Qalam (قلم) is a modern Urdu word processor for macOS and Windows — true Nastaliq typesetting, poetry treated as a first-class citizen, and a way out of decades of writing locked inside InPage files.
Tap any screenshot to view it full size.
Select a verse, choose a style, and Qalam renders it as an image card — the poet's تخلص beneath, and a small قلم seal in the corner. Long poems grow into a portrait card instead of a square. Tap any card to view it full size.
The verses above are by Bashir Zaidi Aseer (1934–2022), from میں تو کھلی کتاب ہوں — the same collection that has its own reading app on this site, and the archive that taught Qalam how to open InPage files in the first place.
Proper Nastaliq with kashida justification, on a custom text engine rather than a stock text field — so typing stays fast even in a book-length manuscript.
Phonetic صوتی key-by-key, Roman Urdu رومن that converts each word as you finish it, or ABC passthrough for English. Switch at any time.
Mark lines as شعر and every مصرع aligns to the longest, the way a printed divan sets them — plus couplet layout and ghazal templates.
A prosody engine scans your verse against the classical metres and names the بحر, so you can check a line without counting syllables on your fingers.
A 105,000-word Urdu dictionary marks what looks wrong and suggests what was probably meant. Words it doesn't know — a poet's coinage, a family name — go into your own personal dictionary.
Every edit recorded and reversible, with comments in the margin — for handing a draft to an editor, an ustaad, or a publisher and getting it back readable.
Images, tables, text boxes, page setup with on-screen page guides, find & replace, printing, crash recovery and multiple windows — the ordinary things, done properly.
PDF, Word (.docx) and plain text — plus شعر cards, which render a couplet as a shareable image signed with your تخلص.
Qalam reads legacy .inp and .int documents directly — rescuing decades of Urdu writing locked inside a thirty-year-old, Windows-only format.
Optional proofreading and Urdu dictation run on your own Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude API key, and only on explicit invocation. Nothing is sent automatically, ever.
The whole interface is available in both. Read the menus in Nastaliq, or in English — it's a preference, not a separate build.
The same app, the same documents, on both desktops — so a manuscript can move between a Mac at home and a PC at the press without anything breaking.
Qalam for tablets and mobiles is in the pipeline and will be released soon, so the same documents travel from the desk to the hand without leaving the app behind.
No subscription, no account, no ads. The word processor is the free part — Pro adds the heavy-duty tools.
A generation of Urdu writing sits in files almost nothing can open. Qalam opens them — and gives them somewhere to go next.
Built for poets, editors, students and publishers.Two cards for passing Qalam on — one in Urdu, one in English. Tap either to open it full size, then save and send it. The Nastaliq on them was set by Qalam itself.
Qalam runs on your own computer. It has no account system, no telemetry and no ads.
Questions, bug reports and feature requests — in Urdu or English. Qalam also ships with a full built-in manual under its Help menu.
Your documents stay on your device. Text leaves it only if you set up the optional AI features with your own key and invoke them yourself.
InPage is a trademark of its respective owner. Qalam is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to InPage. Qalam reads the InPage file format so that writing stored in it stays readable; it contains no InPage code, and it does not bundle fonts derived from InPage's typefaces.
Version 1.0 is free on the Microsoft Store today, and the macOS build is in review with Apple. Qalam for tablets and mobiles is in the pipeline behind it. Write to us if you'd like to be told the day the Mac version lands — or to test it before then.
STZ developer