Ease
settings › "ease" — "colour strength · labels · haptics · reduce motion · transitions" — is the journal's accessibility page: how it looks, feels, sounds and reads. It is always free. Every change is saved the moment you make it.
Presets
Four chips at the top, each with what it is for written under it. A chip shows chosen when tapping it would change nothing.
| preset | what it does |
|---|---|
| "standard" | the journal exactly as it is drawn |
| "easier to read" | colours as strong as they go, everything a size larger, glows off: colour strength 2.5, star size 1.6, the sky's labels 1.3, remove glows on, text size 1.3, reading size 1.3, line spacing 1.4, glyphs as letters off |
| "text only" | every glyph becomes a letter: colour strength 2.5, glyphs as letters on, star size 1.8, the sky's labels 1.4, remove glows on, text size 1.5, reading size 1.5, line spacing 1.5 |
| "calm" | the journal holds still: reduce motion on, view transitions off, remove glows on, scenes play as they arrive off |
A preset touches only ease settings — never the theme, the sound or anything else — and only the fields it names.
"seeing"
| setting | what it does | starts |
|---|---|---|
| "colour strength" | pushes the soft colours toward full colour — louder, never different. 1 to 2.5 | 1 |
| "high contrast" | the sky, the orbits, the round buttons and every settings page at full white, and no star drawn dim | off |
| "button labels" | a word beside each round button in the corners | on |
| "reduce motion" | stills everything that moves: the sky's clock, the nebula, the orbits, scenes, a journal's signature, play | off |
| "play a journal's signature when it opens" | the constellation draws itself as a journal opens | on |
| "show what an entry carries" | a ring round a designed entry's star, a twinkle on one brought to life | on |
| "remove glows" | takes the halo off every star, and the nebula away | off |
| "glyphs as letters" | every star drawn as its app's letter — C, M, T, A, U, or J for written here | off |
| "star size" | how big each star is. 0.7 to 2.2 | 1 |
| "the sky's labels" | how big the month names and journal names on the sky are. 0.8 to 1.8 | 1 |
| "magnifier" | the star under your finger swells much more, so you can see which one you're on | off |
"touch"
| setting | what it does | starts |
|---|---|---|
| "haptics" | a small vibration with every touch. Off, the scrub texture stops too | on |
| "scrub texture" | a soft bumpiness under a finger dragged through the sky or the year | on |
| "texture strength" | how strong it feels, from "empty scrub" to "most important". 0 to 1. Shows while haptics and scrub texture are on | 0.15 to 0.8 |
| "bump spacing" | "fine", "medium", "coarse". Shows while both are on | "medium" |
| "touch target size" | how far from a star or a button a touch still reaches it. 1 to 2.5 | 1 |
| "hold delay (seconds)" | how long a press is held before it counts as a hold, everywhere. 0.2 to 2.5 | 0.5 |
| "dwell to select" | rest on a star and its card opens, no lift | off |
| "dwell time (seconds)" | how long you rest. 0.4 to 2.5. Shows while dwell to select is on | 0.9 |
| "latched buttons" | a touch stays chosen after you lift, with ‹ and ◉ in the corner | off |
"hearing"
| setting | what it does | starts |
|---|---|---|
| "spoken labels" | each star's title read aloud as your finger reaches it | off |
| "captions on videos" | "a show's captions — as it plays, and in the videos and gifs you export." Off, play shows none, and a gif or a video is exported without them | on |
"spoken labels" covers only star names. Ask the sky reading its own answers aloud is a separate switch, on its own sheet. See Ask the sky in the Journal.
"reading"
For the reader and compose.
| setting | range | starts |
|---|---|---|
| "reading size" | 0.8 to 2 | 1 |
| "line spacing" | 1 to 2 | 1 |
| "paragraph spacing" — "when reading." | 0.5 to 3 | 1 |
| "letter spacing" | 0 to 0.2 | 0 |
| "reading width" — how much of the screen's width your words use | 0.6 to 1 | 1 |
| "text aligned left, never stretched" | on · off | on |
"↺ back to standard"
Shows only when something on the page differs from standard: "puts every setting on this page back where it started, except the whole suite's navigation and labels, which every zenith app shares." It puts back every Journal setting here — "play a journal's signature when it opens", "show what an entry carries" and "a wide screen" included — and touches nothing outside this page.
Motion between views
Below "↺ back to standard":
- "view transitions" — the old view fades into the new over a fifth of a second. Off, or with reduce motion, it is a cut. Starts on.
- "scenes play as they arrive" — an entry's scenes begin as it opens in the reader. Off, a slide is shown at rest. Starts on.
Text size
Relative to the phone's own text size.
| dial | what it sizes | range |
|---|---|---|
| "everything" | all the journal's text; sheets, dialogs and menus follow only this | 0.7 to 2 |
| "the sky" | the sky's labels and the orbits' words, on top of "everything" | 0.8 to 1.6 |
| "reading" | the reader's words | 0.8 to 1.6 |
| "compose" | the words where you write | 0.8 to 1.6 |
| "design and bring to life" | every word in those two rooms | 0.8 to 1.6 |
"the whole suite"
Shared by every Zenith app on the phone; change one here and it changes in all of them.
- "navigation" — "hold" (press, drag and let go to choose) or "tap" (a touch stays chosen after you lift). "tap" makes the journal latch, like latched buttons. Starts on "hold".
- "star labels" — "above" or "below" a star. Starts "above".
The presets and "↺ back to standard" leave these alone, because every Zenith app shares them.
"a wide screen" (Gold)
"an entry opens beside the sky or the list" — on a screen wide enough for two, such as a folding phone opened out or a tablet, reading an entry keeps the sky or the list in view beside it, and tapping another star changes what is read. It starts on, and works only with journal gold. Without journal gold it reads "an entry opens beside the sky or the list ✦ gold", shows off, with "✦ locked by gold — layouts for folding phones and tablets", and a tap opens the Gold sheet. "↺ back to standard" turns it back on.
Ask the sky can change these
Ask the sky can change every control here by name, apply a preset in one step, and change the suite's navigation and star labels. "a wide screen" refuses without Gold. See What the sky can do — design, screens, settings & more.
See also.
Tap, hold, drag & pinch · Themes, colours & the sky's look · Sound & the journal's voice · Settings, page by page