AUTEUR is a distraction-free, e-ink typewriter built for authors and screenwriters. It pairs a high contrast, 6-inch e-paper display with a fully programmable, hot-swappable mechanical keyboard, custom typography, and generous margins. It is designed to be a dedicated writing instrument that treats the act of putting words on a page as something worth building real hardware for.

The writing experience is built around bespoke software and firmware. The result is zero perceptible keystroke lag — something that shouldn’t be possible on e-ink, but is. No Wi-Fi, no AI, no cloud sync, no subscriptions. Your drafts live on the device until you choose to export them and are autosaved aggressively. The whole instrument is portable and battery-powered with USB-C charging — pick it up and write wherever you think best.

AUTEUR occupies the gap between premium commercial typewriters that lock users into cloud ecosystems and subscription features, and open-source DIY builds that trade fit-and-finish for affordability. It’s the first product in this category that treats comfort, aesthetics, typography, and software polish as equal priorities to the hardware itself.

Write Your Story

AUTEUR is for writers who have lost hours to the browser tab they opened "just to check one thing." It’s for the novelist who needs a clean page and intuitive interface with nothing else competing for attention. It’s for the screenwriter who wants Fountain formatting rendered 1:1 on a paper-like display, not crammed into a laptop screen alongside Final Draft’s toolbar sprawl.

The device boots instantly into your last draft. You open it, you see your work, and you write. Drafts are organized through a built-in file browser with search, pagination, and navigation between documents. When you’re done for the day, power off with the push of a button. Your files are safely backed up on internal flash memory. When you need your work on a computer, export via USB Type-C.

Prose Mode renders custom typography at three selectable sizes with wide margins on a matte e-ink panel. The effect is closer to reading a printed page than staring at a screen. Dark mode inverts the display for low-light writing sessions.

Screenplay Mode renders Fountain syntax in real time for 1:1 industry standard page counts and formatting. Toggle it on, and your prose editor becomes a screenplay editor with a single keystroke. This isn’t a bolted-on feature — it was built by a screenwriter, for screenwriters.

Features & Specifications

• Display: 6-in Kindle displays for zero-lag, high contrast, wide margin, custom typography.
• Keyboard: Programmable, hot-swappable, 60% mechanical keyboard with Kailh switches and double shot PBT keycaps. ANSI layout with printed legends
• Dimensions:  290 x 270mm (11.4 x 10.6 in)
• Weight: 1.27 kg
• Software: Bespoke writing application. No subscriptions, no clouds, no AI nonsense. Fountain and Markdown rendering
• File Management: Internal storage. USB Type-C transfer: .txt, .fountain, .md
• Battery Life: Over 24 hours of active, latency-free typing on a rechargeable battery

Open Source

AUTEUR is currently built on Soldered Electronics’ open-source Inkplate 6 Motion platform. The Inkplate hardware designs, libraries, and firmware are open source under Soldered’s existing licenses.

Decisions on licensing for the AUTEUR writing application and device firmware are in progress and will be finalized before the campaign launches.

Contributors and community members interested in following the build can find updates at auteurwriter.com and on r/writerDeck.

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