Vellum — Mac download

Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books and print editions stay in sync from a single manuscript. Vellum doesn’t just export a file—it gives you a live book studio where changing a trim size cascades through margins, page numbers, headers and footers without a separate layout pass. Experienced users lean on the boxed-set tool to bundle multiple titles into one volume, regenerate updated ebook files after a last-minute correction, and manage copyright-page text right inside the project instead of hacking it into the source document.

Import a manuscript and Vellum builds the title page and table of contents automatically. The native Mac engine updates previews the moment you edit, so checking how a scene lands on a Kobo screen or a paperback page is a glance, not a compile-and-wait cycle. Print and ebook editions share the same source, which means the boxed set you ship to Apple Books can match the trim-size edition headed to a printer without double-handling the text.

Live preview paints as you type

Version 4.1.5 EDiSO tightened the relationship between the editing pane and the preview. A paragraph adjustment now paints onto the device simulation before you lift your fingers from the keyboard. Earlier 4.x releases sometimes left a beat where the preview lagged behind a chapter reorder; that gap is gone. The practical effect is faster confidence when you’re nudging a stubborn widow or checking how a blockquote lands on a Kindle screen at the smallest font size.

Print handling got quieter, too. Where prior versions could throw a soft warning about margin conflicts after a trim-size change, the current build resolves most of those silently. You still see a flag if a custom element genuinely breaks the grid, but everyday switches between 5.5×8.5 and 6×9 no longer interrupt the flow with chatter.

Under the hood, Apple silicon support matured. On an M-series Mac, generating a boxed set with three full-length novels is a few seconds rather than a coffee-break wait. The app also plays more predictably with macOS window management—Split View and Stage Manager—so a writer can keep Vellum’s preview on half a display while the manuscript lives in another app on the other half.

How Vellum talks to the rest of your Mac

Vellum isn’t a walled garden. Drag a .docx from the Finder onto the dock icon and the importer parses heading levels into a chapter structure without an intermediate dialog. The app respects the system Dark Mode setting, which matters during late-night editing sessions when a bright chrome would pull focus.

It also plays well with text-focused tools many authors already use. Write in Ulysses, Highland, or Scrivener; export a clean .docx; feed it to Vellum for the final polish. The round-trip is straightforward: keep your manuscript source elsewhere, regenerate the ebook file in Vellum when edits land, and ship the updated .epub or .kpf without redoing the style work. Publishers who store manuscripts in cloud-synced folders notice that Vellum reads directly from iCloud Drive and Dropbox locations without complaining about file locks, provided no other app has the same file open.

macOS accessibility features carry through. VoiceOver reads the chapter list and style picker, so the core workflow of styling and previewing stays usable. The app also responds to system-wide keyboard navigation; you can tab through the style panel and trigger the preview toggle without leaving the keyboard.

Option-click rethemes an entire book at once

• Option-click a style tile — applies that style to every chapter in the book at once, which is the fastest way to retheme a whole volume after importing.
• Right-click a chapter in the navigator — reveals duplicate and merge commands that aren’t in the main menus. Duplicating a chapter preserves its style assignments, handy when a front-matter page needs a sibling.
• Hold Shift while switching preview devices — locks the preview zoom level so you can compare the same passage across Kindle, Kobo, and print without the view snapping to a different scale each time.
• Copyright page editor — lives inside Vellum rather than requiring a separate document. Fields for ISBN, edition number, and publisher imprint are discrete, so updating the imprint for a reprint doesn’t risk accidentally shifting the title-page layout.
• Spread balancing — toggles with one checkbox in the print panel. Vellum adjusts page breaks so facing pages end at roughly the same line, a small touch that gives print editions a professionally set feel without manual line counting.

Vellum 4.2.0 arrives as a maintenance refresh for the ebook formatter. The developer has not published specific patch notes for this build.

• macOS 14.6 or later
• Intel 64-bit processor