Comparison / Vellum for Windows
Vellum doesn’t run on Windows. This does.
If you write on a PC and you’ve gone looking for Vellum, you already know how the search ends: it’s a Mac application, and it stays one. InkSpine is an offline writing app that exports a validated EPUB 3 and a KDP-ready DOCX from Windows, macOS, or Linux — and, unlike a formatting tool, it’s also where you write the book in the first place.
What Vellum is good at
Credit where it’s due: Vellum has a deserved reputation for turning a finished manuscript into a handsome book with very little fuss. Its templates are well made, and for Mac-owning authors it’s a reasonable last step in the process.
The catch is the first word of that sentence. Vellum requires macOS — there’s no Windows version, no Linux version, and no browser version. The usual suggestions (renting a cloud Mac, borrowing a friend’s laptop) all end with you formatting your book on a computer that isn’t yours, once per revision, forever.
What InkSpine does instead
InkSpine isn’t a formatting step bolted onto the end of your process — it’s the whole desk. You draft in a distraction-free markdown editor, keep characters, locations, and lore linked beside the manuscript, and export a validated EPUB 3 and a DOCX when you’re ready. Every project is a plain folder of Markdown and JSON files on your own disk, readable without InkSpine forever, with automatic version history so no draft is ever lost.
| Where writers get stuck | Vellum | InkSpine |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on Windows | No — macOS only. There is no Windows build and no web version | Yes — Windows, macOS, and Linux, natively |
| Ebook export | Validated EPUB, on a Mac | Validated EPUB 3, on any of the three platforms |
| Word export for KDP | Not its focus — it outputs finished ebook and print files | DOCX export, which KDP accepts directly |
| Writing the manuscript | Not part of it — you arrive with a finished draft to format | A distraction-free markdown editor is where the project starts |
| Characters, locations, lore | Not a worldbuilding tool | Structured, linked worldbuilding beside the manuscript |
| Where the files live | Inside the app's own project file | A plain folder of Markdown and JSON on your disk |
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Being straight with you
InkSpine is in private beta, built by one novelist writing their own book in it. It isn’t a finished product yet, and it isn’t trying to out-typeset a dedicated print-formatting app. What it does do — write, plan, and export a book you own, on the operating system you actually use — no Mac-only tool can do for you at all.
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Beautiful books shouldn’t require buying a different computer.
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