Shiny Frog, the Italian studio behind Bear, announced a public beta of Lettera this week, a standalone Markdown editor for macOS built on the same text editing engine that powers Bear 2.0. The app is available now through Apple TestFlight and represents a direct answer to years of user requests asking whether Bear’s editor could live on its own, outside of Bear’s note database.
The connection to Bear runs deep. Lettera is built on Panda, the codename Shiny Frog used for the editor it developed publicly before shipping Bear 2.0. Panda had attracted a following of its own, largely because it let users open any Markdown file as a standalone document without importing it into Bear. Lettera formalises that idea into a dedicated app.
What Lettera actually does
The most significant difference from Bear is how Lettera handles files. Rather than managing notes in its own database, Lettera works directly with the macOS file system. Users can open a single Markdown file for reading and editing, or open an entire folder as a writing workspace. By default, Lettera points to a dedicated folder in iCloud, but any folder on the Mac works just as well. That means Lettera can serve as the default Markdown editor for files stored anywhere, which Bear cannot do.
Lettera follows the CommonMark standard and renders Markdown live in a WYSIWYG style, hiding syntax when the cursor moves away from it. A BIU formatting bar handles quick styling for users who prefer not to type Markdown directly. The app’s feature set includes:
- Sidebar file and folder management with tab support for multiple open documents
- Image preview directly inside the editor
- Table of Contents sidebar for jumping between sections
- Document versioning
- Export to plain text, rich text, Markdown, HTML, PDF, JPG, and ePub
The App Store listing also references iOS, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro, suggesting Shiny Frog intends to expand Lettera beyond the Mac, though the current beta is macOS-focused.
The pricing question
Shiny Frog has not confirmed a pricing model for Lettera. Bear runs on a subscription at $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, and part of Lettera’s appeal is the possibility of a one-time purchase instead. Lettera is expected to become a go-to text editor for writing workflows that do not require an extensive plugin catalog like Obsidian’s. Whether it arrives as a free download, a paid app, or eventually its own subscription will shape how it fits into a market that already includes Bear, Ulysses, and iA Writer.
Users can join the Lettera TestFlight beta now and submit feedback through the dedicated Lettera section of the Bear Community forum. If you’re weighing whether to put beta software on your main Mac, our developer beta risk checklist covers the key questions worth asking before you install, and if you ever need to step back, our guide to rolling back from a beta explains the process. Given Shiny Frog’s track record, Bear won an Apple Design Award in 2017 and was the App Store’s App of the Year in 2016, the pricing question remains the one detail that will most directly shape Lettera’s reception once it leaves beta. macOS power users already running the latest system software and exploring tools like the Siri AI features in macOS 27 will likely find Lettera a natural addition to their workflow.
