iA Writer – A New Kind of Processor

When you think of word processors, I’m sure that Microsoft Word or Google Docs comes to mind first. They are easy-to-use and have plenty of options to create any kind of document you’d like. However, maybe sometimes you get so worked up about what a document is going to look like, that you can’t concentrate on the actual words that need to go into it. Maybe you’re a novel writer that doesn’t need to worry about fonts or highlighters, you just need to write.

In comes iA Mobile, a company that “designs information systems for international media corporations: ‘Our fine design studios in Tokyo, Berlin, and Zurich serve great clients around the globe. iA was founded 2005 in Tokyo. We have worked with international media companies like Condé Nast, Red Bull, The Guardian, Die Zeit, and Wikipedia, supporting management with design strategy and design teams with hands-on design work.’” They also create their own products, and iA Mobile, it seems, means for their ‘focused writing app’ to fulfill the distraction-free writing niche without the issues of the NotePads and WordPads of yesteryear.

According to the New York Times, “iA Writer creates a clean, simple and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words. It’s delightful to use.” iA Writer is actually not as new as it may seem; it came out for Mac, IOS, and Android seven years ago, but it was Kickstarted for Windows just this year. iA created what they call “the quintessential writing app that lets you focus on the text,” a streamlined, simple word processor that allows you to focus on writing by removing distractions such as a toolbar and hyperlinks.

When you open iAWriter, it is indeed a bare-bones experience in the best possible way. When you start to type, the toolbar disappears, leaving you nothing but a white screen to fill with words. It may seem like there isn’t enough functionality, but the idea of iA Writer seems to be that you are able to customize your templates and export to WordPress or Medium, HTML, Microsoft Word (.docx), or PDF. You simply type your document in iA, then export it and change the formatting later in another processor. Some functions that are available include:

  • Focus Mode, which dims everything but the sentence/paragraph you’re working on.
  • You can search, sort, and quickly swap between documents from different clouds.
  • An inverted light-on-dark-mode, perfect for working day and night.
  • A built-in text “cleaner” that allows you to spot superfluous words and streamline your text.
  • Links, pictures, tables and text files are embedded in plain text with an option to see a preview.
  • “Folding” allows you to compress or expand paragraphs with the click of a button.

iA could be a great option for someone such as a novel writer, or someone who is writing longer documents and can be distracted by things like toolbars. It costs $19.99 on Windows, $29.99 on Mac, $4.99 on the App Store, and is free on Android with in-app purchases. I won’t personally be switching, but if you’re interested, I encourage you to see if there’s a free trial on your platform of choice!

For more info on iA Writer, go to ia.net.

Written by: Breanne Mason, Blog Contributor