Free · completely offline · Windows, Linux and browser
PureQuill Writer
The free word processor that works completely offline. It opens and saves Word files with high compatibility — and brings tools for writers that other word processors do not have. No account, no subscription, no cloud.
Free · Windows 10 and 11
New in 1.6.0
Your text remembers.
Go back to any earlier version of your text, rearrange a book chapter by chapter, and write on an old typewriter if you feel like it.
Every version on a timeline
Step through earlier versions, see what changed in colour, play the text back as it grew and restore a version in one click.
Chapters as cards
Every chapter with its first line and word count. Drag it or move it with the arrows, and mark it Draft, In progress or Done.
The typewriter
Typewriter font, a worn ink ribbon and real recorded typing sounds, full screen if you like. Print and PDF stay as they are.
Pick up where you left off
Your recent files wait in the start window and in the File menu.
Plus a reworked “All commands”, menus with icons and more room for checkpoints. Everything that is new.
Word files
Word files with high compatibility.
Fonts, spacing, tables, footnotes, headers, footers and images come along, on real pages in millimetres. Save writes back to the same file. Finished work goes out as PDF, as EPUB for e-readers, or as a Word file again.
Tools for writers
What other word processors do not have.
A panel beside the text shows which words are piling up, and it weighs them: a word forty times across a novel is harmless, four times in one paragraph is not. A word goal shows how far you have come, and text clean-up tidies away double spaces and empty paragraphs.
Notes
Notes right where they belong.
Pin a note to a passage and it sits in the margin beside it — like a comment, just for you. Comments from Word files come in as notes.
On the passage
One note can be pinned to several passages. They light up as soon as you point at the note.
From Word
Comments from .docx, .doc and .odt appear as notes in the margin, at their place in the text.
Glossary
A glossary keeps names and terms beside the text, in its own view.
Spelling
Seven languages, their own dictionaries.
Each with its own dictionary, right on your computer, no cloud. You walk through the findings one by one, with suggestions and a personal dictionary for whatever the program does not know yet.
Colour schemes
Seventeen ways to write the same thing.
Set up your writing space the way you write best: from the phosphor screen to the cloud word processor, light or dark. The choice applies to the whole program.
Autosave
Saved while you write.
You do not have to think about saving. Everything you write is saved as you go — on your computer, not in a cloud, and without being online.
Continuously
About a second after your last keystroke, the text is saved on your computer.
Checkpoints
Every 30 seconds the program records a checkpoint. In the time machine you can look at any of them and bring it back.
Backup file
If you like, it also writes the whole state to a file at regular intervals — for example into a folder that Dropbox or OneDrive keeps in sync.
Scope
What is in it.
- Free and completely offline — no account, no subscription, no cloud, no ads
- Opens and saves Word files (DOCX, DOC) with high compatibility: pages, tables, footnotes, headers and footers stay intact
- Tools for writers: repeated words, word goal with word count, text clean-up
- Spell check with its own dictionaries in seven languages
- Notes pinned to passages, Word comments as notes, a glossary beside the text
- Seventeen colour schemes, focus mode, reading view, print preview
- Autosave with checkpoints and a time machine for earlier versions
- Outline with chapter cards, word counts and a status per chapter
- Save as PDF, or as EPUB for e-readers, with an e-book assistant
- Table styles, repeating header rows, table of contents
- Real pages: margins on the ruler, headers and footers with their own toolbar, A4 and US Letter
- Footnotes, endnotes, pictures in line or free, handwritten signature
- Undo and redo for every change
- Open: DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, Word and ODT templates, HTML, Markdown, text
- Save as: DOCX, ODT, RTF, EPUB, PDF, HTML, Markdown, text
Linux
Also for Linux.
The same program as on Windows, with all seven dictionaries in the package. Which file you need depends on your distribution.
-
Ubuntu and related systems
- Ubuntu
- Linux Mint
- Debian
- Pop!_OS
- Zorin OS
- elementary OS
- KDE neon
.deb · 86 MB · appears in the applications menu
-
All others
- Fedora
- openSUSE
- Arch
- Manjaro
- …
AppImage · 108 MB · no installation, runs on any Linux
Not sure which distribution you have? The AppImage runs on any Linux: Download the AppImage (108 MB)
Raspberry Pi or a laptop with an ARM processor (such as Snapdragon)? .deb for ARM · AppImage for ARM. For any other PC, the buttons above are the right ones.
Version 1.6.0 (what’s new). Make the AppImage executable before the first start — under
“Properties” in your file manager, or with chmod +x PureQuill-Writer-1.6.0-x86_64.AppImage.
SHA‑256 checksums
System requirements
Windows 10 (version 1809 or newer) and Windows 11, 64-bit. Around 400 MB on disk, most of it dictionaries. No internet connection needed to work; only the Windows version downloads the German dictionary once, on first use.
Linux: a current 64-bit distribution, x86-64 or ARM64, around 300 MB on disk. Tested on Ubuntu.
The browser version runs in Chrome, Edge and Firefox without installing anything. It is meant for trying the program out: headers and footers, margins and the print path are tools for a keyboard and a large screen, not for a phone.