# Date

```{image} date.png
:alt: Rendering of the date example
:class: example-render
```

Shows today's weekday, day of month, and month. It builds on [hello_world](hello_world.md) by using the
`timestamp` variable, a `datetime` in the config's `settings.timezone` that every template receives.

## Files

- `date.yml` — the config. Re-renders the `date` screen every midnight.
- `date.xml.jinja` — the screen template. It formats `timestamp` with Python's
  [`strftime`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) codes.

## Try it

From the `web/` directory:

```sh
CONFIG_DIR=examples/date uv run todays_paper date -o date.png
```

Add `-t 2026-12-24` to render it as if it were a different day.

Weekday and month names follow your system locale. Run with e.g. `LC_ALL=sv_SE.UTF-8` to get them in
Swedish.

## Source

### `date.xml.jinja`

````xml+jinja
<screen>
    <text align="center" y="150" size="70">{{ timestamp.strftime('%A') }}</text>
    <text align="center" y="240" size="260">{{ timestamp.day }}</text>
    <text align="center" y="560" size="70">{{ timestamp.strftime('%B %Y') }}</text>
</screen>
````

### `date.yml`

````yaml
# Shows today's date. Builds on hello_world by using the `timestamp` template variable.

settings:
  # Controls which day it is when the screen is rendered.
  timezone: Europe/Stockholm

screens:
  # Panel resolution. Use 1024x758 for an ED060XC3 panel, 1448x1072 for an ED060KC1 panel.
  width: 1024
  height: 758
  rotate: 0
  date:
    template: date.xml.jinja

scheduler:
  # Re-render every midnight so the date is always current.
  - days: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
    hour: 0
    screen: date
````