio, downsamples it, and saves it as a new photo frame in the shot.

Using a photo as a reference

After importing, the photo is automatically set as the reference layer for the current session. While you draw, the photo appears beneath your strokes.

• An opacity slider (0–100%, default 60%) controls how prominent the reference is. Drag it to fade the photo in or out.
• Tap Hide Reference to remove the reference layer.

Filters

A Photo Filter picker in the drawing sheet's controls bar lets you apply a display-only filter to every photo in the sheet:

• None (the default)
• Mono (black-and-white)

Filters affect only how photos display while you work. The stored image bytes are never modified — toggling the filter off always restores the original.

Multiple Frames per Shot

A single shot can have more than one storyboard frame — useful when a shot has movement, multiple beats, or you want to compare options.

The frame strip

A horizontal strip at the bottom of the drawing sheet shows every frame in the current shot, with the active frame highlighted. Each cell shows:

• A thumbnail.
• A kind badge — a pencil icon for drawings, a photo icon for photos.
• A compound label like "3B.1", "3B.2" (the shot number plus the frame index).

Adding a frame

Tap the + button at the end of the frame strip and choose:

• Add Drawing Frame — appends a blank drawing frame.
• Import Photo — opens the photo picker.

Reordering frames

• Drag a frame cell in the strip to a new position.
• Or right-click a cell (Mac) or long-press (iPad) and choose Move Left / Move Right.

The frame labels (e.g. 3B.1, 3B.2) renumber automatically.

Switching the active frame

Tap any cell in the strip. The current drawing saves first, then the target frame loads. Photo frames open in read-only mode — you cannot draw on a photo, but you can still use it as a reference for other frames in the same shot.

Deleting a frame

Right-click (Mac) or long-press (iPad) a frame cell in the strip and choose Delete.

Use a photo as the reference

Right-click or long-press a photo frame cell and choose Use as Reference to set it as the reference layer for any drawing frame in the same shot.

The Board View

The Board view is for reviewing the storyboard as a sequence. It is available on Mac and iPad in the Plan stage.

• Each shot becomes a panel sized to your project's aspect ratio, with its shot number and headline below.
• Shots with more than one frame show a sub-strip of smaller thumbnails beneath the main panel.
• Tap a panel to open the drawing sheet for that shot.
• Drag a panel onto another panel to reorder shots. Frame labels and shot numbers renumber automatically.
• A trailing + panel (Pro only) creates a new shot in the current scene.

Board view with multi-frame sub-strips.

iPhone Board strip

On iPhone, the Plan tab's Shots panel includes a horizontal read-only Board strip pinned above the shot list. Tap a panel to see a full-screen preview; you cannot draw or reorder from iPhone. Tap the chevron in the strip's header to collapse it and free up screen space for the shot list.

Exporting the Storyboard

When you are ready to share the storyboard with your crew, you can export it as a panel-based PDF — see Exporting for the Storyboard PDF format.

Tips

• Set your aspect ratio first. Changing it later does not affect existing strokes, but new frames will use the new ratio.
• Use the reference layer for tricky compositions. Drop in a location photo at 40–60% opacity and trace the key shapes.
• Keep drawings tidy. Large multi-stroke drawings may exceed iCloud's per-record size limit. If you notice a sync delay on storyboard-heavy shots, consider importing the rough sketch as a photo instead.
• Free-tier users see read-only thumbnails. All existing strokes still render. Upgrading to Pro unlocks the drawing tools and the + affordances.

#AI Shot Generation

FramePath can suggest a shot list for any scene in your project, using AI. The generated shots include sizes, angles, headlines, descriptions, and an educational "Why" note for each — useful as a starting point or as a sanity check on your own coverage plan.

Generating Shots for a Scene

1. Select a scene in the sidebar (or in the Scenes panel on iPhone).
2. Tap the Generate with AI button in the shot list toolbar.
3. The generation panel opens, pre-filled with the scene's heading and action lines (up to 1,000 characters).
4. Review the text. Edit it if needed — add context, remove lines that don't matter, or focus on a specific beat.
5. Tap Generate Shot List.
6. FramePath sends the text to the AI and shows a progress indicator while it works.
7. When generation finishes, 6–12 new shots appear in your shot list, linked to the scene's elements.

To cancel while generation is in progress, tap Cancel. No shots are created if you cancel.

The AI generation panel.

You can edit or delete any AI-generated shot just like a manual one. The suggestions are a starting point, not a final plan.

How Character and Scene Context Improve Suggestions

FramePath enriches the AI prompt with two extra pieces of context, when available:

• Scene content. The full list of elements in the selected scene — every action line, dialogue cue, transition, and parenthetical — not just what you typed into the generation panel.
• Character list. Every character in your project, with role, physical description, and notes (if you've filled them in).

