The Journey

The journey began back in December of 2020 when I came across an ad for the reMarkable 2 on social media. I questioned whether I needed it or not but prefer writing on paper over typing, loved the idea of fewer distractions, and thus was able to justify it just enough to give in. As soon as I ordered it I started looking up user groups on Facebook and immediately knew I needed to figure out how to change out the suspended.png file to have my own sleep screen shown. Right after onboarding it may have been the very next thing I did once it arrived.

The Moment It Sparked

That first small customization, swapping out the sleep image, was all it took to hook me. I can't remember what image I used that first time but I absolutely loved that I could use the reMarkable to design an image and then use that creation as the sleep screen.

Learn How to Access Your reMarkable Through the Command Line

Access your reMarkable through the command line using SSH.

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Switch Out Your reMarkable’s Sleep Screen... Plus Easily Back it Up

Do you have a reMarkable device and an Apple computer? Are you looking to switch out the default sleep screen image for your own? Here is how I customized my reMarkable2 with a custom sleep screen image.

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At some point in all of that I realized some of my photos looked better on the black and white screen and I started using it as a frame on my desk when it wasn't in use. This tiny personalization, a random secondary use of the reMarkable, thrilled me and made the device feel more welcoming... and it sparked something.

Curiosity Snowballed

That spark grew with curiosity. At this time PDF files uploaded to the reMarkable were static with no useable internal links and a set page count which meant everyone online was talking about custom templates so they'd have reusable custom pages.... this became my new challenge to tackle.

How to Make Template Files for Your reMarkable

Do you have a reMarkable device? Have you thought about creating a template file of your own for it? Do you have a PDF page or PNG image you want to use as a template? Here’s how I made my template file for my reMarkable 2.

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And once I did I naturally decided to use this website, where I shared what I learned along with tips I came across while raising my kids, as a natural spot to share both this step and the earlier simpler ones.

Expanded Past the Blog

When I returned to the Facebook usergroups I sometimes saw questions I knew I could answer and was able to comment quicker and simply link back to these posts for further help. This expansion lead to more questions, a paid video call to better help someone, an email asking me to install custom templates remotely, and requests for a video format rather than just the currently available blog style. I did the video call, turned down the remote request as I wasn't sure that was possible, and decided to tackle the video format. That took longer than I expected as I scripted it up, recorded it, added voice-over, editing, and captions. This process resulted in a 31 minute long YouTube video and as I mainly blogged and spent hours adding closed captioning I also shared a transcript of this video to my website for the ability to ctrl+f to find any questions and then link back to the video for the surrounding information.

Watch How I Upload Custom Templates to My reMarkable

I’ve had some question about my template process so I recently spent some time creating a video walkthrough, thus combining my blog posts together, to show you how I upload my custom templates. Here’s the embedded YouTube video and its transcript. Hope it helps!

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Frequently Asked Questions I’ve Seen Around About the reMarkable

Over the last year or I’ve seen several reMarkable template related questions popup on Facebook user groups and each time I debate creating a post that answers all those questions. I finally decided to just make it and here’s the result!

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That said I also found many times someone would ask how it was done and then give up as the process sounded and seemed too hard.

There Has to Be a Better Way

Even though I knew the process I still found it too onerous. So I created a bash script that made the templates.json file for you thus speeding up the time it took and potentially limiting the chance of typos in the process.

Quickly Generate a JSON Template Code Snippet for Your reMarkable

Do you find it troublesome and bulky to edit your JSON code when uploading custom templates to your reMarkable? Why not speed up your process by generating the needed JSON snippet yourself? You’ll still need to edit the templates.json file but now you just need to paste the code snippet in!

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Quickly and Easily Upload Template Images to Your reMarkable

Have you uploaded a PNG to your reMarkable? Do you now want to upload several different images at once and want the task to be easier? I created a bash script to speed up my template uploading process and share it with you here!

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My reMarkable2 Updated! This Is What I Did Next

Do you have a reMarkable device? Were your custom changes wiped in the last update? Are you wondering what other people did? Here’s how I weathered the update if you’re interested.

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There STILL Has to Be a Better Way

I didn’t set out to build an app. I simply wanted to customize my reMarkable and found that process full of tiny frustrations I couldn’t ignore. There was no single aha! moment, just a hundred small frictions I kept bumping into.

Eventually, enough people asked questions or echoed my same struggles, and I realized I wasn’t the only one looking for a simpler way.

At the time, I’d been brushing up on coding by dabbling in tutorials and 100 days of X challenges to ease back into development. I hadn’t built a mobile app before, but this project felt like the perfect fit: something I personally wanted, something others clearly needed, and something I was ready to learn my way into.

So I built one.

‎Simply Customize It!

‎Transform your reMarkable device with Simply Customize It! Whether you’re importing, editing, or syncing templates and screen images, we make it simple to personalize your e-paper device across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. --- New in Version 1.0.10 – Smart Clean Up and 3.19 Support • Full support for u…

App StoreSimplyKyra LLC

Building for Myself and for Others

The app, like the video before it, took way longer than expected... years, in fact. Every time I felt I was close Apple or Swift would release an update that threw me for a loop. Still, I kept iterating until I finally had something I was proud to share.

