TheBindery

A bindery for the modern author

TheBindery

Write, design, and export beautiful eBooks and print-ready PDFs — all from one quiet desk on your own machine.

macOSWindowsLinux
The idea

The Bindery is a desktop application that gives authors a single, calm place to turn a manuscript into a finished book. Import a Word document, edit it in a rich text editor built for long-form writing, and export clean EPUB files and print-ready PDFs — without juggling a stack of separate tools or sending a single page to the cloud.

It is made for novelists, indie publishers, and anyone who would rather spend their attention on the words than on the wiring. Everything happens on your machine, in a workspace designed to stay out of the way.

On the workbench

Everything between a draft and a finished book.

A focused editor, professional templates, and clean exports — with optional help when you want it.

No. 01

Import & export

Bring in .docx manuscripts, Markdown, or Atticus backups. Export polished EPUB, print-ready PDF, and DOCX from the same project.

No. 02

Twenty-eight styles

Curated, paired print and EPUB templates — Classic, Modern, Romance, Thriller, Fantasy, Memoir, and more — ready to apply and refine.

No. 03

An editor for books

Footnotes, scene breaks, verse blocks, callouts, columns, internal links, images, and two-page spreads — the typographic furniture long-form writing actually needs.

No. 04

Writing tools

Built-in spell check, grammar check, and find & replace, with a live preview that shows your print and EPUB output as you work.

No. 05

An optional AI assistant

Bring your own provider — Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, or a fully local Ollama model. It only runs when you ask it to, and only with the keys you supply.

No. 06

Versions you can trust

Automatic chapter and book snapshots, plus portable .bindery backups that carry every chapter, image, and template in a single file.

Yours alone

Local-first, and quietly private.

The Bindery keeps your work in a database on your own computer. There is no account to create, no cloud sync running in the background, and no telemetry — by default, nothing your manuscript contains ever leaves your machine.

Stored locally

Projects, chapters, and settings live in a local SQLite database in a folder you choose.

No telemetry

The app doesn’t phone home, track usage, or collect analytics about how you write.

You hold the keys

Network features — the AI assistant, font downloads — only run when you turn them on. Read the policy →

Get a copy

Get The Bindery.

The Bindery is on its way to macOS, Windows, and Linux. Builds are being prepared now — check back soon.

Apple silicon & Intel macOS Coming soon
Windows 10 & 11 Windows Coming soon
Debian / RPM / AppImage Linux Coming soon

Also coming soon to the Mac App Store and the Microsoft Store. Questions about licensing? Visit Support.