Pick a few photos, add the details worth keeping, proof every line, then keep the issue private in your verified inbox while reader delivery stays gated. Turn the small changes, funny lines, and firsts into one proofed issue before the month disappears. Your verified inbox stays the default closed-test path. For the child whose month keeps changing: choose a few photos, add your words, proof the issue, and keep it private while reader delivery finishes QA.
Kino borrows its shape from print. Each month, you edit one issue about someone you love — a cover photo, a few short sections, your words. You are the editor. Kino is only the typesetter: it drafts from approved text you wrote, dictated, captioned, or accepted from photo help, and nothing ships without your approval.
By December you're holding a collection — twelve issues, a whole year pulled out of the camera roll and set in order.
During closed testing, your verified inbox is the default delivery path, not an app notification. Reader delivery appears only when account and hosted readiness allow it.
Who this issue is about, and which month. Two questions, thirty seconds.
Pick up to ten photos, add the details worth keeping, and include one short clip when it belongs in the issue.
Write your own note, use an approved starter, and choose the voice and length before Kino drafts the issue.
Read the proof, edit every line, and make sure it sounds like something you would actually send.
Link a verified account, then send the approved private issue through the closed-test delivery path.
Every issue begins with one question — who is this about? Kino's closed test is focused on one parent making one private child issue at a time, with reader delivery gated by readiness.
Each issue is properly typeset — masthead, numbered sections, a colophon — and sent privately after your approval.
Fourteen months in, and the approved note kept returning to a few real May details: walking practice, the first beach trip, the washing machine wave, a new tooth, and two naps with the spatula.
The note said six steps on Tuesday and eleven by Friday. The issue keeps that detail intact instead of turning it into a milestone claim.
The approved beach line was simple: first time at the beach, sat by the waterline, not impressed by the ocean.
· Waves "bye" to the washing machine, every cycle.
· New tooth, top left, very proud.
· Fell asleep holding a spatula. Twice.
Written only from approved editor text. Sent privately from Kino after approval.
Kino sees exactly what you hand it — nothing more. That's not a setting. It's the design.
Kino typesets; you author. Drafts are assembled only from approved text: notes, captions, voice transcripts, or a photo starter note you choose to add. Photo help can prepare that starter from small temporary copies, and never sends an issue without your proof.
During closed testing, your verified inbox is the default path. Reader delivery appears only when readiness gates allow it; there is no public feed or follower graph.
Guest drafts keep selected photos on this device until you link or send. Linked accounts can privately back up the photos you hand-pick, resized and stored in account-scoped private buckets. Export the whole collection as a ZIP whenever you like; deleting your account removes everything Kino can remove.
Android first, with iOS to follow. Issues themselves are email; during closed testing, verified inbox delivery is the default while reader delivery stays readiness-gated.
Ten minutes now. In a year, twelve issues nobody else could have made.