App: Simpletext
Developer: Yeow Jin Gan
Genres: Productivity, Utilities

The Simplest Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone

There are many writing apps for you to choose from today, so why bother with yet another one? Because Simpletext is simpler. It’s single-minded commitment to simplicity means you’ll get a no-frills writing app that works well and looks great, forever.

Simpletext started as a passion project because I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Most apps were trying to do too much and ended up bloated with features I don’t need. So I built Simpletext based on a simple premise — what if there’s an app that refuses to do more, choosing instead to do just one thing, and do it well? For Simpletext, that one thing is writing.

Why Simpletext?

Most people would say Simpletext is lacking in features, and they’re right. In fact, Simpletext began the opposite way — by listing down everything I didn’t want in a writing app. The idea is to create a dumbed-down writing app that inspires you to do nothing else but write. In order to achieve this, Simpletext is designed around four cornerstone principles:

1. Zero Clutter
Simpletext is unobtrusive. It provides a blank canvas to write with absolutely nothing to distract you from writing. There’s no visual clutter — the intent is to create a quiet space that helps you connect with your voice and get into the flow.

2. Beautiful Typography
Simpletext comes with three professional fonts for you to choose from, handpicked to provide the finest writing experience. They are: (1) Akkurat Mono by Lineto (Monospaced); (2) Graphik by Commercial Type (Sans Serif); and (3) Valkyrie by MB Type (Serif). If you have a personal favourite font, you can also use it in Simpletext.

3. Plain Text
Simpletext supports only plain text, which is lightweight and platform independent. It will never have rich text formatting, images, tables, etc — the focus is solely on writing, not formatting. Plain text also ensures your words are always accessible on every device, now and in the future.

4. Fully Native
Simpletext is a fully native app developed in Swift and runs natively on Apple silicon. It uses only Apple’s framework and UI components, the way they’re designed to be used without any custom workarounds. This means less code, less bugs and better overall performance. 

Here's What Others Have to Say

"I just wanted to thank you for developing Simpletext. It’s perfect. I’ve enjoyed its simplicity and smoothness for quite some time, but now that I can use my favourite font in it (Sina Nova, free on Fontspring) it has truly become not just the best app to write in, but my favourite app period. Thank you for creating and maintaining it."
- Bart

“This app does everything it says on the tin. It is not meant to do a lot, but what it does it does very well. It is well designed and suits well those who want to focus on writing and avoid dealing with formatting, proprietary file types and hidden saving locations. It produces and edits .txt files, which will probably be around for as long as there are computers, and saves them in plain sight. Five stars.”
- Fernando

“I’ve tried all sorts of writing apps but Simpletext is definitely the best of all. So grateful for your dedication and those productivity tips in the blog post are so good. Simpletext is such a joy to use.”
- LWL Art Studio

“A writing app that is as simple as stated, beautiful to write with and opens and closes wherever you want. Simple tweaks are easily accessible, if required, and only add to the minimalistic perfection. Good job.”
- Tuntle

Go Back to Basics With Simpletext

In a world full of feature-rich, subscription-based apps, I wanted to create something that goes back to basics — but better. Everything about Simpletext is designed to make the simple act of writing enjoyable again. It’s an app I personally used, every single day. I hope you will too.

Best wishes,
Yeow Jin

P.S. Simpletext comes with a promise — find out more at simpletext.app/promise

Release notes:
Minor fixes and performance improvements.