During this time my blog posts as I tried to unravel this other related issue. As the app progressed I found I didn't use the methods I'd created before and I had to start refreshing my memory when asked about a part of my old posts. I considered mentioning this new way I had found but didn't want to share until it was more fully tested.

Other Posts This Project Sparked

Some questions that came up during this time led to the following posts:

Safety

Simple Script to Help Backup Your reMarkable

Back when I first bought my reMarkable I realized there might come a day when I’d need to recover the files on it. Luckily, I haven’t needed to yet... but that precaution led to creating this script which makes backing it up so much easier.

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Template Related

How to Quickly Combine PDF Files on Your Mac

Have you ever wanted to combine two PDF files together on your Mac computer? I have. And here’s how I did it using the Preview app that you should already have!

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Which Version of the reMarkable’s Templates Are Emailed Out?

A while back I had a thought that led to me wondering “if you made a custom template with differing associated SVG and PNG files... which would you see when exporting it?” I had to find out so I concocted this little experiment and here are my results!

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Update: Which Version of the reMarkable’s Templates Are Emailed Out?

Back during the summer of 2022 I tested which image type was used when you export or view a reMarkable notebook page. Recently, I redid the experiment and found the results had changed. Here they are!

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SSH and Host Key Errors

How I Solved My SSH Connection Error: No Matching Host Key Type Found

After a computer update I could no longer connect to my reMarkable via SSH as I had an error saying: “unable to negotiate with host: no matching host key type found”. This is how I fixed the issue.

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Creative Use Cases

Over this time I used the reMarkable for more of what it was made for and shared some ways that may have been more unique like:

A Simple Way to Keep Track of Your Tea’s Steep Time and Temperature

Are you always trying to remember what tea you’re currently steeping. Do you frequently forget what temperature your tea needs to be infused at or for how long? Why not create a simple tracker so you don’t need to remember. This is what I did.

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Simple Valentines for School

With Valentine’s Day approaching I figured I’d share what I did for my girls’ Valentine’s Day last year. Plus I’m sharing our final printable with you.

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Continuing Our Simple School Valentines

Two years ago we made simple paper valentines for school. Last year we did the same. Here’s the link, with a printable download, in case you’re looking for a last minute Valentine’s Day idea!

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Published!

And back in May of 2024 I published the Simply Customize It app on both app stores!

‎Simply Customize It!

‎Transform your reMarkable device with Simply Customize It! Whether you’re importing, editing, or syncing templates and screen images, we make it simple to personalize your e-paper device across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. --- New in Version 1.0.10 – Smart Clean Up and 3.19 Support • Full support for u…

App StoreSimplyKyra LLC

When reMarkable Moves So Do I

And I'm so glad I published the app when I did because before I could finish marveling at what I had accomplished reMarkable announced the Paper Pro. At first I told myself I didn't need the Paper Pro but then I remembered Simply Customize It and I knew I needed to find out if my app worked with it and thus I ordered a second reMarkable.

Blog Updates

I'm glad I bough the reMarkable Paper Pro because it definitely didn't work out of the box with my app. In trying to get them playing well together I needed to take a step back and figure out how to do it through the terminal again. This led to my next post... and then the next ones.

Learn How to Access Your reMarkable Paper Pro Through the Command Line

With the new reMarkable Paper Pro out I realized I needed to update my How To Connect post... here it is!

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Switch Out Your reMarkable Paper Pro’s Sleep Screen

With the reMarkable Paper Pro out I figured it was time to share an updated post on how to switch out your screen images! Come check it out.

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PNG-Only Templates May Appear Blank in reMarkable 3.19 Beta (But There’s a Workaround!)

In the 3.19 beta, templates with only a PNG file no longer display properly. I’ve outlined what I found on both the reMarkable 2 and Paper Pro... plus how to pause updates if you rely on PNG-only templates. Join the conversation and stay informed.

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App Updates

And oh those updates came. After being notified to breaking changes twice through emails from people that used my app I realized I needed to sign up for the reMarkable beta updates so I could find and fix any issues before anyone else had trouble. It's been fun to discover how to get it all to work each time!

Where It’s Going

What began as a quiet curiosity and a personal frustration has turned into a full-fledged tool and an evolving app that's now over a year old and on its 10th update.

Simply Customize It wouldn’t exist without that first little spark. I’m deeply grateful for everyone who’s supported it, shared feedback, or asked great questions along the way.

More Information

Simply Customize It!

Transform your reMarkable device with Simply Customize It! Our app simplifies the process of customizing templates and screen images, making it easy for you to personalize your e-paper device. Whether you’re importing, editing, or syncing, we’ve got you covered.

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Simply Customize It! FAQs

Curious about Simply Customize It? Want to stay updated on new features? Or just looking to learn more? Click here for all the details!

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Updated History In Blog Posts

reMarkable - Simply Kyra

The reMarkable itself is an e-paper device that I bought years ago and enjoy using. That said, other than as a customer and sharing information I’ve learned, I have no relationship with them. You can find out more about it here: https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2

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Whether you’re a planner, a note-taker, or just someone who wants your tablet to feel more yours, Simply Customize It is here to help. Regardless whether you’re just getting started or deep in customization I’d love to hear how you’ve made your reMarkable your own.

Have you been using Simply Customize It? What's your favorite feature... and what would you love to see added?

Thanks for being part of the journey and, like always, I hope you're having an amazing day!