LiberScript vs Vellum: A Side-by-Side Comparison for Indie Authors

Vellum has built a loyal following among self-published authors for one simple reason: it produces some of the best-looking ebooks in the industry with very little effort. Drop in a manuscript, pick a theme, and within minutes you have a polished EPUB that looks like it came from a traditional publisher.

The catch, and it's a significant one for a lot of authors, is that Vellum only runs on macOS. If you write on Windows, or you want a tool that covers more than formatting, it's worth understanding how Vellum compares to a browser-based option like LiberScript.

Quick answer

If you're on a Mac, your manuscript is finished and well-structured, and you mainly want a fast path to a beautiful EPUB with minimal fuss, Vellum remains one of the most polished options available.

If you're on Windows or Linux, want to write and revise your manuscript and not just format it, or want a single project that also produces a print PDF, DOCX, and cover file, LiberScript covers more of the workflow from a browser, on any computer.

At a glance

	Vellum	LiberScript
Platform	macOS only	Web browser (any operating system)
Pricing model	One-time purchase per output type (ebook and/or print tiers)	Fixed-price passes: Day, Week, Month, or Year, no auto-renewal
Manuscript import	DOCX	DOCX, EPUB, PDF, Markdown, plain text
Structure detection on import	Manual chapter setup	Automatic detection of front matter, chapters, and back matter
Whole-manuscript critique	Not included	Built-in: passive voice, filler words, pacing, repetition, readiness score
Design themes	Polished, minimal pre-built themes	Pre-built themes plus custom typography controls
Live preview	Yes, ebook-focused	Yes, with print and ebook views, running headers, and page numbers
Export formats	EPUB, MOBI, PDF (print)	EPUB, print PDF, DOCX, cover PDF
AI-assisted writing tools	Not included	Bring-your-own-AI (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter)
Best for	Mac-only authors who want fast, beautiful ebook output	Cross-platform writing, critique, design, and export in one project

What is Vellum?

Vellum is a Mac desktop application built specifically for turning a manuscript into a beautifully formatted ebook, and optionally a print book. Its defining feature is its small library of themes, each designed by professional book designers, that apply elegant typography, drop caps, and chapter styling with almost no configuration required.

The workflow is simple: import a DOCX manuscript, Vellum splits it into chapters automatically based on your document's headings, choose a theme, and preview how the book will look across different devices (Kindle, iPad, phone) side by side. Vellum's pricing has historically worked as a one-time purchase with separate tiers for ebook-only output and ebook-plus-print output, rather than a subscription.

Vellum doesn't attempt to be a writing tool. Like Atticus, it assumes your manuscript is written and largely finished, written in Word, Scrivener, or Google Docs, and focuses entirely on the formatting and export step.

What is LiberScript?

LiberScript is a browser-based workspace covering the writing, critique, design, and export stages of self-publishing in one project. As covered in more detail in our LiberScript vs Atticus comparison, you can import a manuscript in DOCX, EPUB, PDF, Markdown, or plain text, and LiberScript automatically detects its structure: front matter, chapters, and back matter become separate, editable sections.

Beyond formatting, LiberScript includes a whole-manuscript critique engine that flags passive voice, filler words, clichés, repetition, and pacing issues with a readiness score you can track across revisions. Design mode offers pre-built themes plus typography controls (fonts, spacing, drop caps, chapter heading styles), with a live, paginated preview at your chosen trim size. Export produces EPUB, a print-ready PDF, a clean DOCX, and a press-ready cover PDF, all from the same project.

LiberScript is sold as fixed-price passes, a day, a week, a month, or a year, with no auto-renewal, and runs entirely in the browser.

Platform availability: the biggest practical difference

For a large share of authors, this single point decides the comparison before any other feature matters.

Vellum is macOS-only. There is no Windows version, no Linux version, and no browser-based version. If your primary computer runs Windows, the only way to use Vellum is to also have access to a Mac, whether that's your own machine, a virtual machine, or borrowing time on someone else's computer. For some authors this is a minor inconvenience; for others it rules Vellum out entirely.

