Stories, beautifully crafted.

PetrichorPages is a little desktop app that turns your Word manuscript into a print-ready book, with real chapter art, drop caps and ornaments. Made by an indie author, for indie authors.

One-time purchase. Windows and Mac.
Chapter One page with skull and roses

Bring your manuscript. Leave with a book.

This is the Studio. Your pages update as you go, so you always see exactly what’s going to print.

PetrichorPages Studio
  1. 1. ImportDrop in a .docx (Google Docs exports work too). Chapters marked Heading 1 are found for you.
  2. 2. Make it yoursPick a theme, then change the trim size, fonts, margins and drop caps until it feels right.
  3. 3. ExportA print-ready PDF with bleed for KDP, plus an EPUB for ebooks.
Lilac chapter page
Colored pages, with a matching ornament.

What it can do

The boring parts
Gutters, margins, indents, orphan lines. All handled, so you never have to think about them.
Themes and chapter art
Choose from a growing library, or upload your own header image.
Images that stay put
Drag them around, resize them without your text jumping, or bleed one across the whole page.
Letters, notes and text bubbles
For the texts, letters and notes in your story, in whatever color you like.
Underlays and colored pages
Put your own image behind the text and set the opacity, or color your pages all the way through (this raises print costs).
Switch trim sizes freely
Try 5×8, change your mind, go to 6×9. Your manuscript won’t fall apart.

And what it can’t: while you can write and change text in our formatter, we are not optimized to be a word processor. We don’t have spelling or grammar check, and because we are offline, we don’t have cloud or drive storage. Your manuscript is backed up and saved locally to your computer only.

Background images also don’t show up on Kindle ebooks.

Full features and limitations

See them on an e-reader

Here’s how our special text blocks look in Amazon’s Kindle Previewer. Use the arrows to turn the page.

Newspaper text block on an e-reader Ticket text block on an e-reader Text messages text block on an e-reader Letter text block on an e-reader Email text block on an e-reader Radio text block on an e-reader Playlist text block on an e-reader

Newspaper 1 of 7

Petrichor & Peonies

I also made an entire program dedicated to formatting cookbooks. It also turns your recipes into cards, ready for your website.

See Petrichor & Peonies
Cookbook title page Recipe page Recipe page

From the Theme Library

New themes for PetrichorPages show up inside the app as they’re released, each with its own colors, fonts and artwork.

Custom forced edge
Custom Forced EdgeYour own art on the outer, top and bottom edges.
$25
Dual forced edge
Dual Forced Edge BundleTwo images on one edge, one for each way the pages fan.
$40

A few promises

Your book stays on your computer. Nothing gets uploaded. Saving a draft just saves a file, like any other document. I can’t see your manuscript, and I don’t want to.

There’s no AI in here. Formatting is plain, predictable code, and I will never add an AI assistant to it.

No subscriptions. I hate them as much as you do. You pay once and it’s yours.

Your story deserves it.

The people behind PetrichorPages behind the pages

Hi, I’m an indie author too.

As indie authors we’re the writer, editor, designer, marketer and publisher all at once. Meanwhile, traditionally published books keep getting sprayed edges and special editions. I wanted indie books to be able to look that good without a design degree or a huge bill.

I used to trade custom HTML layouts on Neopets for paintbrushes. Now I’ve turned code into a paintbrush for your book. It feels a bit like coming full circle.

Read the whole story

One price, once.

$34

Plus tax. Your download link and license key arrive by email right after you buy.

Checkout is handled by Stripe. All sales are final, so please try the demo first. By purchasing you agree to the Terms, EULA and Privacy Policy.

Would you rather us format your book for you? See our formatting services.

  • Format as many books as you can write
  • Use it on up to 3 computers
  • Every built-in theme and all the artwork
  • Print-ready PDF with bleed, and EPUB
  • Works offline
Runs on Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and macOS 13 Ventura or later. It’s desktop software, so it won’t run on phones or tablets. Books are formatted to Amazon KDP’s guidelines (we’re not affiliated with Amazon), and tested with KDP and IngramSpark.

Questions

All the FAQs
What files can I import?

Word documents (.docx). If you wrote in Google Docs, export it as a Word file. Set each chapter title to Heading 1 so the chapters are found automatically, or add the breaks yourself in the app.

Is AI formatting my book?

No. It’s all deterministic code, and there’s no AI in the program at all.

How many books can I format?

As many as you can write.

Will these features work on Kindle?

Some of them will, but background images won’t. To see how our text blocks look on Amazon’s Kindle Previewer, click here.

Can I sell books made with these themes?

Yes. The artwork can go in your finished books, including ones you sell. You just can’t pull it out and redistribute or resell it on its own.

Can I get a refund?

Since a book can be exported right away, sales are final. If you run into a real problem, get in touch and we’ll work something out.

Go light a candle. Let’s make a book.

Not sure yet? Upload your manuscript to the free demo and preview your first 20 pages.

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