Ellipsus
ellipsus.com/
Ellipsus is a collaborative writing tool built specifically for fiction and fan writers rather than general productivity, under the headline "Write like a human." It draws a sharp line against competitors in its own copy: "Plenty of tools are made for memos, notes, and to-do lists. That's not us," and against a whole category of AI writing tools with an explicit no-generative-AI policy — "Your content is YOURS. No generative AI—ever." It claims 700,000 human writers, uses a wry aside describing the alternative as a "Docs-to-Discord-to-DM-to-Docs-to-??? process," and closes its homepage with a Walter J. Ong quote about writing transforming human consciousness rather than a standard CTA banner.
- Category
- Productivity & Collaboration
- Style
- DarkMinimal
- Stack
- Next.js
- Fonts
- Roslindale Display NarrowManrope
- Palette
- Meta title
- Ellipsus | Collaborative writing software
- Sections
- 5
- Updated
Ellipsus's landing page, section by section
Each section below is cropped straight from Ellipsus's live page — useful references for productivity & collaboration landing page design.
Ellipsus design review: how the homepage is built
The page is 7,654 pixels tall on desktop and is built around a charcoal (#292a2e) hero and off-white (#f5f5f3) content bands, with silver grey (#b7b8b7) for secondary type. Roslindale Display Narrow sets the headlines in a high-contrast serif and Manrope handles body copy and navigation. The page name matches the catalog entry, Ellipsus. What stands out is its hand-drawn illustration system: paper planes, folded cranes, a robot at a desk and a doorway sit beside product screenshots, while the same red, pink and green underlines recur through the copy. Blocks alternate charcoal and off-white and close on a black footer.
Above the fold
The hero is a centred single column on charcoal. A large serif headline "Write like a human." sits above the sans-serif line "Ellipsus is a collaborative writing tool made for creativity." with a white "Join for free" button beneath. Faint letters drift across the background, with a hand-drawn paper plane at left and a purple cursor at right. The navigation carries Features, Library, About and Plus+.
Product collage and manifesto
Below the hero, a teal-and-charcoal collage shows a library grid headed "My work" beside a tablet and two phones. The off-white band that follows reads "Made for fan writers", with the word "fan" in green and a sketched stack of books beside it. Next, "Plenty of tools are made for memos, notes, and to-do lists." is set in large serif type, followed by "That's not us." underlined in red.
Feature band, carousel and principles
A black band headed "One place for drafts, edits, and discussions" carries a short paragraph and line drawings of a desk lamp and a plant. A carousel of blue panels shows a manuscript page, with "STAY IN CONTROL WITH CONNECTED DRAFTS" beneath its arrows. "A principled alternative—by writers, for writers" then sets a sketched robot beside "Your content is YOURS." in green and "No generative AI—ever." in red.
Closing block and footer
The closing block reads "Trusted by 700,000 (human) writers, and counting..." above a black button. "Get started—write away." follows on charcoal beside a doorway drawing. The footer carries a quote, "More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness.", attributed to "Walter J. Ong", with link lists led by "WHAT'S NEW" and "HELP CENTER" and legal links such as "TERMS OF SERVICE".
On mobile
At 390px the page shortens to about 6,676 pixels and every block narrows to one column. "Made for aspiring writers" replaces the desktop heading, with "aspiring" in red instead of green. The product collage is absent, so the first screenshot is the drafts carousel. The footer lists its links in one column, with the quote below them.
Worth borrowing
- The hero keeps only a headline and one sentence above the fold, so the copy carries the message first.
- Hand-drawn underlines in three colours mark key phrases, a repeated device that ties the copy to the illustrations.
- The footer quote from Walter J. Ong closes the page on an argument rather than a call to action.
