Reading

Reading

A working example of the export layout — illustrative content

rowowu.com · 2026-06-15 · 612 words

This page is a presentation template. It mirrors the export format used by the Aureen Highlights — a cover page with negative space, a section divider with a coloured underline, an article page that opens with a drop cap and carries source metadata down the side.

Why preserve a format

When we talk about reading software, the focus usually lands on how fast search is, how many integrations are wired up, or how clever the AI summarisation feels.

But the actual situation is: the format your reading lives in shapes whether you go back to it. A document that looks like a wall of text rarely gets re-opened. One that breathes — that lets a sentence settle on its own line — sometimes does.

The decision behind this template is to keep what the Aureen Highlights does well: a cover that announces the shape of what follows, a divider that marks a topic shift, and an article page that prioritises one column of legible reading over toolbars.

Three layout primitives

There are exactly three repeating units in this format:

• Cover · small-caps label up top, large serif title in the middle, filter tag in light grey, metadata block grouped at the bottom. Used at most once per export.
• Section divider · small-caps label up top, large bold tag with a coloured rule underneath. Used between major topic groups.
• Article page · title in serif, source line in small text directly below, drop cap on the first paragraph, generous line height. The body stays in one column.

That is the entire vocabulary. Everything else — pull quotes, footnotes, illustrations — is layered on top of these three units without breaking them.

What this template deliberately does not do

No sidebars. No coloured backgrounds. No icons in the body. No share buttons floating over the text. The reading column is uninterrupted from drop cap to the final line.

Footers carry only the page number and (optionally) a source identifier. Headers carry the export date and the document name. Nothing competes with the prose for attention.

End of template page.