Why a page is a minute

The single most useful thing about screenplay format is that it turns a page count into a running time. One page of correctly formatted script runs about one minute on screen. That is why the format is fixed, and why the app treats the page count as a real number rather than decoration.

Where the rule comes from

It is an average, not a law — a page of quick dialogue plays faster than a page of dense action — but it is a remarkably steady average, and the whole industry plans by it. A producer sees 110 pages and expects roughly 110 minutes. A television hour is written to about 45–55 pages depending on the network. If the pages are laid out the standard way, everybody's estimate agrees.

What "the standard way" is

• The typeface is Courier, 12 point — a typewriter face where every letter is the same width, so a line always holds the same number of characters.
• The margins are fixed: an inch and a half on the left (room for the binder), an inch on the other three sides.
• Each kind of line has its own place on the page: a scene heading and action run the full width; a character's name sits at the centre; dialogue is a narrower column under it; a parenthetical narrower still.
• The paper size is Letter or A4 — you choose on the script page, and the count changes slightly between them.

None of this is adjustable, and that is the point. Adjusting any of it would make the page count mean something different from everyone else's.

What the app does with it

The Pages view of the script editor draws real pages, broken exactly where the printed script breaks, while you type. The exported PDF is identical to what you see. And the project page shows a Runtime figure worked out from the script, scene by scene, using the same page arithmetic — so a script that is running long shows it long before anybody has to read the whole thing.