Created by Veras Studios
Write on the page you’ll print.
Build your world, write the book beside it, and keep every word in one folder you own. For Windows, macOS and Linux.
The highlights.
Yours, in one folder.
No cloud. Back it up, sync it, carry it to a new computer. It opens.
Set like the printed book.
Real trim, real margins and page numbers on every page you write.
Every name, a link.
Mention a character and their card opens beside the scene.
A tessera is one small tile in a mosaic. A world is thousands of them: a coastline, a family feud, a calendar, a chapter that won't sit still. Tessera keeps every tile in one folder on your disk, and lets you step back and see the whole picture.
Ownership
One folder you own.
A world is a folder on your disk. Put it in Dropbox, back it up, move it to another computer. It opens. And it works offline for a month at a time.1
No cloud. No lock-in.
S
The Salt Road
Fantasy · opened 2 days ago
H
Hollowmere
Game Master · opened last week
N
Ninth Orbit
Sci-fi · opened in May
Page view
The finished book, as you type.
Tessera sets each chapter as the printed page while you write: the trim, the margins, the running heads and page numbers, and the page turning exactly where it will turn.
Time View
A world that knows what time it is.
Drag one cursor through your world's history. Characters appear while they're alive, kingdoms while they stand, and travellers move along their roads on the map.
Drag it back a century. Only the people alive then are still there.
Writing
The cast beside the scene.
Mention Idris in a scene and her card opens beside it: a portrait, a summary, where she was born. Pin the ones you need and keep writing.
Idris counted the boats twice. Eleven. There should have been twelve, and the twelfth was her father’s.
She didn’t run. She walked the length of the harbour wall at Marrow with her hands in her coat and her eyes on the Nine Currents, where the water met a sky the colour of pewter.
I
Idris Vell
Character ×3
Harbour pilot, widow’s daughter, the only person in Marrow who has sailed the Nine Currents twice and come back.
- Born
- 14 Frostfall 1189
- Home
- Marrow, on the Salt Road
- Trade
- Pilot of the Nine Currents
- Allegiance
- None she will admit to
Maps
Paint the land. Then walk it.
Shape coasts and mountains with a brush, name what you make, and set a city inside a kingdom inside a continent. Measure a road and Tessera tells you how long the trip takes.
Linking
Everything links.
Names in your prose become links, and every entry knows every page that mentions it. A glossary of your world writes itself into the back of the book, and a map goes in the front, the way fantasy novels open.
Space
The sky keeps time.
Place a sun, a world and its moons. They move on real orbits, their phases turn, and eclipses fall where the geometry puts them. Then make a world's year your calendar's year.
Ask when the next eclipse is. Tessera finds the day.
Zoom from a village street to a galaxy. Every map inside another keeps its true scale.
Planning
Plan it on a board.
Chapters become cards built from your real structure. Add sticky notes for what doesn't fit yet, and arrows you label.
Everything else a world needs.
Write
Scripts
Film, TV, audio drama and game dialogue, with storyboards you draw on.
Writing sprints
Timed sessions, a live pace, and a hardcore mode that locks the door.
Zen mode
The page and nothing else.
Every draft kept
Branch a draft, merge it back, and keep every version.6
Private checks
Spelling and grammar checked on your computer. Your names never flagged.
Pricing
Two ways to own it.
Pay once, or pay monthly until it's paid for. Both end the same way: Tessera is yours, for good, on up to five computers.
Buy it outright
$89.99$119.88Save 25%
One payment. Yours for good, and $29.89 less than paying month by month.
- Yours the moment you buy. Your licence key lands on your account page.
- Every update included. There's no version two to buy.
- Up to five computers at once. Swap one out whenever you like.
Subscribe to own
Get Tessera.
Version 1.1.0 · Windows, macOS and Linux · one key, up to five computers7
Windows
Installer, 64-bit
macOS
Apple silicon and Intel
Linux
AppImage, .deb and .rpm
Worlds from earlier versions open unchanged.
Questions, answered.
Is my work safe?
Yes. A world is a folder on your disk, and one click zips it into a backup you can keep anywhere.
Does it need the internet?
Not to write. Tessera checks your key now and then, and works offline for 30 days.
Will it lock me in?
No. Export PDF, EPUB, Word, Markdown or plain text whenever you like, even while read-only.
Is it a subscription?
Only if you want one. Pay once, or pay monthly for 12 months and it's yours.
Windows or Mac?
Both, and Linux.
Will an update break my world?
No. Every later version opens every earlier world.
- Tessera works fully for 14 days after it checks your key, then reminds you until day 30. After that, worlds open read-only until it checks in again. Exports always work.
- Book sizes: Trade (6 × 9 inches), Digest, Pocket, Letter and A4. Export formats: typeset PDF, EPUB, Word, Markdown and plain text.
- Travel time follows the easiest walkable route over a rendered generated map, at the speed and hours per day you set.
- Any map renders as a picture up to 8,192 pixels across.
- 18 colour palettes for the app and six looks for the map.
- Every version of a chapter is kept: all of today, hourly for a week, daily for three months, then weekly. Versions you name are kept for good.
- One key works on up to five computers at once. Swap one out from your account page.