The complete screenplay format guide: font and margins, scene headings, action lines, dialogue, and the page-count rules every screenwriter should know.
Screenplay format looks rigid because it serves a real purpose: a correctly formatted page reads in roughly the time it takes to shoot, so anyone — a director, a producer, a financier — can estimate runtime just by counting pages. Here's every element, and why it's done the way it's done.
The industry standard is 12-point Courier (or Courier Prime, the modern, more readable variant most studios and fellowships now accept). Courier is a fixed-pitch font — every character takes identical horizontal space — which is what makes the page-to-runtime estimate consistent across different scripts.
Every scene opens with a slugline in caps: INT. or EXT., the location, then the time of day — e.g. INT. DINER — NIGHT. It tells the reader (and the production team) where and when in three words, before a single line of action.
Action description is written in present tense, and only describes what can be seen or heard — no internal thoughts, no camera directions unless essential. Keep paragraphs short; a wall of action text is harder to read and slower to shoot.
Character names before dialogue are centered roughly 3.7 inches from the left edge of the page (about 2.2 inches in from the margin); dialogue itself sits about 2.5 inches from the left edge; parentheticals (brief acting direction like (quietly)) sit slightly indented from the character name, used sparingly. Most screenwriting software — including SceneCraft — positions all of this automatically, so you write the words and the formatting follows.
CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, and similar transitions are right-aligned and used sparingly in modern scripts — a cut between scenes is already implied, so most writers reserve transitions for moments that need the emphasis.
The format is built around a rough but durable rule: one page ≈ one minute of screen time. A feature script typically runs 90–120 pages; dialogue-heavy scripts trend longer, action-heavy scripts shorter, even at similar runtimes. Use the screenplay word count & runtime calculator to check where your draft stands.
Format exists to make a script fast and predictable to read — not to make writing harder. Learn the conventions once, then let a tool enforce them automatically so you can focus on the scene itself. SceneCraft formats every page to industry standard as you write, and exports cleanly to PDF, FDX, and Fountain.
Sneha edits the SceneCraft blog, with a focus on screenplay craft fundamentals — format, structure, and the details that make a script read clean.
Write, analyze, and storyboard your next screenplay in one AI studio — free to start.
No credit card needed · 100 free AI credits
