A hand with your press.

1. Tap Set the type or Edit.
2. Choose Quick write.
3. Enter your two lines.
4. Choose a type style, paper and ink.
5. Tap Lock the type.
6. Drag the roller across its rail until the type has an even coat of ink.
7. On iPhone Duo, gently close the phone when the press says Close to print.
8. Reopen your Duo.

On other supported iPhones, tap Press after the ink step. A tap on the roller completes the same ink step as a drag. Your finished card appears in the press and in Your prints.

If you cannot fold your Duo, choose Can’t fold your Duo?. Then confirm Print without folding.

For individual letters, Set by hand offers two composing sticks and a type case. Empty sticks clears the words after confirmation.

Tap the newspaper icon at the top of the press. Choose Good news, Birthday or Announcement, or write your own masthead, headline and story. Prepare the edition, then align the first plate using the arrows, registration loupe or paper preview. Tap Lock plate, roll the ink, and close and reopen your Duo. On another iPhone, use the Press action. Duo also offers a confirmed alternative if you cannot fold it.

Tap Next color and repeat for the second and third plates. Each color needs its own alignment, lock, fresh ink and press. The finished page is saved only after all three impressions. If you change an unfinished edition, the app asks for confirmation before it resets those passes. Saved editions remain in Your prints.

After the third color, the results workspace shows your registration score and sharing actions. Copy press result makes a short text result with your headline, color results, score and edition code, ready to paste into Messages, Discord or another app. Share result opens native text sharing. Choose Image or PDF to send the full front page. The PDF fits one A4 page. Newspaper editions do not have a transparent sticker or gift-tag output.

Each color plate can earn up to 10,000 points for precise alignment, for a total of 30,000. You can take your time and make as many adjustments as you need. Guides align a plate for you and mark the edition as guided, so that edition cannot be posted to the global leaderboard.

Tap Post to send an unguided score or View global leaderboard to open The Registration Room. These optional actions use Apple Game Center and may ask you to sign in. Your profile and score can be public. Clamshell does not send your headline or story. Only your best score counts. A connection or sign-in problem does not prevent local printing or sharing.

Open About. Disable press sounds. The app also respects your iPhone's silent setting. Setting or removing type, nudging a plate, reaching registration, locking and pressing each have a short sound. Sounds do not replace the on-screen instructions or controls.

The press needs locked, inked type to make a card. Add your words, tap Lock the type, then drag or tap the roller. Changing the words, paper, ink or type style prepares a new impression, so lock and ink it again. After you print, tap Make another note to prepare the next impression.

No. Clamshell works on supported iPhones with iOS 17 or later. The physical fold interaction uses the public hinge features on iPhone Duo with iOS 27.1 or later. On other supported iPhones, the Press button completes the same flow. On Duo, close the phone after you ink the type. If you cannot fold it, choose Can’t fold your Duo? and confirm Print without folding.

Check that you locked the type and completed the ink step. The Duo control should say Close to print. Start with the phone open, then gently close it and reopen it. Starting the app while it is already closed does not print, and closing uninked type does not make a card.

If you cannot fold the phone, choose Can’t fold your Duo? while it is open and confirm Print without folding. Canceling that prompt keeps the inked type ready. If the issue continues, include the app version and build from About, your iOS version and how you held the phone in your support request.

Tap Set the type or Edit. Changing a setting prepares a new impression. It does not change a card already saved in Your prints. To reuse an earlier design, open its card in Your prints and choose Use this type again, then lock and ink the type.

Open a finished card in the press or from Your prints, then choose an output. A card includes the paper background. A lettering sticker is a transparent PNG for use over a photo or design. A printable sheet is a PDF for gift tags or place cards.

The standard iOS sharing sheet lets you choose where it goes. Save to Files, send it in a supported messaging app, or use another destination. Canceling the sheet keeps the card in Clamshell. The chosen app or service handles the shared output under its own policy.

Choose a thank-you, congratulations note, gift tag or place-card start when setting the type. Replace the example words with your own message or a guest's name. Set individual letters by hand, or use Quick write with the system keyboard. Each composing stick holds up to 40 characters. Unusually large pasted characters also have a storage limit. Quick write shows the limits so you can revise text that does not fit. If you replace your words with a starter by mistake, use the offered undo action.

Make and save each person's card, then open Your prints and choose Make a tag sheet. Choose the cards to include and select A4 or US Letter. Each page holds up to six cards. More selected cards continue onto another page. Review the PDF, then send it or open the native print controls.

The Tags output on an individual card makes six copies of that card. To cut the cards, print the PDF at 100% scale. Follow its trim marks. Printer settings and printable margins can vary.

Search Your prints by the words on a card. Open it to send the original design or choose Use this type again for a fresh impression. Copy words puts the message on the clipboard as text. Copy image puts the rendered PNG there. Clamshell does not read your clipboard.

Choose the sticker output to share lettering without its paper background. It is a transparent PNG, not an installed sticker pack. The receiving app decides how it displays or imports the image. Some messaging apps may add a background.

Clamshell keeps your draft and print drawer in its local app storage. The app restores them when you reopen it. Clamshell has no account or cloud-sync service. iOS may include app data in device backups depending on your settings. Clamshell does not send a separate copy to us.

Clamshell keeps the previous saved state if a write fails. Check available device storage, then try again. If an archive cannot be opened, the app attempts to preserve its original bytes before it starts a new archive. If it cannot preserve them safely, it leaves them untouched.

Open About, then Backups and recovery, for archive export and recovery options. A recovery copy may need repair before you can restore it. If you need help with local print recovery, contact support before you remove the app. You choose whether to share any archive.

Open About, then Backups and recovery. Choose Export backup to save a JSON copy of your draft and saved cards, or Restore from Files to choose a backup. Keep exported files somewhere you can find again. Restoring replaces the active draft and drawer after confirmation. Clamshell checks the file and preserves the current archive before it replaces it.

An archive contains your message text and saved designs. Keep it private, and share it only with people or services you trust. Exporting does not send a copy to the developer.

Open a saved card in Your prints and choose Delete print, then confirm. Shared or printed copies, exported backups and preserved archive copies are separate and keep their own copies.

Deleting Clamshell from your iPhone removes its local app storage. Before you delete the app, export any cards you want to keep. Copies you shared and backups managed by Apple or another service are separate. Remove those through the relevant app or backup settings. Offloading an app can retain its documents and data.

Clamshell makes digital cards, transparent lettering and printable PDF sheets. Use the print action to open the standard iOS printing interface, then select a compatible printer. You can also save a PDF to Files and print it later. The phone does not put physical ink on paper. A printer supplies that part.