Atticus vs Vellum: Best Book Formatting Software

You've finished your manuscript. You've revised it, sent it through beta readers, hired an editor. Now you need to turn a Word document into a real book. Ebook files for Kindle, Apple Books, and Kobo. A print-ready PDF for Amazon KDP or IngramSpark. Chapter headings that look professional. Scene breaks that don't disappear. A table of contents that actually works.

Formatting software handles all of this. The two leading options for self-publishers are Vellum and Atticus. They solve the same problem with different tradeoffs in price, platform availability, output quality, and flexibility.

Pricing

Vellum costs $199.99 for ebook-only formatting or $249.99 for ebook plus print. One-time purchase, unlimited books, lifetime updates. No subscription.

Atticus costs $147. One-time purchase. That single price covers ebook formatting, print formatting, and a built-in writing editor. Lifetime updates included.

The math is straightforward. Atticus saves you $103 over Vellum's full package and includes a writing environment on top. For writers publishing their first book who aren't sure self-publishing will become a long-term business, that price difference matters. For writers who've already published ten books, the cost per book becomes negligible either way.

Neither tool charges per export or per book. You pay once, format as many titles as you want.

Platform Support

Vellum runs on Mac only. macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. No Windows version. No Linux version. No web app. No workaround short of renting a Mac through a cloud service like MacinCloud, which adds rental fees on top of the price of Vellum.

Atticus runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook. It's a web app that you can use in a browser or install on your computer, which means it works on any desktop operating system with a modern browser. Your projects save to the cloud as you work and sync through your Atticus account if you work across machines.

For Mac users, both options are available. For everyone else, Atticus is the only one of the two that runs on your own computer. That single constraint eliminates Vellum for a large percentage of self-publishers.

Ebook Output Quality

Vellum's ebook files are the benchmark. The generated ePub files are validated, and the live Preview shows how they will appear across a range of devices and reader settings. The table of contents links are built automatically for every chapter. Vellum checks its ebooks regularly with Ace, the accessibility checker from the DAISY Consortium.

Vellum also generates retailer-specific files. You get separate exports for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Nook, and Google Play. Each file points its store links at that retailer and compresses images to fit that retailer's file size limit, and the Kindle file is optimized for Amazon's Enhanced Typesetting. Vellum handles those differences automatically.

Atticus generates a single ePub file, the format it says Amazon and nearly every other retailer prefer. The output is good. Where the gap shows is in the files themselves: Atticus does not build a separate version for each retailer, and in place of store-specific links it offers a universal book link. Atticus has shipped regular updates since launch, but Vellum had a head start of more than seven years.

Print Output Quality

Vellum's print output looks like it came from a traditional publisher. The interior typography uses well-chosen fonts with proper kerning and leading. Chapter openings have decorative elements that match the book's style. Drop caps, if you use them, render cleanly. Margins and gutters are calibrated for different trim sizes. The PDF files are built for print-on-demand services like KDP and IngramSpark.

Atticus produces print-ready PDF files for paperback and hardcover. The typography is clean. The layouts work. Where the two tools differ on paper is the handling of widows and orphans (short lines stranded at the top or bottom of a page). Vellum deals with them and balances facing pages automatically, with nothing to switch on. Atticus asks you to choose a layout priority for your theme: widows and orphans, balanced page spreads, or a blend of both.

Atticus has added more print features over time, including trim size options, custom margins, and header/footer control. The trajectory is toward parity with Vellum. It isn't there yet.

Style and Customization

Vellum offers dozens of built-in styles for both ebook and print. Each style controls the chapter heading design, font pairing, ornamental elements, and overall aesthetic. You pick a style, preview it instantly, and adjust individual elements (drop caps on or off, scene break style, heading alignment). The constraint is that you work within Vellum's design vocabulary. The print body font comes from Vellum's own list. If none of the built-in styles match your vision, the most you can do is adjust one of them and add your own ornaments, backgrounds, and heading images.

The designs are tasteful and varied enough to cover literary fiction, genre fiction, and nonfiction. The beautiful-but-constrained approach means every option looks professional, but none look unusual.

Atticus offers a growing library of theme templates plus more granular control over individual elements. You can change fonts (15 curated body fonts, plus a Google Fonts library for headings), adjust spacing, modify heading styles, and control more layout details than Vellum allows. The flexibility is greater. The risk is also greater: more control means more ways to produce output that looks amateur. Vellum's constraints protect you from bad design choices. Atticus trusts you to make good ones.

For writers who want to pick a style and move on, Vellum's approach saves time and guarantees quality. For writers who want to match a specific aesthetic or differentiate their books visually, Atticus offers more room.

