>be me
>need to write a simple printable document
>open Word, it wants to update
>open LibreOffice, corrupted .docx from 2019
>try HTML, now I need a CSS reset and three browser tabs
>try Markdown, no page breaks, no print model
>try PDF, now I need a $400 tool to edit my own file
so I wrote a format
EPP. Easy Paper Package. .epp files. pure UTF-8 text. no binary. no embedding. no network calls. opens in notepad. prints on A4.
%epp=0.3%
@heading "My Document" {bold, align=center}
@text "This is a paragraph."
@callout "Don't forget to back up." {color=yellow}
@bullet "Item one" {type=check}
@bullet "Item two" {type=check}
@bullet "Item three" {type=arrow}
@newpage
@page 2 {lined}
@heading "Notes"
@text "Looks like notebook paper when rendered."
every command starts with @, text in double quotes, attributes in {curly braces}, semicolons are comments, unknown commands silently ignored. parser fits in ~150 lines.
has: pages, headings, paragraphs, bullets, tables, code blocks, blockquotes, callout boxes, headers/footers with auto page numbers, text highlighting, lined pages, coloured backgrounds, page rotation, metadata.
doesn't have: images, embedded anything, javascript, external references, a 40MB runtime, your soul.
spec frozen at v0.3. backwards compatible forever.
not open source because I'm one person and can't manage a community on top of paying for hosting. spec is fully public, write a parser, do whatever.
easypaperpackage.xyz
yes I know about LaTeX, groff, Typst. it's not replacing any of them. it's for when you just want to write a document and print it and never think about it again.
fyi I wrote the spec, Claude wrote the readme and site code. if you're going to call me a subhuman at least get the details right.