When this context is included, the AI is told to reference characters by name in shot descriptions and Why notes. The more detail you've added to a character, the more grounded the suggestions tend to be.

If a scene has no element list and the project has no characters yet, the AI receives only the text you typed in the panel — same behaviour as before this context was added.

See Working with Characters to add or edit characters.

Why Notes

Each AI-generated shot includes a Why note — a short cinematic rationale for the suggestion. For example, a close-up might come with: "A close-up here captures the character's emotional reaction, creating intimacy with the audience at a pivotal moment."

Why notes are educational: they explain not just what shots to plan, but why certain choices work. You can edit or delete them like any other field.

Including Why Notes in Exports

Each Why note lives on its own shot card, alongside the description. Whether the notes are included in an exported PDF is controlled inside the Export sheet — every shot's Why note is either included or omitted at export time, depending on the Include Why notes toggle for the format you're exporting. See Exporting for the Shot List PDF and Storyboard PDF options.

Earlier builds of FramePath also exposed a Why Notes (eye icon) toggle in the workspace toolbar. That button was retired in Sprint 22 / PR-184 — it had been orphaned for several releases and never affected what you saw on cards or in exports. The Export sheet's per-format toggle is now the single source of truth.

AI Tokens

FramePath uses an AI token system to meter generation. A token is the unit Anthropic's Claude API charges by: roughly one English word costs ~1.3 tokens. Each tap of Generate Shot List consumes between 1,000 and 4,000 tokens depending on the size of the scene and how much character / element context the project supplies. Your live balance is shown in the workspace toolbar as a ⚡ N badge — green when you have plenty, amber when you're running low, red when you're below the 5,000-token reserve.

The token balance indicator in the workspace toolbar.

How you get tokens

• Welcome allotment (Free tier). The first time you tap Generate Shot List, FramePath grants you 25,000 tokens — enough for about 6 to 25 generations depending on scene complexity. This grant is one-time and account-wide.
• Monthly Pro allotment. Subscribing to FramePath Pro credits 300,000 tokens at the start of each billing cycle. Unused tokens from the prior cycle do not carry over — the monthly allotment is use-it-or-lose-it.
• Top-up packs. Anyone can buy a top-up at any time: 150,000 tokens for $4.99, 300,000 tokens for $9.99, or 700,000 tokens for $19.99. Top-up tokens never expire and stack on top of any other allotment. Tap the toolbar badge to open the top-up sheet.

Your balance reads "0" right after sign-in — is that a problem?

No. The welcome allotment is granted on your first AI generation, not at sign-in itself, so the toolbar badge legitimately reads 0 in red until that first tap of Generate Shot List. The Generate button stays enabled in that state — the 25,000 tokens land the moment you trigger generation. After that first call, the badge will reflect your remaining balance and stay accurate live, across every device signed in to the same Apple ID.

Out of tokens

When your balance drops below 5,000 tokens (the per-generation reserve), the Generate button greys out and any attempt to start a generation opens the You're out of tokens sheet. From there you can:

• (Free tier) Subscribe to FramePath Pro — instantly credits your 300,000-token monthly allotment.
• (Any tier) Buy a top-up pack — pick one of the three packs above.

You can always tap Maybe later to dismiss the sheet without buying anything.

The "You're out of tokens" sheet on Free tier.

For more about subscribing and top-up packs, see FramePath Pro.

Other notes

• Input is capped at 1,000 characters. Anything longer is truncated in the panel.
• The Generate button is disabled for very short input (under 10 characters).
• Shot count varies. The AI typically returns 6–12 shots, but may return more or fewer depending on the scene.
• The 26-shot cap still applies per scene. If the scene already has shots and generation would push past Z, generation stops there.
• Generation needs an internet connection. If the request times out or you are offline, an alert appears with a Retry button.

Tips

• Generate early, edit aggressively. AI is best at giving you a fast rough cut — your judgement is what turns it into a real coverage plan.
• Run AI per scene. Each scene is generated independently, so you get fresh angles every time rather than a uniform style across the whole project.
• Fill in your characters. Even a one-line description for the main character can lead to noticeably more specific suggestions.
• Re-edit the prompt for different angles. If the first generation leans dialogue-heavy, edit the prompt to focus on a single beat and re-run.

#Shoot Mode

When you take FramePath to set, switch into Shoot mode. The shot list becomes read-only with large, tappable status controls — and a digital clapperboard panel surfaces slate information for every setup.

