How to Get Your Script Printed Right

A script is a working document. It changes constantly, gets handled by dozens of people, and in a professional setting it needs to look the part every single time it is printed. Whether you are a screenwriter submitting to an agency for the first time or a production assistant coordinating a table read for thirty cast members, the way your script is printed communicates something before anyone reads a single line of dialogue. 

In Hollywood, where the entertainment industry sets the standard for how documents are formatted, bound, and distributed, getting this right is not optional. This guide covers the fundamentals: what formatting standards to follow, which binding to choose and when, how revision colors work, how to prepare your file, and what to look for in a print shop that actually understands the business. 

Formatting Standards: The WGA Baseline 

The Writers Guild of America has established a clear set of formatting conventions that serve as the industry standard for feature screenplays, television pilots, and episodic scripts. These conventions exist for practical reasons — a properly formatted page represents approximately one minute of screen time, which allows producers, directors, and executives to assess length at a glance. 

The baseline formatting requirements are: 

• Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
• Font: 12pt Courier or Courier New
• Margins: Approximately 1 inch top and bottom, 1.5 inches on the left binding edge, and 1 inch on the right
• Printing: Single-sided — standard for all submissions, spec scripts, and agency packages 
• Paper: 20 lb white bond — the industry-standard weight for screenplay submissions 

Deviating from these standards — even slightly — can signal inexperience to a reader who handles scripts every day. A spec script submitted on the wrong paper stock or with non-standard margins is noticed immediately, and not in a positive way. 

Note: Shooting scripts, which are the working versions used on set once a project is greenlit, follow slightly different conventions and are typically formatted with scene numbers added to the margins. The print requirements for shooting scripts differ from those for spec submissions. 

Binding Options: Matching the Format to the Purpose 

The binding method you choose should reflect what the script is for and who will be using it. There is no single correct answer — the right choice depends on whether you are submitting to an agency, running a table read, presenting to executives, or distributing sides to a casting session. 

Brass Brads (Three-Hole) 

This is the industry standard for spec script submissions and agency packages. A feature screenplay submitted to a production company, manager, or literary agent should be printed single-sided, three-hole punched, and secured with brass brads — specifically in the top and bottom holes, with the middle hole left empty. This is a convention so widely observed that deviating from it reads as a red flag to experienced readers. 

Spiral or Coil Binding 

Spiral binding is the practical choice for table reads, workshop copies, and any situation where the script needs to lie flat on a surface. When an actor is working through a script at a read-through, a brass-brad bound copy that flips back closed is a nuisance. Spiral binding solves that problem cleanly. 

Perfect Binding 

Perfect binding — where pages are spine-glued and trimmed — gives a document the look and feel of a published book. It is appropriate for series bibles, pitch packages, and presentation materials intended for executive meetings. It is not suitable for functional working copies of a script. 

Stapled and Loose Formats 

For audition sides — the excerpted pages given to actors for casting sessions — a simple corner staple or loose pages are entirely appropriate. Sides are disposable by nature and do not require formal binding. 

Understanding Revision Colors 

Once a script goes into production, it enters the revision cycle. Every time pages are revised and distributed, they are printed on a different color of paper so that everyone on set knows immediately which version they are looking at. This is a long-standing industry convention, and the color order is standardized. 

The WGA revision color sequence runs as follows: White (original), Blue, Pink, Yellow, Green, Goldenrod, Buff, Salmon, Cherry, Tan, and Gray. After Gray, the cycle typically returns to White and begins again, though productions may handle this differently. 

This matters for printing because a production printing revised pages needs a shop that stocks the full range of colored stock — not just the common colors — and understands how to keep revision sets organized. A print shop unfamiliar with this system can create real confusion on a working production. 

Preparing Your File for Print 

How you submit your file has a direct effect on how your script prints. The following checklist covers the essentials:

• Use PDF whenever possible. A PDF locks your fonts, margins, and formatting exactly as you intend them. Word documents and other editable formats can reflow text when opened on a different system, which can shift page breaks and alter your page count.
• Screenplay software files are widely accepted. Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain, and Celtx files are all standard in the industry and most professional print shops will work with them. That said, converting to PDF before submission is always the safer choice for time-sensitive jobs.
• Confirm your page count. Before you submit, verify that your formatted PDF shows the page count you expect. A formatting shift that adds or removes pages can change your binding requirements and, in the case of a spec submission, affect how your script is perceived.
• Do not expect the printer to make formatting corrections. A professional print shop will flag obvious issues — a non-standard page size, for example — but they are not responsible for correcting your formatting. Finalize your document before you submit it.
• For color cover pages, confirm specs in advance. If you are including a color-printed title page, let your print shop know when you order so they can account for it in the job. 

What to Look for in a Print Shop 

Not every print shop is equipped to handle script printing at a professional level. For something that represents your work — or supports a production — you want a provider who understands the industry’s expectations without requiring you to explain them.

• Familiarity with entertainment industry conventions. A shop that regularly serves writers, production companies, and casting offices will understand brass brad binding, revision color sets, and WGA formatting without needing a tutorial.
• Stock of colored revision paper. If you are printing revised production pages, confirm that the shop carries the full WGA revision color set in-house. Running out of goldenrod on a Wednesday afternoon is not a problem you want to encounter.
• Acceptance of standard file formats. Your shop should handle PDF, Final Draft, Word, Fountain, and Celtx without difficulty.
• Capacity to handle volume. Productions go through enormous quantities of printed material. Ensure your print shop can accommodate bulk orders without compromising turnaround or quality.
• Location. Proximity matters in a business where deadlines can shift by the hour. A print shop situated in or near Hollywood is a practical advantage that becomes significant when you need something done quickly. 

Final Thoughts 

A printed script is a professional document. In a city that produces more film and television content than anywhere else in the world, the standards for that document are well established and consistently enforced — not by any single authority, but by decades of industry practice. 

Whether you are printing a single spec script for an agency submission or coordinating bulk distribution for a production in active development, the details matter. The binding, the paper, the file format, the revision colors: each of these elements signals whether you understand the environment you are working in. 

Work with a print shop that already knows the industry. It makes the process faster, cleaner, and less prone to the kind of errors that surface at the worst possible moment. 

Ready to print your script? Visit mmhollywood.com or stop by our Hollywood location on Sunset Boulevard to speak with a printing specialist today.

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