---
title: "A real book from the first sentence"
description: "The page you type on is the page they will hold."
source: https://usegalley.com/features/write
---
# A real book *from the first sentence*

The page you type on is the page they will hold.

Every other tool hands you an endless white scroll and calls it a document, then makes the book at the end — which is where the surprises live. Galley starts you on the finished page: your trim, your typeface, your chapter openings, from sentence one. Nothing to reformat later, because there is no later.

*The Galley editor showing a chapter of The Lantern of Quiet Hours on a book page, with the chapter sidebar and the document bar.*

The editor: sidebar of chapters on the left, the book page in the middle, one document bar across the top.

## Choose the book before you write it

Six trim sizes, from mass market to Royal. 35 typefaces, all licensed for commercial publishing, so nobody sends you a letter about it — and not only for the Latin alphabet: there are book faces chosen for Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, so a book in those languages is set in type meant for it rather than whatever the machine had lying around. Five chapter openings, from a bare title to full dress with an ornament. Set them once and every chapter follows — and if you want your own printer's flourish above chapter one, upload it.

*The Galley book design panel showing trim size, typeface, chapter opener and scene break settings beside a live book page.*

The Book design panel, with the live book page updating as you change each setting.

## The conventions, handled quietly

First lines don't indent, the ones after them do. Type three dashes and you get a proper scene break. Running heads carry your name and title across the top. Set the book to British or American and the spelling checks, the quote marks and the hyphenation all follow it. None of this is a setting you have to learn — it's what a book does, done for you.

## A room you can make quiet

Focus mode clears the screen down to the page. Typewriter scroll keeps the line you're writing at eye level instead of at the bottom of the screen. The paper can be light while the room stays dark, for the 11pm shift. Type @ for a character or # for a place and it drops the right name in — you will never misspell your own protagonist again.

*The Galley editor in focus mode — the sidebar and toolbars hidden, leaving only the book page, with the word count in the corner.*

Focus mode: the room empties, and the page is all that is left.

## And it saves

While you type, when you leave, and when you press ⌘S. If a save ever fails it says so, out loud, instead of pretending everything is fine.

## What's included

Every card goes to the part of the docs that explains it.

[**True book pages** Six trim sizes, mass market to Royal](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#trim-size)[**35 book typefaces** Latin, Arabic, Devanagari, Japanese and more, all licensed for commercial publishing](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#typeface)[**Chapter openings** Five conventions, bare title to full dress](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#chapter-openings)[**Scene breaks** Type --- and it typesets itself](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#scene-breaks)[**Running heads** Your name and title across the top, the way books do it](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#running-heads)[**House style** British or American, justified, properly hyphenated](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#house-style)[**Your own ornaments** Upload the flourish that opens a chapter or breaks a scene](https://usegalley.com/docs/book-design#chapter-openings)[**Focus mode** Nothing on screen but the page](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#focus-mode)[**Typewriter scroll** The line you are writing stays at eye level](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#typewriter)[**Light & dark paper** Switch the page, keep the room dark](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#page-theme)[**Accent themes** Six colours for the room. None of them reach the book](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#accent)[**@ and # mentions** Type @ for a character, # for a place. Never misspell either](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#mentions)[**Block styles** Body, title, scene — the three a novel needs](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#block-styles)[**Inline comments** Margin notes to yourself, resolvable](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-story-bible#comments)[**Search everything** ⌘K finds any chapter, name, term or clipping](https://usegalley.com/docs/shortcuts#command-palette)[**Keyboard shortcuts** Hands stay where they are](https://usegalley.com/docs/shortcuts#the-full-list)

## Thirty minutes in it *beats reading about it.*

[Launch Galley](https://app.usegalley.com) Opens straight into a book. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.

## More features

### The story bible

Everything the book has to remember, beside the book.

https://usegalley.com/features/story-bible

### Revision

After chapter 14 you can’t see your own book. Galley can.

https://usegalley.com/features/revise

### Exports & toolkit

The back half of self-publishing, in one menu.

https://usegalley.com/features/make-the-book

### Safe & yours

Private, backed up, never trained on, never locked in.

https://usegalley.com/features/your-work-is-safe