Entering Shoot Mode

The fastest way is the Go to Set button in the Plan stage toolbar (the clapperboard icon). Tapping it does two things at once:

• Switches the workspace to the Shoot stage.
• Activates Shoot mode (no separate idle state).

You can also switch to the Shoot stage from the stage picker, then tap Go to Set there.

On Mac and iPad, an additional Clapperboard toolbar button toggles the clapperboard panel manually.

Leaving Shoot Mode

Tap End Shoot (the X icon, red tint) in the toolbar to return to the regular planning layout. Shoot mode also resets if you leave the project or relaunch the app — it is not persisted.

What Changes in Shoot Mode

| Feature | In Shoot mode | |---------|---------------| | Planning fields (headline, description, camera, size, angle, setup, VFX, SFX) | Read-only — displayed as text, not editable. | | Status control | Enlarged. On iOS, a 56×56-point circle that cycles Planned → Shooting → Done on tap. On Mac, a segmented picker. | | Storyboard thumbnail | Always visible on every shot card. | | Add Shot button (+) | Hidden. | | AI generation button | Hidden. |

The shoot mode banner is tinted to make it clear you are on set. Scene selection in the sidebar still works — you can move between scenes without leaving Shoot mode. On every platform the toolbar also shows Previous Scene / Next Scene chevrons and a scene-picker menu, so you can step through scenes without opening the sidebar.

The shot list in Shoot mode.

Swiping Between Scenes (iPhone and iPad)

On iPhone and iPad you can navigate between scenes with a single, fluid gesture, available whenever the Shoot stage is selected — you do not have to tap Go to Set first.

• Pull the shot list downward past the top to go to the previous scene.
• Pull the shot list upward past the bottom to go to the next scene.

As you pull, a small banner slides into view showing the scene number and heading of the adjacent scene. Keep pulling and you'll feel a single haptic "click" — that's the detent. Release after the click to snap to that scene; release before the click to bounce back and stay where you were.

You'll feel the click at roughly the same pull distance as Mail or Photos uses for pull-to-refresh. The toolbar Previous / Next chevrons remain available the whole time as a tap alternative.

Notes:

• At the first scene, pulling down does nothing — there is no previous scene. Same for the last scene pulled upward.
• The gesture works on every scene, including scenes with only one or two shots and scenes with no shots at all. On an empty scene the empty-state row provides the rubber-band travel for the pull, so you can step right through a placeholder scene without leaving the Shoot stage (Sprint 22 / PR-084).
• Right after a scene transition, the next-scene hint only appears once you deliberately pull again — the gesture resets cleanly after the previous commit so a small scroll within the new scene does not trigger another navigation (Sprint 22 / PR-084 Run-3).
• On Mac, the gesture is intentionally not active. Use the toolbar Previous / Next chevrons or the scene-picker menu instead.

Pulling the shot list upward reveals the next scene; the banner switches to "Release" once you've crossed the detent.

The Status Cycle

Tap a shot's status control to advance it:

| State | Marker (iOS) | |-------|--------------| | Planned | Empty circle, gray. | | Shooting | Camera icon, red. | | Done | Checkmark, green. |

On Mac, the segmented picker lets you jump directly to any state.

When a shot's status changes to Shooting, the clapperboard panel opens automatically with the shot's information pre-filled.

The Clapperboard Panel

The clapperboard is FramePath's digital slate. It mirrors a physical clapper used in production: production name on top, scene and shot numbers, take counter, camera designation, director, and camera operator.

Where it appears

| Platform | Presentation | |----------|-------------| | Mac | Trailing inspector panel (360–560 pt wide). Toolbar toggle or auto-opens when a shot enters Shooting. | | iPad | Landscape full-screen cover. The interface rotates to landscape automatically and the slate fills the entire screen — like a physical clapper held in front of the camera. Tap the × button in the top-right corner to dismiss. | | iPhone | Landscape full-screen cover. Same behaviour as iPad: the device rotates to landscape and the slate fills the screen. Tap the × button in the top-right corner to dismiss. |

Fields on the clapper

| Field | Source | Editable? | |-------|--------|-----------| | Production | Project setting | Yes — tap to edit inline. | | Scene | The currently selected scene | No (set by selection). | | Shot | The currently selected shot | No (set by selection). | | Take | Tap + or − to increment / decrement | Yes — local to the session. | | Camera | Shot's camera letter | No. | | Director | Project setting | Yes — tap to edit inline. | | Camera Op. | Project setting | Yes — tap to edit inline. |

Production, Director, and Camera Op. are saved on your project and sync via iCloud — fill them in once at the start of the shoot.

