Writing software built around your screen reader.

QUILL is a screen-reader-first writing environment for Windows. Every command announces its outcome. Everything works from the keyboard. Your document never leaves your device without your explicit say-so. Version 0.6.0 is available now.

Quality Usable Inclusive Lightweight Literate

Download QUILL 0.6.0 - System Installer Download QUILL 0.6.0 - Portable What's new in 0.6.0 User guide

Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. System installer: installs to Program Files, approximately 70 MB. Portable: extract the ZIP and run from any folder, no installation required. Both include the Python runtime.

QUILL Office Hours - Saturday, June 20, 2026

Join the QUILL team live from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Eastern. Ask questions, see the product in action, share feedback, and help shape the road to QUILL 1.0. Open to new users, screen-reader users, accessibility advocates, developers, and anyone curious. Registration is free.

Built for the way you work with a screen reader

QUILL does not add accessibility at the end. Screen-reader use shapes every design decision, from focus management to announcement phrasing to keyboard navigation.

Spoken-first

Every command announces a clear outcome: "Wrapped 3 words in bold", "Nothing selected", "Saved." A command that succeeds silently is treated as a bug. NVDA, JAWS, and Narrator parity is a design requirement, not an afterthought.

Keyboard-complete

Everything is reachable and operable from the keyboard alone. Dialogs have predictable focus, explicit defaults, and no traps. The command palette gives instant keyboard access to every command in the application.

Selection you can trust

Structured selection tools let you start, extend, complete, and reselect by word, sentence, line, paragraph, or block. Selection is deliberate and reviewable - not dependent on visual feedback.

Long-document navigation

Move by heading, paragraph, block, list, table, bookmark, code block, link, or search result. The Outline Navigator gives you a structured view of headings, bookmarks, sticky notes, and search matches at any time.

A status bar that acts

The status bar is an interactive action hub: word count, selection details, spelling state, background tasks, autosave state, copy tray, screen reader detection, and more - each item keyboard-activatable.

No silent network

Any feature that would send data shows visible progress and announces the result. You opt in each time. Your document never reaches the network without your explicit, per-action consent.

A complete writing environment

QUILL is designed for people who live in text. It covers quick notes, daily writing, long-form projects, structured markup, technical authoring, research, document review, and revision-heavy editing.

Multi-document workspace

Tabbed documents, recent files, save-all, backup recovery, page setup, printing, session restore, and workspace snapshots. Your full working set, ready when you return.

Discoverable menu system

File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Navigate, Search, Tools, Window, Help - a familiar structure where every command has a clear home. Menus are part of the accessibility model, not decoration.

Abbreviations and snippets

Short triggers expand into longer text. Snippets support placeholders, choices, date and time values, and cursor placement. Word prediction and tag assistance built in. Define your own writing toolkit and speed up repetitive work.

Search and compare

Find, replace, wildcard, and regular expression search with history and find-all reporting. A Regex Helper explains patterns in plain language. Compare tools review a document against another file or clipboard content, designed for keyboard-friendly diff review.

Read Aloud and preview

Review your writing through spoken playback without leaving the editor. In-app preview, side-by-side preview, and focused preview on an accessible surface. EPUB navigation and rendering built in. Thesaurus support when thesaurus data is available.

Long-form project tools

Notebooks organize a folder of files into one working environment with entries, bookmarks, snapshots, and optional writing goals. Sticky Notes capture thoughts without losing your place. Macros record and replay command sequences.

Document intake

Open plain text, Markdown, HTML, CSV, Word documents, EPUB, PowerPoint, spreadsheets, PDF, and more. OCR-assisted paths, Pandoc integration, and intake reporting that explains the confidence and quality of complex extractions.

Remote files

Optional open and save workflows for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, HTTPS, and GitHub. Enable only what you need. Remote file features are off by default and never run silently in the background.

Feature profiles

Choose Essential, Writer, Developer, Accessibility Professional, or Full QUILL. Profiles shape the interface to your needs. Keep QUILL simple, or turn on automation, scripting, AI, remote files, and extension support when you want them.

AI assistance that keeps you in control

AI in QUILL is optional. Turn it off and AI features disappear entirely - nothing runs silently. Turn it on and QUILL uses a review-first model: you see every proposed change before anything is applied.

Ask Quill

Ask for help writing, editing, summarizing, restructuring, or working with selected text. When an AI action would change your document, QUILL shows you the proposal first. You approve before it applies. No silent edits.

Your choice of provider

Local model workflows, Ollama, Ollama Cloud, OpenAI, Claude, OpenRouter, Google Gemini, and custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints. Use a local model and nothing leaves your machine at all.

Trust by design

No silent document changes. No hidden automation. No surprise network behavior. Clear provider and model information at all times. AI should support the writer - not take control away from the writer.

Quillins - extend QUILL your way

A Quillin is a sandboxed extension. Build one with a JSON manifest and a few lines of Python or Node.js - no build tools, no compiled code. Every capability is declared upfront and enforced at runtime. A Quillin that crashes cannot affect your editor or your document.

Layer 1 - Snippets and shortcuts

A JSON manifest adds menu items, hotkeys, and text snippets with placeholders like ${selection}, ${date}, and ${clipboard}. No code required. Use the Snippet Wizard to build one interactively.

Layer 2 - Python or Node.js handlers

Add a Python or Node.js entry module for genuine custom behavior. Your code runs in a sandboxed subprocess and only accesses what it declared in the manifest. A crash in your Quillin cannot affect the editor or your work.

Capability and consent

Quillins default to deny. Document access, filesystem, network, clipboard, and storage are each declared upfront and consent-gated at runtime. You see exactly what a Quillin needs before you install it.

Announce through the screen reader

Any Quillin command can announce its outcome through QUILL's announcement engine with full NVDA, JAWS, and Narrator parity - the same engine built-in commands use. A silent Quillin is treated as a bug.

Menus, commands, and hotkeys

Quillins attach to any top-level menu and to the right-click context menu. Keyboard shortcuts use QUILL's existing binding grammar. Conflicts are detected and reported, never silently overridden.

Manage with confidence

The Quillins Manager (Tools menu) lists installed Quillins, shows each one's declared capabilities, and lets you enable, disable, reload, or remove any of them at any time.

Start the hands-on tutorial Open the Snippet Wizard Visit the Quillin Hub

Reliability is a feature

For QUILL, reliability is part of accessibility. Your work should never be silently lost, and you should be able to trust that the editor will protect it.

Autosave and backup recovery

QUILL saves in the background and keeps recovery copies. An unexpected shutdown, crash, or power loss should never destroy your work.

Atomic writes

All settings and data are written to a temporary file first, then replaced atomically. A crash mid-write leaves your existing file untouched. Schema-validated stores catch problems before they reach disk.

Safe Mode and diagnostics

Launch with --safe-mode to disable AI, watch folder, and Quillin contributions when something goes wrong. Crash report bundles capture diagnostic information without including document content.

Start here

Download QUILL 0.5.0 Beta

Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. Includes Python runtime - no separate install required.

View the full release on GitHub