Slate: List Widgets

Fifteen ready-made looks, 26 typefaces, twelve checkboxes, gradients, patterns, blur — and a live preview showing the real widget while you change it.

Most task apps want to be opened. This one does not.

Slate puts your list on the Home Screen — and you tick things off right there, with one tap, without launching anything. The day happens in the widget; the app is only for setting it up.

THE WIDGET STUDIO This is where Slate earns its keep. Fifteen ready-made looks as tiles: one tap and the widget is dressed. Then change whatever you like:

• 26 typefaces, from American Typewriter to Zapfino — with weight, size, letter spacing and text shadow • Twelve checkbox shapes: square, circle, diamond, seal, shield, star, heart, bookmark and more • Rows as pills, cards, separated or plain, in three densities • Backgrounds: a colour, a gradient in three kinds and eight directions, a photo — or your own wallpaper • Six patterns on top, adjustable in strength, plus vignette, blur and a glass finish • A header with progress as a number, a fraction, a bar or a ring — or no header at all • Long titles either shortened with an ellipsis or scaled down, whichever you prefer

The preview stays pinned while you scroll, and it shows the real widget, not an imitation. At the bottom all sizes stand side by side, so a typeface that reads well in large does not surprise you in small.

TICK OFF WHERE YOU ARE The checkbox in the widget is a real button. One tap, done. Tapping the text opens the list instead, so nothing gets ticked by accident.

SEE-THROUGH, IF YOU LIKE A widget that disappears into your wallpaper: take a screenshot of an empty page, tap the spot, nudge it into place. And if your Home Screen is set to "Clear" or "Tinted" anyway, the system does it for you and there is nothing to configure. The app tells you which route leads where.

MANY LISTS, MANY LOOKS Every widget picks its own list and its own style. Groceries in pastel, work in black — side by side on the same page.

DESCRIPTIONS Every task can carry a note of several lines. The app always shows it underneath; the widget only if you want it to.

ON THE LOCK SCREEN TOO Its own terse layout with progress and the next tasks — not a copy of the big one.

NO ACCOUNT, NO CLOUD, NO CURIOSITY No account, no sign-in, no ads, no analytics. The app has no networking code at all: your tasks stay on your device. Nothing is sent, because there is nowhere to send it.

English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. iPhone and iPad.