LiberScript runs in the browser, so it works the same way on Windows, macOS, Linux, or Chromebooks. There's nothing to install, and your project is available wherever you sign in. If you collaborate with a co-author or editor who uses a different operating system than you do, this removes a potential blocker entirely.

Pricing model comparison

Vellum's pricing has historically been structured around what you want to produce rather than a subscription: a one-time fee unlocks ebook generation, with a higher one-time fee unlocking both ebook and print generation. Once purchased, that tier is yours to use on future books as well, which can make Vellum cost-effective over many projects if you're a Mac user who formats books regularly.

LiberScript uses fixed-price passes instead:

Pass	Typical use
Day	Trying the full toolkit, or a focused formatting and export session on a finished manuscript
Week	A focused editing or formatting sprint
Month	Drafting, revising, designing, and exporting a book end to end
Year	Multiple books over the year, at the best per-day value

Every LiberScript plan unlocks the same full toolkit, writing, critique, design, and export, regardless of which pass you choose. New passes purchased before your current one expires stack on top of your remaining time, so there's no need to "renew" in the traditional sense.

If you publish many books on a Mac and mainly need ebook formatting, Vellum's one-time fee can be the more economical choice long-term. If you want the critique and revision tools alongside formatting, work across multiple operating systems, or publish in shorter bursts, LiberScript's pass-based pricing avoids paying for a license tier that goes unused between projects.

Genre fit and design flexibility

Vellum's themes were designed with fiction in mind first, and they handle novel-length manuscripts with chapter breaks, drop caps, and scene separators very well. Nonfiction with footnotes, callout boxes, tables, or numbered lists tends to push against the edges of what the themes were built for, since the design philosophy favors a small number of polished options over granular control.

LiberScript's typography controls are intended to cover both cases: fiction-oriented themes with drop caps and ornamental chapter openers, and nonfiction-oriented layouts that handle tables, lists, and reference sections cleanly. If your catalog includes both fiction and nonfiction titles, having one tool that adapts to either, rather than reaching for a different formatting approach depending on genre, can simplify your workflow.

Design and typography

Vellum's themes are widely regarded as some of the most attractive out of the box, with careful attention to spacing, drop caps, and chapter opener styling that looks deliberately designed rather than templated. Customization within a theme is intentionally limited; the philosophy is that the themes are good enough that most authors shouldn't need to tinker.

LiberScript also ships with genre-matched themes, but adds more granular controls on top: fonts, font sizes, line spacing, chapter heading styles, drop caps, and epigraph formatting can each be adjusted independently, and custom font uploads are available on every plan. The live preview shows real paginated pages with running headers and page numbers, and can toggle between print and ebook views.

If you want a beautiful result with the absolute minimum of decisions, Vellum's curated approach has real appeal. If you want to adjust typography details beyond what a preset theme offers, LiberScript gives you more to work with.

Moving a manuscript between the two tools

Vellum doesn't export an editable manuscript file; its output is the finished EPUB, MOBI, or print PDF, not a document you'd hand to an editor or import elsewhere. In practice, this means the manuscript content itself usually lives in its original DOCX form, the file you imported into Vellum in the first place, separate from the Vellum project that formats it.

That original DOCX, or an updated version of it after revisions, is exactly what LiberScript needs to get started. Importing it detects chapter breaks, front matter, and back matter automatically, so you can run a critique pass, adjust the design, and export to EPUB, print PDF, DOCX, and a cover PDF without recreating the manuscript from scratch. If you later want to go back to Vellum for a specific theme, the same DOCX (exported from LiberScript) can be re-imported there.

Writing, critique, and revision tools

Neither Vellum nor Atticus include a manuscript critique engine, and Vellum is no exception. Its text editing capabilities are limited to the kind of small adjustments you might make while formatting; it isn't built for drafting or revising a book, and the assumption is that the manuscript arriving in Vellum is close to final.

LiberScript's critique engine reads the entire manuscript and surfaces patterns across chapters: passive voice and adverb overuse shown in context, filler words and clichés, repeated phrases, and chapter-by-chapter pacing and dialogue balance. Each pass produces a readiness score so you can track improvement across revisions. If you connect your own AI provider key, LiberScript can also offer AI-assisted writing suggestions and KDP metadata help.

