On Screen makes a small record of coming back. To the desk, to work, to whatever was happening when you left. The days can start to look much the same from here, the date insists on a distinction.

A virtual homage to On Kawara’s Today series, the MacOS app stamps the date and time across your desktop whenever you log in, using typography adapted from the paintings. It remains preoccupied with that moment while you pick up where you left off.

The timestamp uses ISO 8601. You can replace it with your own text, in the same lettering. A dark, neutral wallpaper is recommended; the type color can be adjusted to work over photographs.

On Screen is free and MIT-licensed and requires macOS 15 or newer. ISO 8601 Kawara, adapted from Vincent Bruijn’s On Kawara typeface, is separately licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.