Page Cutter: Cut Script Pages, Keep the Story

Page cutter finds the cheapest lines in your screenplay: paragraphs that end on one or two words, action blocks over four lines, parentheticals, scene headings that wrap and transitions. Drop a PDF, Final Draft, Fountain or Word file and see each spot by page, with an estimate of how many pages the fixes would save.

Written and reviewed by ScriptLix EditorialUpdated October 2026

How to use it

1
Drop the script anywhere on the page, or paste a few pages of it.
2
Set your target page count. It starts at your current length minus ten percent.
3
Open each group and work down the list. The spots at the top save the most lines for the fewest words changed.

How do I cut pages without cutting story?

Start with lines, not scenes. A page holds about 55 lines in Courier 12, and a lot of them carry a single word left over from the line above. Cut one word from that paragraph and the whole line disappears. Do that thirty times and you have bought back half a page without touching a beat.

Then go after parentheticals, transitions like CUT TO:, and action blocks that run past three or four lines. Each of those is a line or two that a reader skims anyway.

How is the saving worked out?

The tool rewraps every paragraph at standard screenplay widths: about 61 characters for action and scene headings, 35 for dialogue and 26 for parentheticals. A paragraph whose last line holds one or two words counts as one line saved. A long action block counts every line past three. A parenthetical counts the lines it takes, and a transition counts two, because the blank line above it goes too. The total is divided by 55 lines a page.

It is an estimate. Your screenwriting app breaks lines and pages its own way, and a fix near the bottom of a page may not move the page break. Long speeches are flagged but not counted, because only you know what a speech needs.

What if line trims are not enough?

Line trims usually find a few pages. If you need ten, the rest is story: a scene that repeats what an earlier one already did, a subplot that never pays off, an entrance that could start later. That is the work a reader is best at spotting, and a free scorecard on the same file is linked under the results.

Questions writers ask

Is my script stored?

No. The file is sent to our server only to read the pages, and nothing is kept. The cuts are worked out in your browser.

Why does a 125 page script need to be 110?

Many readers and contests expect a feature spec somewhere around 90 to 120 pages, and a long script gets read later or skimmed. Shorter pages also read faster, which helps the story more than the page count.

Is cheating the margins or font a good idea?

No. Readers know what a standard page looks like, and squeezed margins or a smaller font get noticed. Trimming lines gives the same result honestly.

Why does the page number differ from my app?

The page shown is where the analyzer found the text in your file. For a Fountain or text file it is estimated from line counts, so it can drift by a page or so from what your app prints.