Hello everyone,

I'm the developer of Breathink Basic, an outliner for Mac.

I used to love Tree's horizontal outlining view. I missed that experience, so I built Breathink Basic for my own writing and planning.

Breathink Basic lets you switch between a vertical outline and a horizontal tree view. You can rearrange items, change their hierarchy, collapse sections, and focus on one part of an outline.

A few practical details:

- Requires macOS 12 or later and an Apple Silicon Mac.
- US$9.99 on the US Mac App Store, as a one-time purchase with no subscription.
- Documents stay on your Mac. No account is required, and the app has no AI features.
- Exports to OPML, Markdown, HTML, plain text, and PDF.
- The interface supports English and Japanese.

Breathink Basic on the Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathink-basic/id6787563209

I'd be interested to hear how you use horizontal outlines in your writing or planning, and which outlining features you find most useful.

Disclosure: I used AI to help draft the English wording of this post.

Nice to see a return to Tree, which was a great app.

We've also discussed Traverse (for Mac) in this forum: also does horizontal outlining, in a slightly different way.

It would be useful to have a website with screen shots, etc., that show the app's features. (In English please.). I wouldn't pay for an app sight unseen.

Hi Paul and MadaboutDana,

Thank you for your comments. Paul, here is the Breathink Basic website, with screenshots and a demo video:
https://breathink-basic.pages.dev/

Please select “EN” for the English descriptions. The page shows the outline, horizontal tree, and writing views, so you can get a better idea of how the app works before buying. The screenshots currently show the Japanese interface, so they don't yet fully answer your request for English screenshots.

MadaboutDana, thank you for the warm welcome and for mentioning Traverse.

Osamu Ikeda
Developer of Breathink Basic

Disclosure: I used AI to help with the English wording.

Hi, @ikedaosamu: do you know when Breathink will be available on the App Store in Europe?

Hi tberni,
Thank you for your interest in Breathink! It is currently unavailable in EU App Stores. I’m looking into the necessary steps to make it available across the EU, and I’ll post an update here once I have more information.nformation.

Hi @ikedaosamu; just two things to say about Breathink:
- the screenshots are all still in Japanese (I'm viewing it on the UK App Store), which makes it difficult to appreciate the various (clearly quite sophisticated) functions (especially interesting: the embedded content in the right pane);
- the app foot print is enormous! Nearly 270 MB, or a quarter of a GB. Had you considered using something other than Electron (which, I suspect, is the reason for this enormous size)? Such as Tauri, for example (also AI-friendly, I gather)?

Otherwise I would be very tempted to buy it – the price is reasonable!

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and constructive feedback on Breathink!
You're absolutely right about the screenshots. I appreciate you pointing this out, and I'll look into updating them with English versions so that international users can better understand what Breathink can do.
Regarding the app size, thank you for suggesting Tauri. I'll investigate what's contributing to the current size and consider possible ways to reduce it.
I'm particularly pleased that you noticed the embedded content in the right pane. It's encouraging to hear that this feature caught your attention.
And thank you for your kind words about the price!
As an independent developer, detailed feedback like yours is extremely valuable. I'm still working to improve Breathink, and your suggestions are very helpful.
Thank you again!
Osamu Ikeda
Developer of Breathink

Thank you for your interest in Breathink.
I've been exploring several ways to make Breathink available in the EU, including alternative distribution and payment services.
Unfortunately, EU regulations require certain business address information to be made public. Since my company's registered address is also my private residence, publicly disclosing it would raise privacy and security concerns.
I've also looked into alternative solutions, but haven't found a practical option for a small independent developer like myself.
For now, I'm very sorry that I can't offer Breathink in the EU.
I truly appreciate your interest and understanding. I hope to find a solution in the future.
Osamu Ikeda
Developer of Breathink

Hi MadaboutDana,

Thank you again for your helpful feedback. I’ve now updated both websites with English demo screenshots and clearer feature explanations:

https://ikedalab.co.jp/?lang=en#breathink-pane
https://breathink-basic.pages.dev/?lang=en#right-pane

The right-hand pane shown in the screenshots is the built-in writing editor. You can import a selected outline branch, including its child items, or the currently displayed outline, either keeping the hierarchy or using flat text, then develop it into prose alongside the outline.

The English demo captures still have a few toolbar labels in Japanese, as noted on the pages. The UK App Store screenshot update is still in progress, and the app’s size has not changed. I’m investigating options for reducing it.

Thank you for helping me make Breathink easier to understand.

Osamu Ikeda
Developer of Breathink Basic

Disclosure: I used AI to help with the English wording.

ikedaosamu wrote:

Thank you for your interest in Breathink.
I've been exploring several ways to make Breathink available in the EU, including alternative distribution and payment services.
Unfortunately, EU regulations require certain business address information to be made public. Since my company's registered address is also my private residence, publicly disclosing it would raise privacy and security concerns.
I've also looked into alternative solutions, but haven't found a practical option for a small independent developer like myself.
For now, I'm very sorry that I can't offer Breathink in the EU.
I truly appreciate your interest and understanding. I hope to find a solution in the future.
Osamu Ikeda
Developer of Breathink

I loved Tree Outliner on the Mac in the past when it still existed. Your implementation looks interesting.

Regarding the availability of the App in the EU , is there something like virtual offices in Japan ? These kind of services are specifically made for very small businesses, and they provide you with a legal address that is separate from your real home address , mail forwarding, and even phone reception ( which is usually just a recorded message ) without having to lease real offices.