iA Writer, Lion edition

I have many times thought I shouldn’t write anything about iA Writer, because everything has been already told. On the other hand I’m unique, just like everyone is, so I’m eligible to add a word or two.

Now that the new Lion version has been released, there are more reasons to do so.

And I have to fight the notion “tools don’t make the pro/designer/writer/whoever”, which is right. But once in a while… boom! Something happens and you get a tool that makes everything easier. And better. And more intuitive. The more experienced (some say “older”) you become the less possible is to meet such happy accidents. Serendipity. But serendipity isn’t only accidental, it happens to the people who seek for it. Anyway, iA Writer is one of that tools.

Yes, it’s another app that takes your screen up and lets you write without any distractions. You get an off-white background, a dark color for your text and a font. And a blue cursor? So what?

Not exactly, because this isn’t any background, any color and any font. The application is wisely designed, so wisely that the people behind it dared to provide us no preferences. That’s it. Take it or leave it. I took it.

Of course iA Writer isn’t for anyone. You need to take writing seriously in order to get the most of it. I personally have worked for months with Writeroom and Byword and they’re really decent apps. So iA Writer needed to overcome some great competitors. I think it’s better, I think it’s excellent.

Some people talk about the price of it. They say it’s not cheap. What is cheap and what’s expensive has to do with so many parameters, it’s a relative notion. In a word it all has to do with what it gives you back. I find the price fine.

Now, the new edition of iA Writer supports Greek. As a Greek I do welcome it. However, I need to mention that not all Greek glyphs are perfect, there’s room for progress. Kerning also needs some work. You see, dear iA Writer, you spoiled us. The typography part of you is perfect and you made us seek for perfection everywhere inside you.

If there’s one extra I’d like to ask from the app, this would have to do with the wise Markdown language: while it supports it very well, I need the “Select all and copy Markdown” function. It’s hardly a feature, it’s a hurdle less.

Last but not least, I got to say that I was a happy beta tester of iA Writer, Lion edition. So I had the opportunity to contact the nice people of Information Architects. This is what they are: nice. And polite. And down to earth. Not to mention their expertise and they way they treat customers.

All in all iA Writer is the guy you can trust if you want to write things on a computer. It’s highly recommended. And of course, this piece is written in there.