Keep the photo. Keep the part you didn’t post.

Photo diary on a standard iPhone layout (32 seconds)

Edited app recording in the iPhone 17 simulator, with English UI and fictional diary content. Not a physical-device recording. This clip does not show PDF export; the separate Duo walkthrough below includes the actual exported PDF.

Duo simulator walkthrough (37-second edit)

Edited app screen recording in the Duo simulator with fictional diary content. This is not a standard iPhone or physical-device demonstration, nor an uninterrupted recording. The final five seconds show the actual exported PDF page, not an in-app preview.

Landscape photograph: National Park Service (NPS), public domain. Photo source

Open the actual exported sample PDF (fictional diary, about 638 KB)

One photo, three sentences: a small private diary entry

You do not need to document your whole day to keep something worth returning to. Start with one photo and the detail it cannot show: what caught your attention, how the moment felt, and what you want to remember.

The actual editor screenshots show a photo-insert button and an Aa formatting button, with bold, italic, underline and paragraph styles. Practise with fictional content before importing private material.

1. Pick one ordinary moment

Choose a photo you are comfortable keeping in your diary: a cup on a table, the light after a walk, or a view from a window. You do not need a portrait or a location-rich photograph. Before importing, check whether the picture contains another person's private information. Importing a copy into a diary is not the same as deleting its source from Photos.

2. Give the entry a title you will recognize later

Use something specific, such as 'The walk after the rain', rather than 'Today'. Write a sentence before the photo to establish the moment, then put the photo between the paragraphs where it belongs. Continue the thought below it. In SealedPocket's diary editor, photos can sit between paragraphs instead of becoming a separate pile of attachments at the end.

3. Copy these three prompts

These are writing prompts, not questions you must answer and not a mental-health treatment. Skip any prompt that does not fit. A private diary does not need to become another daily obligation.

4. Format only what makes the entry easier to revisit

A short heading can separate the story from a small list of things to remember. Bold a phrase if it helps you find it later; leave most of the writing as normal body text. SealedPocket supports headings, emphasis and lists, but the point of formatting is to support your words, not make every entry look like a designed document.

Finish editing, return to the entry list, and reopen the entry. Check that the title, paragraphs and photo order are as intended. Before storing important memories in any new workflow, try this with harmless sample content first. The screenshots on this page are actual app screens with fictional demonstration content.

5. Decide whether you need a PDF copy

You can leave an entry in the diary without exporting it. If you want a readable copy for saving or printing, SealedPocket's PDF export requires the existing VIP entitlement. It is not a free-tier feature.

After exporting, open the actual PDF in the destination you selected. Check the text, page breaks and photos, rather than relying only on the in-app preview. A PDF is a reading/printing copy; do not assume it can restore an editable diary. It also exists outside the vault. A shared PDF is controlled by the app, service or person you send it to. Avoid sending an intimate entry just to test whether export works; use a fictional one.