QUILL or QUILL Lite: which one should you install?

QUILL and QUILL Lite are two free editors for Windows, made by the same people. This page helps you choose. If you only want the quick answer, read the first section and stop there. The rest is here for when you want the details.

The short answer

If you write, read and sort out documents all day, you probably want QUILL. If you mostly open a text file, change a line and close it again, you probably want QUILL Lite.

Both are free. You can install both, and they will not get in each other's way. Each one keeps its own settings and gets its own updates. If you cannot decide, install both and use them for a week.

How the two are related

QUILL Lite is not a cut-down copy that gets forgotten. It is built from the same parts as QUILL. The spell checker, the numbered bookmarks, the copy tray, the clip library, the free AI, dictation, the way files are saved, and the F1 help are the same code in both.

That helps you in three ways.

• A fix in one is a fix in both. When a bug is fixed in one of the shared parts, both editors get the fix in the same release.
• A key you learn in one works in the other. Commands that do the same thing use the same key in both. Where a key had to be different, there is a written reason. There are only ten of those.
• QUILL Lite never gets ahead of QUILL. If QUILL Lite gains something QUILL cannot do, QUILL gets it too, at the same time. That is how QUILL got numbered bookmarks and the free AI.

Making QUILL smaller, but not the other way round

QUILL Lite stays small because you can switch parts of it off. Open Tools, Customize Features. There are twenty feature areas, and when you turn one off, its menu and its keys go away too. There are also four ready-made choices:

• Recommended: 16 of the 20 areas. This is what you start with.
• Everything: all 20.
• WordPad: 5 areas, and Ctrl+N makes a rich text document.
• Notepad: 2 areas, and Ctrl+N makes a plain text document.

QUILL has something similar, called feature profiles. There are eleven of them, from Essential and Writer up to Full Quill. One of them is called QUILL Lite. It trims QUILL down to nine menus and makes Ctrl+N create a plain text document.

So here is the thing to remember: you can make QUILL look like QUILL Lite, but you cannot make QUILL Lite grow into QUILL. If you are unsure, that is a good reason to start with QUILL. On the other hand, nine menus are quick to learn, and it is hard to get lost in them.

What both of them do

Everything in this list works the same way in both. Whichever one you pick, you get an editor made for people who use a screen reader.

• Every menu item shows its shortcut key, and no two items share a key.
• They do not talk over your screen reader. Your screen reader already tells you window names, where you are and what you are on. The editor only speaks up about things your screen reader cannot know, like the result of something you asked it to do.
• F1 works everywhere. It tells you what the window is for, and then what the control you are on does.
• F6 takes you to the status bar. Arrow through it to hear the line, word count, encoding and line endings.
• Headings and lists tell you what they are. You hear things like "Heading 2, Installing" or "Bulleted list, 5 items".
• Spell check can spell a word out, letter by letter or with the phonetic alphabet. That helps when two spellings sound the same, like "receive" and "recieve".
• Your file is saved the way it came in, with the same encoding and line endings, unless you choose to change them.
• Unsaved work survives a crash, and you can bring back the documents you had open.
• You can change any key. Before you take a key, the key manager tells you what it already does.
• The same free AI, on the same five keys.
• Free for good. No paid version, no trial, and no account needed to use the editor. Donations pay for the AI service.

Where they are different

What you can open

This is the biggest difference, and it may decide things for you.

QUILL Lite opens text and rich text files: .txt, .rtf, .md, .log, .csv, .json, .py and .html. It keeps to that list on purpose.

QUILL opens almost anything a document can come in. That includes Word, PowerPoint and Excel; OpenDocument and Apple iWork; PDF, including scanned pages, which it reads with OCR on your own computer; EPUB and other e-books; braille files in BRF, BRL, PEF and UEB, which it can also translate; DAISY and NIMAS talking books, which it can also make; email archives, calendars and contacts; and plenty more. It can open files over FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, HTTPS and GitHub. It can save Word and rich text, export to other formats, and convert lots of files in one go. And it will never save plain text over a PDF or a spreadsheet by mistake.

How your documents are arranged

QUILL puts documents in tabs. Press Ctrl+T for a new tab, and Ctrl+Tab to move between them.

QUILL Lite numbers your documents instead, inside one window: 1, 2, 3 and so on. A document keeps its number for as long as it is open, so "Document 3" is always the same document.

There is one thing to know. Numbered documents do not show up in Alt+Tab. To move between them, use Ctrl+F6, Ctrl+Tab, Alt+1 to Alt+9, or the Window menu. Every document's title starts with its number, so your screen reader tells you which one you are in.

Speech: your screen reader, or a voice of its own

QUILL Lite talks only through your screen reader, NVDA or JAWS. It has no voice of its own, because two voices talking at once is worse than one. If no screen reader is running, every message also shows in the status bar.

QUILL can read to you in a second voice, separate from your screen reader. It can also turn documents into speech, build an audiobook from a folder, transcribe recordings without going online, and take voice commands. If you want a document read to you while you do something else, choose QUILL.

Braille

QUILL has a Braille mode. It opens and saves BRF, BRL, PEF and UEB files, translates to and from braille, checks and repairs braille files, and can show extra status cells on a braille display. QUILL Lite has none of this. If you read braille, QUILL is the one to install.

AI

The free AI is the same in both, on the same keys:

• Ctrl+Alt+G opens the AI pad.
• Ctrl+Alt+Z asks a question about your document.
• Alt+F5 is Use My ChatGPT Subscription.
• Ctrl+F5 is Ask About an Image.
• Alt+F2 lets you use your own OpenAI or Google Gemini key.