Dismissing the iPhone keyboard. On iPhone, tapping any of the editable Clapperboard fields shows the keyboard with a Done button on its top-right accessory bar. Tap Done to dismiss the keyboard and return to the slate. On iPad the system caret in the keyboard's bottom-right corner does the same job. (Sprint 22 / PR-188 restored this affordance for the Story Editor and Character Editor detail sheets too — see Working with Characters and Managing Scenes. The Clapperboard's Done button has been there since Sprint 14.)

Take Counter

The take counter is a convenience reference, not a take log. Notes:

• Take counts are remembered per shot, within the current session. Switching shots preserves each shot's count.
• Take counts reset when the scene changes or when you relaunch the app. They are not stored permanently.
• The minimum value is 1.

The Action Button

Tap Action to start the take. The green button is replaced by a running timecode in HH:MM:SS.mmm format, giving you a visible reference while the take is in progress. No data is written — the timecode is for on-screen reference only.

The clapperboard ready to roll, with the Action button at the bottom.

The clapperboard during a take, with the running timecode in place of the Action button.

A Typical On-Set Flow

1. From the Plan stage, tap Go to Set to enter Shoot mode.
2. Tap a shot's status circle to mark it Shooting. The clapperboard panel opens.
3. Confirm the take number, then tap Action to start the take. A running timecode appears in place of the button.
4. After the take, tap the status circle again to mark the shot Done.
5. Select the next shot (or change scene in the sidebar) and repeat.
6. When the day is over, tap End Shoot to return to planning.

Edge Cases

• No data for a field? The clapper shows an em-dash (—) for missing scene, shot, or camera values.
• Shooting status without the clapperboard? Tap the Clapperboard toolbar button on Mac or iPad to toggle it manually.
• Backgrounding the app ends Shoot mode. The clapperboard panel closes and the shot list returns to its editable layout.

#Exporting

FramePath gives you four ways to take your project out of the app, plus a quick Copy as Text action. Every export starts from the same place: the Export Script toolbar button.

Export Formats at a Glance

| Format | What it is | Free or Pro | |--------|-----------|-------------| | Fountain (.fountain) | Plain-text screenplay file compatible with Beat, Highland 2, Arc Studio, Final Draft, and any Fountain-aware tool. | Free for everyone. | | Screenplay PDF | Vector PDF with selectable text and standard screenplay layout (Courier 12pt, 1.5" left margin). | Free for everyone. | | Shot List PDF | Paginated PDF with every shot's metadata, headline, description, and storyboard thumbnail. | Free for everyone — no watermark. | | Storyboard PDF | Panel-based PDF with one frame per panel, designed for crew distribution. | Pro on Mac and iPad. Hidden on iPhone. | | Copy as Text | Tab-separated shot list copied to the clipboard. | Free for everyone. |

The free tier no longer has a "Made with FramePath" watermark on any PDF export.

Opening the Export Sheet

Tap the Export Script button (the share icon, square.and.arrow.up) in the workspace toolbar. The export sheet opens on top of the workspace.

The sheet contains, top to bottom:

1. Format picker — choose Fountain, Screenplay PDF, Shot List PDF, or Storyboard PDF.
2. Scope picker — Full project, or just the selected scene (Fountain and Screenplay PDF only).
3. Format-specific options — see the sections below.
4. Export button — runs the export.
5. Save to Files / Share Link — sends the file to the Files app or other destinations.

The export sheet — the single entry point for every format.

Exporting a Fountain File

Use this when you want to hand the screenplay off to another tool.

1. Tap Export Script.
2. In the format picker, choose Fountain (.fountain).
3. Choose a scope: Full project or Selected scene only. (The Selected scene option is disabled when no scene is selected.)
4. Export:
   • Mac — Tap Save to Files…. A save dialog appears — choose a location and confirm. A secondary Share button is available for AirDrop, Mail, and other share targets.
   • iPad / iPhone — Tap the share button. The system share sheet opens — choose Save to Files, AirDrop, Mail, Messages, or any other share target.

The filename defaults to "{Project Name}.fountain" for full projects, or "{Scene Heading}.fountain" for a single scene. "Untitled" is used when the project has no name.

Exporting a Screenplay PDF

This is the vector PDF format suitable for printing or sharing with non-technical collaborators.

1. Tap Export Script.
2. Choose Screenplay PDF.
3. Pick a scope (full project or selected scene).
4. Export with Save to Files… (Mac) or the share button (iPad / iPhone).

The PDF includes a title banner with the project name, your director name (if set), and Courier 12pt body text in standard screenplay format — centred dialogue, right-aligned transitions, bold scene headings.

Scratch-built projects with no name still get a cover with "Untitled" on it.

Exporting a Shot List PDF

Use this when you want to share the planned shot list with your DP, AD, or producer.

