One of the questions I got while building Jottings was: why limit yourself to one format?

I didn't.

Instead of forcing you into a single mold—the way Twitter forces you into 280 characters, or Instagram forces you into square photos—I built three jot types. Each one is optimized for a different way of thinking.

Text Jots: Pure Thought

A text jot is the simplest thing in the world. You write something. It gets published.

There's no pretense. No algorithm deciding whether your jot is "good" or "bad" based on engagement metrics. No pressure to hit a certain word count or include a specific keyword density. You're not competing with anyone else's jots on your own site.

A text jot can be:

• A quick observation (50 words)
• A detailed reflection (1,500 words)
• A rant about something that bothered you
• A note you wanted to remember
• A half-baked idea you might develop later

The beauty of text jots is their flexibility. You're not trying to optimize for anything. You're just thinking out loud, and your readers get to see exactly what you're thinking.

Text jots support markdown, so you can add bold, italic, links, code blocks, and lists. Everything you'd expect from a writing tool. But nothing fancy. Nothing that requires a 5-minute learning curve. Just write.

Link Jots: The Link Blog

One of the lost arts of blogging is the "link blog."

You find something interesting on the web—an article, a tool, a tweet, anything. You want to share it with your audience. But you don't want to write 2,000 words about it. You just want to share the link and add a sentence (or a paragraph) of your own commentary.

Daring Fireball is the most famous example. John Gruber posts 5-10 links per day, each with a brief take. It's more curated than a personal Twitter feed, but more frequent than a traditional blog.

With Jottings, this is effortless.

You paste a URL. Jottings automatically fetches the page title, description, and preview image. You add your commentary (or don't—sometimes just the link speaks for itself). Hit publish.

That's it.

The metadata is fetched in real-time from the page itself, so if the article updates its title or description, your jot still shows the latest information. No broken metadata. No need to manually update your post if the external site changes.

Link jots are perfect for:

• Sharing articles with your take
• Building a personal reading list
• Curating the best tools and resources
• Creating a "what I read" feed
• Building your reputation as someone who finds interesting things

Over time, your link jots become a window into what you care about. Your readers can see the patterns in what you share. They can discover new sources through your curation.

Photo Jots: Visual Moments

Photos are powerful. A single image can communicate what would take paragraphs to explain with text.

But most platforms destroy photos. They compress them. They force them into ugly aspect ratios. They prioritize cropped thumbnails over the full image you wanted to share.

Jottings respects your photos.

When you upload a photo to a photo jot, Jottings handles the heavy lifting on your behalf. We automatically resize and optimize your image—intelligently shrinking large files to reasonable sizes without losing quality. We serve it from a global CDN so it loads instantly anywhere in the world. We create responsive image formats so it looks perfect on any screen size.

You never have to think about it. Just upload your photo, add a caption, and we handle the rest.

Photo jots are great for:

• A sunset you want to remember
• Screenshots of interesting discussions
• Photos from your day
• Visual documentation of projects
• Sketches, diagrams, or hand-drawn ideas
• Anything that benefits from being seen, not read

The caption is optional. Sometimes a photo tells the story. Sometimes you want to add a paragraph of context. Either way, the photo is the primary element, not an afterthought.

Mixing Types in One Jot

Here's something powerful: you're not limited to one type per jot.

You can write text and include a photo. You can share a link and add multiple photos. You can combine all three—a thoughtful reflection (text) with a screenshot (photo) and a link to the source material.

Jottings renders all of these combinations beautifully. The layout automatically adapts based on what you include. A photo-heavy jot with minimal text looks different from a text-heavy jot with a small reference image. Both look intentional.

How They Render

The rendering is where the magic happens.

Text jots render as clean, readable text with proper typography. Markdown is converted to HTML, but in a way that respects the writing. Links are styled with emphasis (bold, slightly darker text) but not in that eye-burning blue that makes everything look like the 1990s web.

Link jots display the fetched metadata in a card-like format. The title, description, and preview image are prominently featured. Your commentary appears above or below, depending on the amount of text. The card links to the original source, making it easy for readers to click through if they want more.

Photo jots make the image the hero. The photo is displayed at full width (up to 1,200 pixels for Retina displays), then your caption appears below. If you include other content (text, links), it flows naturally after the photo.

Picking the Right Type

The beauty of having multiple jot types is that you can choose the one that fits what you're trying to express.

Choose text when you have thoughts that need words. When you want to explain something, share a feeling, or work through an idea.

Choose link when you've found something cool and want to point people toward it. When you're operating as a curator, not a creator.

Choose photo when the visual element is central. When a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Of course, these aren't hard rules. There's overlap. Sometimes a link jot with detailed commentary reads like a text jot that happens to reference something. Sometimes a text jot with an embedded screenshot is almost a photo jot.

The point is: you have options. You're not forced into one box.

Why This Matters

The reason I built three jot types isn't because I wanted to be clever. It's because the internet is diverse. Your thoughts are diverse. The things you want to share are diverse.

A platform that respects you gives you the tools to express yourself the way you actually think.

You don't think in pure 280-character bursts. You don't think in 2,000-word essays. You think in a mix of observations, reactions to things you've read, and moments you've witnessed.

Jottings lets you jot it all down.

Ready to start jotting? Create your free site today and start mixing text, links, and photos. No algorithm. No compromises. Just your thoughts, rendered beautifully and published on the web.

What will you jot?