{"slug": "ia-writer", "name": "iA Writer", "category": "notes", "category_name": "Notes and knowledge", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 8, "warners": 1, "score": 3.385, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-01-09", "latest": "2026-07-08", "why": "It's a fun subtle adaptation to keep close to the typewriter-like experience of the app.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It's a fun subtle adaptation to keep close to the typewriter-like experience of the app.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "ia.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://ia.net/writer", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["iA Writer"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 781326384, "item_id": 48832899, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48832899", "by": "Lalabadie", "date": "2026-07-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's a fun subtle adaptation to keep close to the typewriter-like experience of the app.", "excerpt": "iA Writer has Mono, Duo and Quattro fonts, with the latter two being almost monospaced. They concede some size variations for specific characters (Duo has 150% width characters, Quattro also uses 50% and 75% for narrow characters). It's a fun subtle adaptation to keep close to the typewriter-like experience of the app. https://ia.net/topics/a-typographic-christmas", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decoding the obfuscated bash script on a Uniqlo t-shirt"}, {"id": 752904480, "item_id": 47056530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056530", "by": "Brajeshwar", "date": "2026-02-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iA Writer[1] (a brilliant Notes App)", "excerpt": "Similar to mine. I use Apple Notes for quick, ephemeral notes and for Shared Family Notes. If they are the ones that are more important, they go into the plain-text notes in the Obsidian folder. The Notes folder(s) is sync with a Cloud Service. So, I use iA Writer[1] (a brilliant Notes App) to have a pleasant writing experience on other mobile devices. They are just Markdown, so I can open them in any Notes App that ", "context": "paid once 10+ years ago", "use_case": "writing Markdown notes on mobile", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Use Obsidian"}, {"id": 752554195, "item_id": 47034637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034637", "by": "pixelmonkey", "date": "2026-02-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which is my favorite prose editor", "excerpt": "I've used vim as a prose editor in addition to a code editor for a long time. For me, Goyo was the plugin that always matched what I wanted vim to become when I was in \"prose writing mode.\" https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim I combine with limelight.vim: https://github.com/junegunn/limelight.vim This partially simulates the experience/UX of the product iA Writer on macOS or iPad, which is my favorite prose editor, ", "context": "", "use_case": "Prose writing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 752701473, "item_id": 47043842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47043842", "by": "KPGv2", "date": "2026-02-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Scrivener works better for me than iA writer", "excerpt": "Yeah, I do think different uses require different editors. I write novels, and Scrivener works better for me than iA writer. I used Sublime as a code editor a decade or so ago, but never for anything more.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing"}]}], "who": [{"by": "Brajeshwar", "context": "paid once 10+ years ago", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056530", "date": "2026-02-17"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["writing with typewriter feel", "writing markdown notes on mobile", "prose writing", "writing and notes"], "compared": [{"slug": "limelight-vim", "name": "limelight.vim", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "vim", "name": "Vim", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "obsidian", "name": "Obsidian", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997356", "title": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829312", "title": "Decoding the obfuscated bash script on a Uniqlo t-shirt", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47147675", "title": "AI_ATTRIBUTION.md: A Standard for Tracking Creative Control in Human-AI Coding", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47054369", "title": "I Use Obsidian", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46556695", "title": "How Markdown Took over the World", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 781393072, "item_id": 48837067, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48837067", "by": "alfirous", "date": "2026-07-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Duo is perfect middle ground between monospace and proportional sans, in my opinion at least. There's also Trispace[1]. https://etceteratype.co/pages/trispace", "context": "", "use_case": "Writing with typewriter feel", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decoding the obfuscated bash script on a Uniqlo t-shirt"}, {"id": 781326384, "item_id": 48832899, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48832899", "by": "Lalabadie", "date": "2026-07-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's a fun subtle adaptation to keep close to the typewriter-like experience of the app.", "excerpt": "iA Writer has Mono, Duo and Quattro fonts, with the latter two being almost monospaced. They concede some size variations for specific characters (Duo has 150% width characters, Quattro also uses 50% and 75% for narrow characters). It's a fun subtle adaptation to keep close to the typewriter-like experience of the app. https://ia.net/topics/a-typographic-christmas", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Decoding the obfuscated bash script on a Uniqlo t-shirt"}, {"id": 754370144, "item_id": 47148134, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148134", "by": "datawars", "date": "2026-02-24", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It reminds me of iA Writer\u2018s author feature", "excerpt": "That is an excellent idea. It reminds me of iA Writer\u2018s author feature: https://ia.net/topics/ia-writer-7", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI_ATTRIBUTION.md: A Standard for Tracking Creative Control in Human-AI Coding"}, {"id": 752904480, "item_id": 47056530, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056530", "by": "Brajeshwar", "date": "2026-02-17", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "iA Writer[1] (a brilliant Notes App)", "excerpt": "Similar to mine. I use Apple Notes for quick, ephemeral notes and for Shared Family Notes. If they are the ones that are more important, they go into the plain-text notes in the Obsidian folder. The Notes folder(s) is sync with a Cloud Service. So, I use iA Writer[1] (a brilliant Notes App) to have a pleasant writing experience on other mobile devices. They are just Markdown, so I can open them in any Notes App that ", "context": "paid once 10+ years ago", "use_case": "writing Markdown notes on mobile", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Use Obsidian"}, {"id": 752701473, "item_id": 47043842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47043842", "by": "KPGv2", "date": "2026-02-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Scrivener works better for me than iA writer", "excerpt": "Yeah, I do think different uses require different editors. I write novels, and Scrivener works better for me than iA writer. I used Sublime as a code editor a decade or so ago, but never for anything more.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing"}, {"id": 752570915, "item_id": 47035682, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47035682", "by": "amouat", "date": "2026-02-16", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I played with some of these tools 12 years ago and created \"dim\", but it was really just Vim with limelight and goyo in a Docker container. https://github.com/amouat/dim There is something nice about having the editor as a separate command especially for writing.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing"}, {"id": 752554195, "item_id": 47034637, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034637", "by": "pixelmonkey", "date": "2026-02-16", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "which is my favorite prose editor", "excerpt": "I've used vim as a prose editor in addition to a code editor for a long time. For me, Goyo was the plugin that always matched what I wanted vim to become when I was in \"prose writing mode.\" https://github.com/junegunn/goyo.vim I combine with limelight.vim: https://github.com/junegunn/limelight.vim This partially simulates the experience/UX of the product iA Writer on macOS or iPad, which is my favorite prose editor, ", "context": "", "use_case": "Prose writing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vim-pencil: Rethinking Vim as a tool for writing"}, {"id": 744999696, "item_id": 46562481, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46562481", "by": "GeneralMaximus", "date": "2026-01-09", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "For me these apps are iA Writer, Obsidian, and Astro's rendering pipeline", "excerpt": "I've started to \"standardize\" my own use of Markdown as \"whatever works in the apps I use\". For me these apps are iA Writer, Obsidian, and Astro's rendering pipeline (which uses the Remark/Rehype ecosystem under the hood). This sucks for sharing documents with other people, but in practice it's not a problem. 99% of my writing never leaves my notes app or blog. And when it does, I often export it to PDF or Word to ma", "context": "", "use_case": "Writing and notes", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Markdown Took over the World"}]}