Writing · Chapter 8

Cover, photos and pictures in the text

Every day in nexdiary has a cover, so that the diary stays beautiful when you page back through it. Then there are the photos of the day and, if you like, pictures in the middle of the text. This chapter shows all three, plus photos from Immich and your collection under “My photos”.

The cover

A cover is never empty. If you do not pick a photo of your own, one of the 256 drawn illustrations is already chosen, to suit the season, the time of day and your tags. A cover cannot be removed, only swapped.

1. Tap “Change cover”

   The button sits at the bottom right of the picture, in the writing view and on the finished page.

2. Choose a picture

   In the window “Cover for this day”, “Your photos of this day” comes first, with an “Upload” tile, and below it “Fits this day” with six suggestions. Further down you search all the illustrations, for beach, snow or coffee say, and filter by group, time of day and season. With Immich connected there is also “More from Immich”.

3. Adjust the framing

   If the cover is a photo, “Framing” sits next to it. There you drag the photo into place and zoom with the slider, two fingers or the mouse wheel. A preview shows how it looks in lists and cards. “Done” keeps the framing.

Cover

The illustrations show 16 motifs, each at four times of day and in four seasons, from “Mountains by a lake” and “Coffee by the window” to “Rain or snow”. They are part of the app itself. nexdiary fetches nothing from the internet for them.

Photos of the day

On “Today” the block “Photos of today” gathers your pictures. “Upload” takes one from the device, and on a phone straight from the camera too. A photo opens large when you tap it, and you swipe or page through all the photos of the day.

nexdiary takes JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF up to 20 MB, up to 100 photos a day. Every photo is redrawn from its pixels on upload. Place, device and the time it was taken stay out, and on the server it is stored encrypted. Videos are not accepted.

Pictures in the text

1. Choose “Insert picture”

   It is the last button in the bar above the text, in the writing view.

2. Say where it comes from

   You can choose “Take a photo”, “Upload a file”, “From Immich” or “From the photos of this day”.

3. Arrange the picture in the text

   Each picture has “Move up” and “Move down”, a “Caption”, “Crop” and “Remove picture”. When cropping you pick the aspect ratio “Free”, “Original” or “Portrait” and turn it with “Rotate”.

A picture you uploaded just for the text disappears with the page if you delete it. The photos of the day stay.

Photos from Immich

If your photos live in Immich, you connect your own Immich to nexdiary, each person for themselves. First the operator has to open Immich under “Settings”, “Immich” tab, with “Allow Immich”, and enter your Immich under “Allowed Immich addresses”. From the start this is closed.

1. Make a key in Immich

   In Immich under Account Settings and API Keys, with the permissions “asset.read”, “asset.view” and “asset.download”. With “album.read” you can browse albums too.

2. Enter it in nexdiary

   Under “My account”, “Connections” tab, card “Immich”, enter the “Address of Immich” and the “API key”, then tap “Save and check”. If all is well, nexdiary names your Immich version.

3. Take photos over

   The block “Photos of today” now shows “New in Immich” with the photos that most recently arrived in Immich. One tap takes a photo over, a second tap lets it go again. “All photos” opens your whole collection, with “Albums” and “Search”.

nexdiary copies a photo only when you take it over. It then belongs to the day you take it for, whenever it was shot. Your browser never talks to Immich itself, everything goes through your server. “Disconnect” ends the connection, and photos you have taken over stay.

My photos

As soon as you have a photo, the item “Photos” appears in the bar, and on a phone in the account button. Under “My photos” you find all your photos, the newest first, and each one says where it is used, such as “Cover of …” or “In the text of …”. The filter “Not used” shows what is needed nowhere, and “Select” lets you delete several at once. At the top it says how much room is in use.

When you delete a photo, nexdiary first tells you where it still appears. After that it is gone everywhere, and a cover falls back to the suggestion. Photos of a locked day cannot be deleted.