A journal is nice to write and even better to reread — but an app is built for one entry at a time, not for sitting down with a whole month. Ownmost can bind a month (or everything you’ve ever written) into a single PDF with a cover, a contents page and your entries in order. Think of it as a small paperback of your own life, one volume per month.
Why one month per book
You can make one giant book of every entry, and sometimes that’s what you want. But a monthly book has advantages:
- It has a title. “September 2026” is something you can find again.
- It’s readable in one sitting. Thirty entries take about as long as a coffee.
- It’s a ritual. Making last month’s book on the first of the month is a good excuse to reread it.
Make one in five steps
- Open Settings and tap Export. On a phone, Settings is the icon at the top right of the home screen; on a tablet, it’s at the bottom of the left-hand rail.
- Choose the period: All for everything, or a single month.
- Turn on Include photos if you want your pictures in the book.
- Tap Save as PDF. You’ll see both layouts previewed with your own entries. Swipe between them and tap Save with this layout on the one you like.
- When it’s ready, page through the finished book, then tap Share to save it to your files, send it to someone, or print it.
The book is made right on your device, with no internet needed. Your entries don’t get uploaded anywhere to build it.
What’s inside
- A cover. OWNMOST at the top, then the title: the month for a one-month book, or the date range for a book of everything. The number of entries and the first and last dates sit at the bottom.
- An opening page for each month. The month’s name, how many entries it holds, and a contents list of every entry by date and title. Entries without a title show their first line instead.
- Your entries, in order.
The pages are A4, set in the same serif type as the app on warm cream paper — even if you use the app in dark mode. The text stays real text, so you can search it or copy from it.
Picking a layout
By date reads like a diary. A narrow column beside each entry carries the date, the place, the air that day and your mood; the writing gets the wide column. Choose it if you mostly write.
By photo reads like a photo essay. Entries with a photo get the picture on the left and the words on the right; entries without one sit two to a row. The cover gets a small stack of up to three photos from the period. Choose it if you add a picture to most days.
The previews use your real entries, so trust your eye — the same month can feel very different in each layout.
Printing it at home
The PDF is A4. If your printer is loaded with US Letter, pick Fit to page (or “Scale to fit”) in the print dialog and it will come out with a little extra margin — no cropping. A booklet clip or a simple binder ring is enough to make it feel like a real book.
A few tips
- Lots of photos? Go month by month. If a book gets too large, the last photos are left out and the app tells you. Shorter periods keep every picture.
- Titles make a better contents page. A short title on each entry turns the contents list into something you’ll actually want to scan.
- On a tablet, read it as a spread. On a wide screen, the preview shows two pages side by side, like an open book.
What it costs
PDF books are part of Ownmost Full Access — a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Exporting your journal as a text file is always free, with or without Full Access, so your writing is never locked in.
Haven’t got a month of entries yet? Start with how to start journaling — by the end of the first month you’ll have your first volume.