Display Settings

Display settings control how the board looks and how messages appear. Open Settings > Display to access these options.

Display settings panel

Clock¶

Setting	Options	Default
Show Clock	On / Off	On
24-Hour Clock	On / Off	Based on your device locale

Show Clock¶

Toggles the clock display in the upper-right corner of the board. When disabled, the clock area is reclaimed by the message body, giving you slightly more room for text.

Auto-hide on narrow boards

On very narrow boards (for example, when running in a compact window), the clock hides automatically regardless of this setting. There simply isn't room to display it alongside the sender name and indicator lamp.

24-Hour Clock¶

When enabled, the clock displays time in 24-hour format (e.g., 14:30). When disabled, it uses 12-hour format with AM/PM (e.g., 2:30 PM).

Display Characters¶

These settings control how characters appear on the board's flaps.

Setting	Options	Default
Reel Type	Unicode Modern / Lowercase / PHL Station Strict	Unicode Modern
Font Color	White / Amber / Blue	White

Reel Type¶

The reel type determines which characters are available on each flap:

Reel Type	Characters included	Best for
Unicode Modern	A--Z, a--z, 0--9, punctuation, accented characters, emoji	Social media and international content
Lowercase	A--Z, a--z, 0--9, punctuation	Good readability without the full Unicode range
PHL Station Strict	A--Z, 0--9, limited punctuation	The most authentic split-flap look (uppercase only)

Note

Characters not available in the selected reel type are replaced with the closest equivalent or a blank flap.

Font Color¶

Color	Appearance
White	Classic white-on-black. High contrast and easy to read.
Amber	Warm amber/yellow. Evokes vintage split-flap displays.
Blue	Cool blue-white. A modern alternative.

Animation¶

These settings control how the split-flap animation plays out when a new message arrives.

Setting	Options	Default
Animation Style	Classic / Express / Zippy	Classic
Max Express Flips	1--20	6

Animation Style¶

Style	Behavior
Classic	The most authentic split-flap experience. Each flap visits every reel position on the way to its target character, with pairs of flaps cascading together.
Express	Skips reel positions to reach the target character in fewer flips. Faster than Classic but still has the feel of a mechanical board.
Zippy	Each cell makes a single flip, cascading across the board in reading order. The fastest and most modern-feeling animation.

Max Express Flips¶

Only available when the animation style is set to Express. Controls the maximum number of flips each cell makes before landing on its target character. Lower values are faster; higher values feel more mechanical.

Messages¶

These settings control the timing and handling of messages on the board.

Setting	Options	Default
Display Duration	5--120 seconds (step 5)	20 seconds
Long Messages	Truncate / Complete	Truncate

Display Duration¶

How long each message stays on the board before the next one flips in.

Short durations (5--15 seconds) work well for fast-moving, high-traffic feeds.
Longer durations (30 seconds and above) are better for ambient displays or longer messages.

Long Messages¶

Controls what happens when a message is too long to fit on the board:

Option	Behavior
Truncate	The message is cut off at the edge of the board.
Complete	The full message is shown across multiple pages, flipping automatically.

Tip

Use Complete for RSS headlines or long social media posts. Use Truncate for a cleaner, faster-moving board.

Content¶

Setting	Options	Default	Description
Highlight @mentions / #hashtags	On / Off	On	Adds a visual highlight to `@mentions` and `#hashtags` on the flaps.
Show Image Descriptions	On / Off	On	Displays alt text for images attached to social media posts.
Describe Links	On / Off	On	Replaces raw URLs with a short description of the linked page when available.

Accessibility

Show Image Descriptions is especially useful for accessibility, making visual content readable on the text-only board.