A search for “Deckle” in this forum didn’t return any hits.
I just noticed someone is using Typst in a program for writers. This could be a nice upgrade in print-ready PDF quality for many indie writers and publishers. I only know what’s on their web page: deckle dot studio.
This is not a recommendation or review; just pointing out someone’s use of Typst in a niche field that desperately needs it.
I wrote some Mathematica code to analyze typesetting using screen shots from Amazon’s read samples of print copy books. I’m using it to optimize my own Typst settings. The difference between books typeset using paragraph line breaking (probably mostly InDesign) and single line breaking is stark.
Bringing higher quality typesetting to the self-publishing world is doing a great service to many readers’ eyes and sensibilities. Most self-publishers want easy-to-use out of the box and would never attempt to use InDesign, LaTeX, or Typst.
Best wishes and good luck to the creator(s) of Deckle.
I didn’t notice it at first either. It’s mentioned in the blog post (on the deckle dot studio site) titled “The Best Book Formatting Software for Self-Publishing Authors (2025 Buyer’s Guide)”.
Down the page a ways is this description:
What Deckle Gets Right
The PDF engine is a genuine differentiator. Deckle’s compile system is built on Typst — a professional typesetting engine that applies actual typographic rules to your manuscript, not template skins. Proper widow and orphan control, optical margin alignment, precise chapter sink calculation, correct drop cap baseline geometry, professional small caps handling. The output is closer to what a typographer would produce than what a template system produces.
I’m in the process of setting up a Scrivener template that compiles through Typst… fraction of the price of Deckle, and, speaking as a non-coding 81 year-old, not that difficult to set up. Also, by simply importing packages from Typst Universe, you have all the power of Typst for more than writing novels.
This is awesome. I hope you are inclined to post your Scrivener template here or link to your online Git host. I do run Scrivener on my macOS machine. Indeed it is my very first serious writing tool and I am not smart enough to know how to use all of its many features that so many writers swear by.
Note though that my main platform is Linux, and for me, Deckle Studio has the edge as it runs on Linux. LiteratureAndLatte dropped its work on the Linux edition of Scrivener years ago. Bless their hearts, the Linux beta edition is still available, but being unsupported and fairly “crashy” it’s just not an real option anymore.
Yes. If people here are interested, I will post a link to it when it is good enough to pass on… I don’t have Git as I haven’t had the time and energy to explore it.
I have been using Scrivener since January 2007 or slightly earlier. Like most users, I only use a modicum of its features, i.e. those that I have needed—mostly in the context of translation teaching and editing—but of late I found more and more that I was using it to produce Markdown/ePub/HTML output and PDFs, so got interested in Typst.
As for Scrivener on Linux, L&L found that while porting the (early stage) Windows version to Linux was easy enough, it was consuminging too much time and energy which would be better spent concentrating on developing the Windows version on which it was based. There are quite a number of Linux users running Scrivener under Wine or Lutris—I don’t know if anyone is using Crossover on Linux; I have the Mac version of Crossover running Scrivener for Windows as my collaborator was Windows-based and I needed to be able to help her trouble-shoot any problems she might have.
Deckle seems interesting but the license is per device, which sucks. Also 200$ for a license after FOMO pricing ends, is a tactic I do not like.
Scrivener is awesome, but the export is bad and a typst based export would fix a lot of that.
I was not able to run Scrivener on my install of CachyOS very reliably, so I am resorting to a VM, instead of wine. (Can’t get the license to activate and fonts are all funky in the UI)
If you could share your Scrivener export template when it is done, it would be wonderful. There is not much to Git, if you just use it to host a public repository. Basically: create account, create repository, choose license (i recommend ‘GPL 2.0 or later’), upload your folder, write something into the README.md.
Though I would recommend going for codeberg.org over github, as GH is being ruined by Microslop currently
In fairness, Deckle Studio is presently a $107 license for two computers.
Note too that it’s meant for novel-writing. That’s the stated target market. It does not import Markdown (only DOCX, ePub and Scrivener ZIP), copy/paste of rich text does not work, there is no support for tables, nor LaTeX expressions nor footnotes.
Proper Typst support for Scrivener would be a G-d send.
And yes Yes YES YES to Codeberg as a public Git repository as opposed to Redmond’s property.
FOMO pricing is a marketing strategy to garner initial interest in a new product. Lots of products use it at introduction.
For example, a few years back, DabbeWriter came on the scene just before NaNoWriMo and I got the introductory low subscription price, which I have to this day. I’m glad I did because the product has gotten better and better over the years.
