Folio Studio vs Vivliostyle

Folio Studio is browser-based book layout software for independent authors making novels, essays, memoirs and picture books. It imports Markdown, DOCX, ODT and PDF manuscripts, then detects and structures chapters. Authors can choose from 15 typographic templates for formats such as novels, poetry, thrillers and fantasy, with real-time preview. Chapter tools include summaries, style analysis, opening rewrites and proofreading. The Pro manuscript bible organizes characters and relationships and points out possible inconsistencies alongside source passages for the author to assess. Export choices include epub, PDF and DOCX; the site says epub export is free, while DOCX and print-ready exports are available from Starter. The cover studio offers 2D and 3D previews and can produce a 300 DPI print-ready PDF with calculated spine width, bleed and a reserved barcode zone. The Free plan costs nothing and allows one active project, selected templates, epub and watermark-free PDF, one introductory AI action and one full-page illustration. Pro costs €9 a month; Starter is listed at €499 a month. Folio Studio works in modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge, with no installation required.

Vivliostyle is an open-source typesetting project for digital and web publishing based on web standards. Vivliostyle Viewer presents HTML with CSS typesetting in a browser and can display EPUB files and web publications. The command-line tool typesets HTML and CSS and exports PDFs, including PDFs generated from EPUB files. For print production, its PRESS-READY option supports PDF/X-1a output and requires Ghostscript and Xpdf.

Vivliostyle Pub is a web application for editing text, Markdown, or HTML and previewing typesetting; its new version is in alpha. Themes are distributed as npm packages and applied through vivliostyle.config.js. Viewer can display HTML hosted on GitHub or Gist, or be copied into a public web-server directory. The CLI requires Node.js, and the installation tutorial lists macOS, Windows, and Linux. Vivliostyle uses AGPLv3, which allows modification and commercial use subject to reciprocal license terms. Its FAQ says publications made with the software need not publish their HTML or CSS source data. The project is maintained by Vivliostyle Foundation.