The Writing Editor

Atticus includes a built-in writing environment. You can draft and organize your manuscript inside the same tool you'll use to format it. The editor provides chapter management, a word count tracker, goal-setting features, and a basic organizational sidebar. It's simpler than Scrivener, but functional enough for writers who want a single-app workflow.

Vellum has a text editor, and Vellum says you can write a whole novel in it, but the app is built around formatting a finished manuscript. You write your book in Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, or whatever you prefer, then import the finished manuscript into Vellum for formatting. Vellum reads Word documents and recognizes chapters, scene breaks, and basic formatting. But that workflow involves at least two tools.

Whether Atticus's editor matters depends on your existing setup. If you already own and like Scrivener, or if you draft in Google Docs, you don't need another writing tool. If you're starting fresh and want one application for everything, Atticus removes the need to buy separate software for writing and formatting.

Workflow and Speed

Vellum's workflow is fast because decisions are limited. Import your manuscript. Pick a style. Adjust a few settings. Preview. Export. Vellum's own guide says that once you are familiar with the app, creating your final files should take considerably less than an hour.

Atticus's workflow offers more choices. The additional customization options mean more decisions at each step. Subsequent books go faster because a saved theme can be applied to any of your books.

For writers publishing frequently (four or more books per year), having fewer decisions to make on each book adds up. For writers publishing one or two books per year, the difference is negligible.

Special Features

Vellum handles box sets natively. You can combine multiple books into a single ebook or print file with proper part divisions, individual title pages, and a unified table of contents. Atticus also builds box sets from the books in your account, so box sets alone do not decide between the two.

Vellum also sets up a large print edition in a few clicks, adjusting font sizes and margins automatically. For authors who sell large print through IngramSpark or KDP, this replaces manual reformatting. Atticus has a Large Print setting in its themes as well.

Atticus includes goal tracking and a writing habit tracker. If you write and format in Atticus, you get daily word count tracking, project goals, and basic analytics on your writing habits. Atticus also supports collaboration features, letting multiple users access a project.

Both tools handle front matter (title page, copyright page, dedication) and back matter (about the author, also-by pages, newsletter signup calls to action). Both generate clickable tables of contents for ebooks. Both support images embedded in the text, though neither handles image-heavy nonfiction well. For heavily illustrated books, neither tool replaces Adobe InDesign.

Who Should Buy Vellum

Buy Vellum if you own a Mac, you publish regularly, and you want the highest-quality output with the least effort. Vellum builds a separate ebook file for each store. Its print interiors look traditionally published. The limited customization is a feature, not a bug. You pick a style, format your book, and get back to writing the next one.

Vellum also makes sense if you publish wide, selling through several retailers instead of Amazon alone. Its store-specific files for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Nook, and Google Play each carry links to the right store and images sized to that store's limits.

The $250 price tag is steep for a single book. By book three or four, the cost per title drops below what you'd pay a freelance formatter. By book ten, Vellum has paid for itself several times over.

Who Should Buy Atticus

Buy Atticus if you use Windows or Linux. That's the simplest decision point. Vellum doesn't exist on your platform, and Atticus produces professional output that works for both ebook and print.

Buy Atticus if you want one tool for writing and formatting and you don't need Scrivener's organizational depth. The all-in-one workflow eliminates the friction of moving files between applications.

Buy Atticus if you're budget-conscious. At $147, it costs about $100 less than Vellum's ebook-plus-print package and includes more functionality. For writers publishing their first or second book, the lower price reduces the financial risk of self-publishing.

Buy Atticus if you want more design control than Vellum provides. The growing template library and granular customization options let you build a visual identity for your books that goes beyond Vellum's preset styles.

When to Use Both

Some authors use Atticus for writing and Vellum for formatting. The workflow: draft in Atticus, export to Word, import into Vellum, format, publish. This gives you Atticus's writing features and Vellum's superior output quality. It also costs $397 total, which only makes sense if you're publishing enough books to justify the investment.

A more common pairing is Scrivener plus Vellum, which remains the standard workflow for Mac-based self-publishers writing complex fiction. Scrivener handles the writing and organization. Vellum handles the formatting. Each tool does what it does best.

The Practical Choice

If you own a Mac and publish more than two books per year, Vellum's output quality and formatting speed make it the stronger tool. The price is high, but the time savings and output quality justify it quickly.

If you're on Windows, Atticus is the obvious pick.

If you're on a Mac but publish infrequently, Atticus gives you professional results at a lower price point with the added benefit of a writing editor. You can always move to Vellum later if your publishing pace increases.

Both tools receive active development. Vellum ships several updates a year, and recent ones added heading controls, page backgrounds, and more trim sizes. Atticus ships updates frequently. The competition between them benefits every self-publisher.

Pick the one that fits your platform, your budget, and your current publishing pace. Format your book. Ship it. Write the next one.