1. Tap Export Script.
2. Choose Shot List PDF.
3. The Shot List PDF Options section appears below the format picker:
   • Include Why notes — When on, each shot's Why note appears in italics below the description.
   • Add "Created with FramePath" footer — Off by default. Turn on if you want a small footer on the last page.
   • Copy Shot List as Text — Sends the shot list to the clipboard. See Copy as Plain Text below.
4. Tap Export Shot List PDF. The sheet dismisses and a system save dialog appears — choose a location and confirm.

The PDF is US Letter portrait and contains:

• Header on every page — project name on the left, generation date and time on the right.
• Scene sections — a section header for each scene (or for the current grouping, if you've set a Group By).
• Shot rows — shot number, status, size, angle, camera, VFX, SFX on a metadata line, followed by the headline, description, and (optionally) the Why note. If the shot has a storyboard image, an 80×60 thumbnail appears alongside.
• Attribution footer — only when you've turned it on.

A page from a Shot List PDF.

A page from a 4-panel Storyboard PDF — shown here next to the Shot List PDF for visual comparison.

Exporting a Storyboard PDF

Use this to share the visual storyboard with your crew.

This format is Pro on Mac and iPad, and hidden on iPhone. Free-tier users see a "Try Pro to Export Storyboard PDF" button that opens the upgrade sheet.

1. Tap Export Script.
2. Choose Storyboard PDF.
3. The Storyboard Options section appears:
   • Panels per page — pick the layout density:
     • 4 (2×2) — the default. Largest panels; best for reviewing composition.
     • 6 (2×3) — same column width as the 4-panel layout, with one extra row of panels per page. Useful when you want more frames per page without shrinking panel width.
     • 12 (dense) (3×4) — three columns of smaller panels. Useful for handing the whole storyboard to a crew member as a compact reference.
   • Include Why notes — When on, each panel's Why note appears beneath its caption. This is a separate setting from the Shot List PDF Why-notes toggle.
4. Tap Export Storyboard PDF. The system save dialog appears.

Each page contains:

• A scene header row ("Scene N · INT. COFFEE SHOP — DAY") introducing the panels for that scene.
• A grid of panels, each sized to your project's aspect ratio (see Storyboarding).
• Per panel — the frame label (e.g. "3B.1"), the shot's headline, and the optional Why note.

Every page renders exactly the panel count you picked — never more (after Sprint 22 / PR-114). Earlier builds packed panels to fit vertically, producing 6 panels on a page when you'd selected 4 and silently dropping the 12-panel option onto the 4-panel layout; PR-114 enforces a hard per-page cap so the picker matches the printed output. A shot with multiple storyboard frames occupies multiple consecutive panel positions in index order. A shot with no frames falls back to its legacy storyboard image, then to a blank outline at the project's aspect ratio.

A page from a 12-panel "dense" Storyboard PDF — the new layout added in Sprint 22 / PR-114.

Copy as Plain Text

For a quick paste into a spreadsheet, call sheet, or message:

1. Tap Export Script → choose Shot List PDF in the format picker.
2. In the Shot List PDF Options section, tap Copy Shot List as Text.
3. A "Copied" confirmation appears for ~1.5 seconds.

The shot list is copied as tab-separated rows, one shot per line, with the shot number, size, angle, camera letter, and headline. The current grouping is reflected in the order.

Tips

• Set your director name once. When set on the project (in the project inspector or the Shoot mode clapperboard), the Screenplay PDF includes it on the cover.
• Selected-scene exports are great for table reads. Export a single scene as Fountain and send it to a collaborator without sharing the whole project.
• Save to Files writes to iCloud Drive. From there you can open the file in any compatible app on any device.
• Storyboard PDF on Mac uses the system save dialog. Tap Export Storyboard PDF and you'll see a standard save panel — no system share sheet needed.

#FramePath Pro

FramePath is free to download and start using. FramePath Pro is an auto-renewing monthly subscription that unlocks unlimited projects, a generous monthly AI-token allotment, and the full storyboard feature set on Mac and iPad. New subscribers can start with a 7-day free trial. Family Sharing is enabled, so one Pro subscription covers your entire family group.

What Pro Unlocks

| Feature | Free | FramePath Pro | |---------|------|---------------| | Projects | Up to 3 | Unlimited | | AI generation tokens | One-time 25,000-token welcome allotment, plus optional top-up packs | 300,000 tokens granted every billing month, plus optional top-up packs | | Storyboard drawing (Mac / iPad) | View-only | Draw, import photos, multi-frame storyboards | | Storyboard PDF export | — | Available on Mac and iPad | | Shot List PDF | Available, no watermark | Available, no watermark | | Screenplay PDF and Fountain export | Available | Available | | iCloud sync | Available | Available |

The bundled example project (created on first launch) does not count toward the free-tier project limit.

iPhone is view-only for storyboard drawing regardless of Pro status — drawing is designed for the larger canvas on iPad and Mac.

