The sky

The sky is the journal's home view: your entries as stars along the year. Each entry sits on the day it is filed under, at the height it was placed. Journals are constellations — the lines that join their stars.

It is the view the app opens on, unless settings › "the journal" › "opens as" says otherwise.

#The year's path

The dotted curve low on the screen is the year's path. The days lie along it, rising to a crest mid-screen, and each month on screen is named above it in short lower case — "jan", "feb". About four months fit across when the sky opens.

Drag along the path to turn the year. See Turn the year & go to today.

#Today

Today is marked by a faint dotted line from the top of the sky down to the path, a dot on the path, and the word "today" under it. The sky opens turned to today. Once you turn away, a "today" button, ◉, appears in the bottom-right corner. Back does the same once nothing is open in front. See Turn the year & go to today.

#Stars

Every entry still out is one star. Across is its day; up and down is its height, in the open band between the header and the path. A star you placed keeps the height you gave it on any screen.

One drawing everywhere. Every other drawing of a journal — its page, its plates on the escritoire, the constellation widget, its signature and a saved gif or video of it — is this sky zoomed out to fit: the same stars on the same days, at the same heights, in the same shapes, with the same lines. A star you carried stays where you put it in all of them.

Its shape. Twelve shapes, each with a name, so stars are told apart by shape and never by colour alone:

A star wears its own shape, else its journal's, else ✦.

From another app. An entry another Zenith app wrote keeps that app's mark, so you can see where it came from: ◔ calendar, ✻ mind, ☍ tasks, △ ai, ☺ tulpa. With settings › "ease" › "glyphs as letters" on, every star is drawn as its app's letter instead — C, M, T, A, U, or J for written here.

How bright. A loose star — in no journal — sits back a little. A star held only by a put-away journal sits back further. "high contrast" draws every star at full.

Many in one place. Zoomed out, stars that would sit on top of each other become one, with a ring that thickens with how many it stands for. Pinch closer and they separate.

A chosen star wears a slow-turning ring of two arcs and a mote.

What an entry carries. With settings › "ease" › "show what an entry carries" on, a designed entry's star wears a ring and one brought to life twinkles.

#Constellations

A journal's stars are joined by the lines you drew, with the journal's name beside them. Lines wear the journal's colour when it has one, and reach off screen toward stars months away.

The constellation of the star you picked, are touching or are joining is drawn brighter and thicker.

You can take a journal's constellation off the sky without changing it. See Journals on the sky.

#A year ago

On today's line you may see hollow stars in a dashed ring, marked "a year ago". These are echoes — last year's entries from this date. See A year ago today.

#Behind it all

From the back: the theme's night, your own picture if you chose one, the nebula, then the starfield — or my sky, the real stars above you (Gold) — then the vignette. See Themes, colours & the sky's look.

#An empty sky

With no stars yet, the middle of the screen says "hold anywhere to place your first star".

#What is not on the sky

• An entry put away in the reliquary.
• An entry on the burn pile.
• An entry in a locked journal, until it is opened.
• A journal's lines and name while it is switched off the sky.

A hidden entry is still on the sky.

#See also.

Tap, hold, drag & pinch · A star's card · Journals on the sky · Themes, colours & the sky's look