novelWriter
novelWriter is an open source plain text editor designed for writing novels
Free · Open sourceLatest versionWindows
About novelWriter
novelWriter is a plain text editor designed for writing novels assembled from many smaller text documents. It uses a minimal formatting syntax inspired by Markdown, and adds a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing. It's designed to be a simple text editor that allows for easy organisation of text and notes, using human readable text files as storage for robustness. The project format is well suited both for version control software and file synchronisation tools.
For more details, and how to install and use novelWriter, please see the main website and documentation.
Project Links
- Website: novelwriter.io (opens in a new tab)
- Documentation: docs.novelwriter.io (opens in a new tab)
- Internationalisation: crowdin.com/project/novelwriter (opens in a new tab)
- PyPi Project: pypi.org/project/novelWriter (opens in a new tab)
- Social Media: fosstodon.org/@novelwriter (opens in a new tab)
_This project is developed and maintained with care by actual humans._
Implementation
novelWriter is written in Python and uses Qt6 with PyQt6 Python binding as the UI framework. It runs on Linux, Windows and MacOS. It can in principle run on any Operating System that also supports Qt, PyQt and Python.
Project Contributions
Please don't make feature pull requests without first having discussed them with the maintainer. You can make a feature request in the issues tracker (opens in a new tab), or if the idea isn't fully formed, start a discussion (opens in a new tab). Please also don't make pull requests to reformat or rewrite existing code unless there is a very good reason for doing so. Please do not submit AI generated content. See our AI Policy (opens in a new tab) for details.
Fixes and patches are welcome. Contributions related to packaging and installing novelWriter will also be appreciated, but please make an issue or a discussion topic first. Before contributing any code, please read the full Contributing Guide (opens in a new tab).
Project credits are available in CREDITS.md (opens in a new tab).
Note: New features and most pre-releases are made on the main branch. Full releases are made from the release branch. So if you're submitting a fix to a current release, **including changes
Description adapted from the project README.
- Version
- 26.2.2
- Updated
- Oct 11, 2026
- Size
- 99 MB
- License
- GNU GPL 3.0
Open source details
- Source code
- Exact source for v26.2.2
- Released
- Oct 11, 2026
- GitHub stars
- 3.2K
- Website
- novelwriter.io
Community project. Help and bug reports go to the maintainers on GitHub; AppsXi does not provide support for this app.
License
CopyleftGNU GPL 3.0
Use and change it freely; anything built from it must be shared under the same license, with its source.
Read the full licenseHow this app was checked
AppsXi checks every version before it is listed.
Signed by SignPath Foundation
Certificate from GlobalSign GCC R45 CodeSigning CA 2020,O=GlobalSign nv-sa,C=BE
Signature is timestamped
File matches the hash GitHub published
SHA-256 710022c7afdd1fe958dd9f39d88be6f6816fbc10844e33df8f176a70ab32eaad
No malware found
ClamAV 1.5.4 on Oct 14, 2026
Install and behavior test in a virtual machine: not run yet
Coming soon for all listings.
Versions
26.2.2checked
Checked Oct 14, 2026 · Windows
EXE · 99 MB
Questions about novelWriter
Is novelWriter free?
Yes. novelWriter is free and open source under the GNU GPL 3.0. AppsXi lists the maintainers' official release and does not charge for it.
Is novelWriter safe to download?
AppsXi downloads every version of novelWriter from the maintainers' official GitHub release and checks it before it is listed. For version 26.2.2 (checked Oct 14, 2026), the Windows download is Authenticode signed, each file matches the checksum GitHub publishes for the release, byte for byte and a malware scan found nothing.
Who makes novelWriter?
novelWriter is an open source project by The Saga Software Project on GitHub (saga-soft/novelWriter). Help and bug reports go to its maintainers there.
Reviews
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