Eleanor

Eleanor is a remarkable Ruby script and accompanying library that seamlessly typesets speculative screenplays. It is brilliantly designed to parse plain text, which is creatively written in a simple format and punctually outputs a stunning PDF that strictly adheres to the standard rules of screenplay layout. With Eleanor, you can conveniently create PDFs that are indistinguishable from those professionally manufactured using software such as Final Draft.

Eleanor comprises of several features that are incredible for anyone looking to typeset his/her screenplay. Firstly, it offers fantastic functionality for speculative scripts, which is essential in the film industry. Secondly, it expertly follows the standard rules of screenplay formatting, but it also affords users a chance to modify those rules appropriately. The software also offers Proper pagination, Correctly breaking paragraphs across pages, breaking Paragraphs between sentences, and not in mid-sentence. Eleanor expertly respects the orphan and widow sentence constraints, and users can set their orphan and widow line constraints. Furthermore, it is designed to Respect keep-with-next constraints while also expertly breaking and continuing dialog.

The configurable constraints in Eleanor are precise and dynamic, with margin specifications, keep-with-nexts, and orphan and widow limits that can be set class-by-class for each paragraph category. The software also provides options for customizing screenplay-wide aspects like Font, Line height, character spacing, Page size, and margins. The configuration can be quickly done through the YAML format stored in a separate file, thus making it easy to manage.

Eleanor is incredibly stretchable and customizable since users can write their backend to target a different platform or format like PDF::Writer, XML, XSL-FO, Postscript, RTF, the screen, a socket, or any other format. If you don't prefer Eleanor's inherent screenplay format, you can write your parser, giving you unrivaled flexibility.

The software is executable either as a command-line app or as a section of more extensive Ruby programming. Eleanor has an incredible ability to create multiple title pages and text underlining, which is essential in conveying emphasis in screenplays.

To utilize Eleanor, you need to have the libHaru 2.1.0 and Ruby installed. Eleanor can be used from the command line with the syntax provided, offering a quick way of creating an exquisite PDF. Alternatively, you can call Eleanor from within your Ruby program, making it your script's default choice for screenplay layout and typesetting.