Both have the same web search option, the same saved conversations and the same ten writing tools. In both, nothing is sent until you have read a short privacy agreement and chosen to connect.

QUILL adds more around that: other AI companies, AI models that run on your own computer, AI agents, a prompt library, grammar checking, alt text for images, and a wizard to help you set it all up.

Everything else QUILL can do

This is what "Lite" really means. QUILL comes with extras called Quillins, with twenty-three included and more on the Quillin Hub. It has the QuillVille companion apps on one launcher, Git and GitHub, remote sites, library and NLS BARD search, document compare, folders it can watch and act on, macros, timers, sticky notes, equations, tables, Reveal Codes, Story Studio for long writing, a notes vault, an accessibility checker, and radio and podcasts. A setup wizard shows you around. QUILL Lite has none of these, and it opens straight away.

A few things only QUILL Lite has, for now

To be fair to both, here is the short list going the other way. QUILL Lite has Print Preview, Unfold All, Paste Collected and Clear Collected, and QUILL does not have them yet. They are on QUILL's to-do list. QUILL Lite can also close one numbered document window, which QUILL does not need because it uses tabs.

Moving from QUILL Lite to QUILL

If you start with QUILL Lite and later want QUILL, you do not have to set everything up again. In QUILL, open Tools, Customize and Support, Bring My QUILL Lite Settings, or press Alt+Shift+F11. It tells you what it will do before it does anything.

• The things you have collected are shared from then on. Your abbreviations, personal dictionary, copy tray, clip library and bookmarks move into QUILL, and QUILL Lite uses them from there. Add a word in one editor and the other one has it too.
• Your preferences are copied once. Things like word wrap, autosave, spell checking as you type, and keys you have changed are copied over. After that, each editor keeps its own, so changing one does not surprise you in the other.
• Nothing you already have in QUILL is lost. If both editors have an entry for the same thing, QUILL keeps its own.

Side by side, one topic at a time

These tables compare QUILL 0.9.0 Beta 2 with QUILL Lite 1.1.2, as of 30 September 2026. There is one table for each topic, so you can jump between them by heading or by table. In every table, the first column names the feature, the second column is QUILL, and the third column is QUILL Lite.

Each table starts with a sentence that sums it up, so you can skip the table if that answers your question. Some rows have a dashed line down the left edge. That means one of the two does not have that feature, and the words in the row always say which one.

The product

Both are free and MIT-licensed. QUILL also runs on macOS, has eleven menus to QUILL Lite's nine, and is the smaller download of the two.

Documents and windows

Both can have many documents open at once. QUILL uses tabs. QUILL Lite numbers its documents inside one window. Those do not show up in Alt+Tab, so it gives you four other ways to move between them.

Files it opens and saves

This is the biggest difference on the page. QUILL Lite opens eight kinds of text file, plus rich text. QUILL opens almost anything a document can come in.

Writing and formatting

The everyday formatting is the same in both, headings 1 to 6 included. Tables, equations, Reveal Codes and the list studio are QUILL's.

Moving around a document

Nearly all of this is shared, headings and the nine numbered bookmarks included. Quick Nav, bookmark export and the timeline are QUILL's.

Speech, sound and braille

Both work with NVDA and JAWS in the same way, and both let you dictate. The complete dictation guide has all of it. Only QUILL has a voice of its own and braille. QUILL Lite leaves out the voice on purpose.

AI

The free AI is the same in both, right down to the keys. Everything around it, like other AI companies, local models, agents and prompt packs, is only in QUILL.

Tools and the wider environment

This is what "Lite" really means. Spelling, printing, tutorials and getting help are in both. The rest of this list is only in QUILL, and it is why QUILL is the bigger program.

Safety and your data

Almost the same. Neither one sends anything anywhere unless you ask, and neither collects any information about how you use it.

Customising it

Both let you rebind every key and switch features off. QUILL adds chords, a settings search, per-document keymaps and a translated interface.

What QUILL Lite has that QUILL does not yet

Five commands QUILL Lite has and QUILL does not. QUILL is meant to catch up, so think of this as QUILL's to-do list.

Download either one

Both are free. Every installer and portable version is digitally signed, so Windows can check that nobody has changed it. Neither one makes itself the default program for your files unless you ask it to.

QUILL

QUILL 0.9.0 Beta 2 installer for Windows All QUILL 0.9.0 Beta 2 downloads, including macOS and portable

You need Windows 10 or later, 64-bit, or macOS 12 or later. The installer above is the online one. It is 78 MB, and it downloads speech engines, converters and language packs the first time you use them. The release page also has a 199 MB offline installer that needs no connection, two portable ZIPs, and the 136 MB macOS disk image.

QUILL Lite

QUILL Lite 1.1.2 installer for Windows All QUILL Lite 1.1.2 downloads, including portable

You need Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. The installer is 230 MB because everything is inside it, including offline dictation. The portable ZIP is 300 MB and keeps its settings with it, so you can run it from a USB stick. The installer can add QUILL Lite to the Open With list for .txt and .rtf files, without making itself the default.

Read more before you decide

About QUILL Lite

• The QUILL Lite page: what it is, including the free AI.
• The QUILL Lite user guide: every menu and every key, step by step.
• The QUILL Lite plan: what it keeps, what it leaves out, and why.
• The QUILL Lite AI guide: what is sent, what is kept, and what the free service costs to run.

About QUILL

• The QUILL user guide: everything QUILL does.
• The QUILL keyboard reference: all 463 default keys in one list.

About both

• QUILL frequently asked questions: installing, updating, portable versions, privacy, and what the AI does with your text.
• All documentation for every app in the family.

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