For details on how AI tokens are consumed and how the welcome allotment works, see AI Shot Generation.

Subscribing to FramePath Pro

1. From the project list, tap the star icon in the toolbar.
2. The subscription sheet opens, showing the monthly price (currently $9.99 / mo) and a summary of what Pro includes.
3. If you have never subscribed before, the primary button reads Start 7-Day Free Trial; if you've already used the trial, it reads Subscribe — $9.99/mo.
4. Tap the button to complete the purchase through the App Store. You will not be charged during the trial; if you don't cancel before the trial ends, the subscription renews at $9.99 / mo.

While the purchase is processing, the button shows a progress indicator. The sheet closes automatically when the purchase completes. Your token wallet is credited with 300,000 tokens within a few seconds of the App Store confirming the purchase.

The FramePath Pro subscription sheet.

Top-Up Packs

Whether you're on Free or Pro, you can buy additional tokens at any time without changing your subscription state. Tap the ⚡ N badge in the workspace toolbar to open the top-up sheet, which lists three options:

• 150,000 tokens for $4.99 — a few short scenes.
• 300,000 tokens for $9.99 — a full short film.
• 700,000 tokens for $19.99 — power-user pack.

Top-up tokens never expire and stack on top of your monthly Pro allotment (if any). They land in your wallet within a few seconds of the App Store confirming the purchase.

The token-pack top-up sheet.

Restoring Purchases

If you have an active subscription on another device, or if you reinstalled the app:

1. Open the subscription sheet by tapping the star icon in the project list toolbar.
2. Tap Restore Purchases.
3. FramePath checks your App Store purchase history and re-enables your Pro entitlement.

The sheet closes automatically once the restoration is confirmed. Restoring brings back your entitlement — your wallet balance is server-side and is always in sync; there is nothing to restore there.

When You'll See the Subscription Sheet Automatically

FramePath only surfaces the subscription sheet when you hit a limit or explicitly ask for it:

• Creating a 4th project on the free tier. The sheet appears instead of the New Project sheet.
• Running an AI generation when your token wallet is below the 5,000-token reserve. A You're out of tokens sheet appears first, with two options: Subscribe to FramePath Pro (which leads to this subscription sheet) or Buy a top-up pack.
• Picking Storyboard PDF in the export sheet on Mac or iPad while on the free tier. A "Try Pro to Export Storyboard PDF" button opens the sheet.
• Tapping into the drawing sheet on Mac or iPad on the free tier. The sheet shows a banner offering to upgrade.

You can always open the subscription sheet manually from the star icon in the project list toolbar.

Cancelling, Lapsing, and Refunds

FramePath Pro is an auto-renewing subscription managed by Apple, not by FramePath. To cancel, open Settings > [Your Name] > Subscriptions on iOS (or App Store > [Your Name] > Subscriptions on Mac) and find FramePath in the list. If you cancel during the 7-day free trial, you are not charged at all and Pro features remain available until the trial period ends.

When the subscription lapses, expires, or is cancelled mid-cycle:

• FramePath returns to Free-tier project limits and any Pro-only features lock again.
• Your token wallet balance is preserved. Any tokens still in your wallet at the moment the subscription ends remain spendable — including top-up tokens (which never expire) and any unspent portion of your most recent monthly allotment.

If you request and receive a refund from Apple for a subscription period, FramePath reverses the corresponding token credit. The originally-granted tokens are deducted from your wallet, but the result is clamped at zero — a user who has already spent past the refund amount keeps the value of what they spent.

Family Sharing

FramePath Pro is configured for Family Sharing. If you are the family organiser (or a family member of someone who has subscribed), the Pro entitlement automatically extends to your devices once you sign in to FramePath with your own Apple ID. There is nothing extra to do; the entitlement propagates via the App Store.

Each family member has their own token wallet — signing in to FramePath on a family member's device gives them their own 300,000-token monthly allotment, independent of the subscriber's wallet. Top-up purchases, however, credit only the buyer's wallet: top-ups are not family-shared.

#iCloud Sync

FramePath syncs every project, screenplay, shot, storyboard frame, and character automatically using iCloud. The app is offline-first — everything works without a connection, and changes sync the next time you go online.

How Sync Works

When you make a change on one device — creating a project, editing a shot, drawing a storyboard frame — that change is uploaded to iCloud and delivered to your other devices. Under normal conditions, changes appear on other devices within roughly 60 seconds.