If your manuscript is already polished and you're purely formatting, this difference may not matter much. If you're still revising, having critique tools in the same project as formatting removes a separate step.

Export formats and platform compatibility

Format	Vellum	LiberScript
EPUB (ebook stores)	Yes	Yes
MOBI	Yes	Not needed (Amazon KDP now accepts EPUB directly)
Print PDF (KDP Print, IngramSpark, etc.)	Yes (higher-tier purchase)	Yes, included on every plan, with a live print preview
DOCX (for editors, beta readers, agents)	No	Yes
Cover PDF (press-ready)	No	Yes, generated alongside the interior

Vellum's MOBI export was historically important for older Kindle devices and KDP's older pipeline; Amazon KDP now accepts EPUB files directly for most books, which narrows this gap. LiberScript's DOCX and cover PDF exports cover two needs Vellum leaves to other tools: sending a clean manuscript copy to an editor or agent, and producing a cover file that matches the interior design.

Which tool should you choose?

A few questions can help:

• Are you on a Mac, and do you expect to stay on a Mac? If yes, Vellum's polished, curated themes are hard to beat for ebook output. If you're on Windows or Linux, or move between systems, Vellum isn't an option without a separate Mac.
• Do you need help with the manuscript itself, or just the formatting? If you want a structural critique alongside formatting, LiberScript covers both; Vellum assumes the manuscript is finished.
• Do you need a print PDF, DOCX, or cover file from the same project? LiberScript produces all of these from one project; Vellum's print output is a separate purchase tier and doesn't include DOCX or cover files.
• How often do you publish, and on how many machines? If you publish often, across devices, or with collaborators on different operating systems, a browser-based tool avoids platform lock-in.

As with our Atticus comparison, some authors use both: write and revise in LiberScript, then move to a Mac-based formatting tool for final output, or vice versa. A Day pass is enough to try LiberScript's full workflow on your own manuscript before deciding.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a Vellum for Windows?

Not at the time of writing. Vellum remains macOS-only, with no official Windows or web version. Windows-based authors typically look at browser-based or cross-platform alternatives, or use a Mac specifically for the formatting step.

Can I move a manuscript from Vellum into LiberScript, or the other way around?

LiberScript imports DOCX files and detects chapter structure automatically, so a manuscript exported as DOCX from either tool can be brought into the other as a starting point. Theme-specific formatting won't carry over directly, but the text and structure will.

Does Vellum support print formatting?

Yes, as part of a separate purchase tier from the ebook-only option. LiberScript includes print PDF export, with a live print preview, on every plan.

Which tool is easier for a first-time author?

Both are designed to be approachable. Vellum's strength is reducing design decisions to a handful of theme choices. LiberScript's basic flow, import, critique, design, export, is similarly guided, with more available if you want to go deeper into typography or revision.

Does LiberScript have pre-built themes like Vellum's, or is it all manual configuration?

LiberScript ships with genre-matched starting themes, similar in spirit to Vellum's curated approach, but each one remains adjustable. You can use a theme as-is for a fast result, or open up the typography controls to change fonts, spacing, drop caps, and chapter heading styles without starting from a blank layout.

Can I use LiberScript on a tablet or Chromebook, since it's browser-based?

Yes. Because LiberScript runs in the browser rather than as installed desktop software, it works on any device with a modern browser, including Chromebooks and tablets, which is not an option with a macOS-only desktop application like Vellum.

Does LiberScript require an internet connection the whole time?

Since LiberScript runs in the browser and your project is stored as part of your account, an internet connection is needed to load and save your work, similar to other browser-based productivity tools. Vellum, as installed desktop software, works offline once you have it installed and your project files are on your Mac.

The bottom line

Vellum is a strong choice for Mac-based authors who want fast, beautiful ebook formatting with minimal configuration. LiberScript covers formatting too, on any operating system, and adds the writing, critique, print PDF, DOCX, and cover export steps in the same project, for a fixed-price pass instead of a per-format purchase.

A Day pass is enough to import your manuscript, run a critique, try a theme, and export a finished file to see how it compares.