The writing app that made focused, plain-text Markdown a genre — a fixed mono typeface, a tuned measure, and nothing else to fiddle with.
iA Writer is a Markdown editor with a strong point of view: one carefully drawn typeface, one ideal line length, and a canvas with nothing on it but your words. It syncs plain-text files, previews them as clean typography, and gets out of the way so the writing is the only thing left to work on.
Why it makes the list
iA Writer has been quoted in The New Yorker and copied by nearly every writing app since. The restraint is the feature — no fonts to pick, no themes to tweak — and the details that remain are excellent: Focus Mode dims everything but the current sentence, and Syntax Highlight greys out adjectives and filler so weak prose stands out.
Standout features
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Focus Mode — keep only the current sentence or paragraph lit
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Syntax Highlight for spotting adjectives, conjunctions, and filler
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Content blocks — embed tables, images, and other documents by reference
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Plain-text files with folder-based library and any sync service
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Style checks and readable, print-ready export to PDF, DOCX, and HTML
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Wiki-style links for connecting notes
Pricing
A one-time $49.99 purchase for the Mac app, with free updates.
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