Sync happens in the background. You do not need to take any action to trigger it.

Sync Status Indicator

The project list toolbar shows a cloud icon. It changes to reflect the current state:

| Icon | State | Meaning | |------|-------|---------| | Gray cloud | Idle | Data is up to date. | | Spinning indicator | Syncing | A sync operation is in progress. | | Red cloud with exclamation mark | Error | The last sync hit a problem. Tap the icon for the error details. |

Idle — data is up to date.

Syncing — a sync operation is in progress.

Error — the last sync hit a problem.

Most sync operations finish quickly and silently. If you see the spinning indicator, your data is being transferred.

Offline Use

FramePath works fully offline. You can:

• Create projects.
• Write scenes and edit shots.
• Attach storyboard images and draw frames.
• Export PDFs and Fountain files.

Changes made offline are stored locally and queued for sync. When your device reconnects, the queued changes upload automatically. There is no risk of data loss from working offline.

Conflict Resolution

When the same shot or scene is edited on two devices that are temporarily out of sync, iCloud applies a last-write-wins rule: the most recent change (per device clock) replaces the earlier one. In day-to-day use this is rarely visible, but if you make significant edits on two devices in quick succession without letting either sync, the later edit overwrites the earlier one.

Troubleshooting

If your data is not showing up on another device:

1. Confirm iCloud is signed in. On each device, go to Settings (or System Settings on Mac) → [your name] → iCloud and confirm that iCloud Drive is on and that FramePath is allowed to sync.
2. Same Apple ID. All devices must be signed into the same Apple ID for sync to work.
3. Check the indicator. If the cloud icon is red, tap it to see the error message.
4. Restart the app. Close FramePath and reopen it to trigger a fresh sync cycle.
5. Check your connection. Sync requires an internet connection.
6. Be patient. Changes can take up to 60 seconds to propagate. Large storyboard images may take longer on a slow connection.

If sync issues persist, sign out of iCloud and sign back in on the affected device.

The "Database Error" Alert

In rare cases — typically right after an app update — FramePath may detect that the local database does not match the current app version. When this happens you'll see a Database Error alert with two options:

• Reset Local Data — Deletes the on-device database and quits the app. On next launch, the local database is rebuilt from scratch and your iCloud data syncs back automatically. Use this if you have at least one other device that already has your data, or if you've never used another device but are willing to start over.
• Quit App — Leaves the data alone and exits. Useful if you want to update to a newer version of the app or contact support before doing anything else.

If you only have one device and your data exists nowhere else, choose Quit App and reach out before tapping Reset.

Limits

• Image size. Storyboard photos are downsampled to 2048 pixels on the longest edge and saved as JPEG for efficient sync. Very large storyboards with many strokes may take longer to sync.
• Single-user only. FramePath uses your iCloud private database. There is no shared-database support — projects cannot be collaboratively edited by multiple iCloud accounts.
• No manual sync trigger. Sync is fully automatic. There is no "Sync Now" button.

#Keyboard Shortcuts

FramePath supports keyboard shortcuts on Mac to speed up common tasks. These shortcuts are available whenever the workspace is open.

Menu Shortcuts

The Shot List menu in the menu bar provides the following shortcuts:

| Action | Shortcut | What it does | |--------|----------|--------------| | New Shot | Cmd + N | Creates a new shot in the currently selected scene, linked to the selected element. If no element is selected, the shot is linked to the first actionable element in the scene. | | Delete Selected Shots | Delete | Deletes all currently selected shots. A confirmation alert appears first. |

Shot List Navigation

When the shot list grid has focus on Mac, use the keyboard to move between cells:

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | Tab | Move to the next cell to the right (wraps to the next row). | | Shift + Tab | Move to the previous cell to the left (wraps to the previous row). | | Up Arrow | Move to the same column one row above. | | Down Arrow | Move to the same column one row below. | | Return | Move to the same column in the next row. |

When you are editing a text field inside a shot card (such as the headline or description), the arrow keys move the cursor within the field as expected. Grid navigation resumes when you press Return or click outside the field.

Multi-Selection

Hold Shift or Cmd while clicking a shot row to add it to or remove it from the current selection. Multi-selected rows are highlighted but stay collapsed.

Renaming a Scene

In the scene list sidebar, double-click a scene heading to enter inline edit mode. Return commits the change; Esc cancels.

Help

| Action | Where | |--------|-------| | Show Tips Again | Help → Show Tips Again in the menu bar. Resets all the contextual hints so they appear again as you work. |

#Importing Fountain Scripts

FramePath can import screenplays written in the Fountain markup format. Fountain is a plain-text file format designed for screenwriters — you can write a Fountain script in any text editor, and FramePath will import it with full industry-standard formatting.

If you'd rather write your script inside FramePath, see Writing Your Scenes.

What Is Fountain?

Fountain is an open-source markup language for writing screenplays in plain text. A Fountain file uses the .fountain extension and can be created in any text editor, dedicated screenwriting app (such as Highland, Slugline, Beat, or Fade In), or exported from Final Draft.

Because Fountain files are plain text, they are small, portable, and version-control friendly. FramePath parses the Fountain syntax and renders it as a formatted screenplay in the script panel.

For the full Fountain specification, visit fountain.io.

How to Import

1. From the project list, tap New Project in the toolbar.
2. In the New Project sheet, enter a name and tap Import a Fountain script.
3. A file picker opens. Navigate to your .fountain file and select it.
4. FramePath parses the script, identifies scenes and elements, and creates the project.
5. The new project opens in the Plan stage.

Importing a Fountain screenplay.

While the script is being parsed, FramePath also:

• Adds every unique speaker from dialogue blocks to your project's Characters list.
• Assigns scene numbers automatically (or uses your explicit numbers if present).

The imported screenplay rendered in the script panel.

Supported Fountain Elements

FramePath recognises the following Fountain elements:

Title Page

Metadata at the top of the script before the first scene heading:

Title: My Screenplay
Credit: Written by
Author: Jane Doe
Draft date: 2026-05-10

Title page fields are displayed on a dedicated title page at the top of the script panel and on the cover of any exported Screenplay PDF.

Scene Headings

Lines that begin with INT., EXT., INT./EXT., or I/E. are recognised as scene headings. You can also force any line to be treated as a scene heading by starting it with a period (.):

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

.FLASHBACK - THE PARK

Explicit Scene Numbers

To assign a specific scene number, wrap it in # symbols at the end of the heading:

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY #10#

If no explicit number is provided, FramePath assigns sequential numbers automatically.

Action

Any line that is not recognised as another element type is treated as action. Action lines are displayed left-aligned in standard format.

Dialogue

A character name in ALL CAPS on its own line, followed by the dialogue text on the next line:

SARAH
I can't believe you said that.

Character names are displayed centred above the dialogue text.

Parentheticals

A line in parentheses between the character name and dialogue, indicating delivery or stage direction:

SARAH
(whispering)
I can't believe you said that.

Inside FramePath, parentheticals are kept as part of the dialogue block's content. They render correctly in the formatted view and in exports.

Transitions

Lines in ALL CAPS that end with TO: or IN: are recognised as transitions. You can also force a transition by starting a line with >:

CUT TO:

> FADE TO BLACK

Section Headings

Fountain section headings use the # syntax (one through six levels). These are structural markers that do not appear in the printed screenplay but help organise the script:

## Act One
### Sequence A
#### Scene Group

Synopses

Lines beginning with = (but not ==) are treated as synopses — brief summaries of what follows. They are displayed in teal in the script panel:

= Sarah confronts David about the phone call.

Notes

Text enclosed in double brackets is treated as a note. Notes can span multiple lines and are displayed in gray:

[[ This scene may need to be rewritten after the location scout. ]]

Emphasis

Fountain supports standard emphasis markup that FramePath renders in the script panel:

| Markup | Result | |--------|--------| | *italic* | italic | | **bold** | bold | | ***bold italic*** | bold italic | | _underline_ | underline |

How FramePath Uses Your Script

After import, FramePath processes your screenplay in two stages:

1. Scene identification. The parser splits the script into scenes at each scene heading and assigns scene numbers.
2. Element classification. Within each scene, lines are classified as Action, Dialogue, Transition, Parenthetical, Synopsis, or Note elements. These elements appear in the scene breakdown panel, where you can add shots linked to specific moments in the script.

Once imported, you can edit the script inside FramePath as if you had written it from scratch — see Writing Your Scenes. The Fountain file you imported from is not modified.

Tips for Best Results

• Use standard scene heading prefixes. Start scene headings with INT., EXT., or INT./EXT.. If a heading doesn't use one, force it with a leading period (.).
• Keep character names in ALL CAPS. FramePath identifies dialogue by an all-caps character name on its own line. Mixed-case names may be misidentified as action.
• Use explicit scene numbers for non-sequential numbering. If your script uses non-standard scene numbers (for example, after scenes have been added or removed during revisions), wrap them in #N#.
• Save as UTF-8. Fountain files should be saved as UTF-8 plain text. Other encodings may cause special characters to display incorrectly.
• Re-importing creates a new project. FramePath does not merge a re-imported file into an existing project; importing the same file again creates a separate project. Use Writing Your Scenes to edit an imported script in place.