By-hand publishing and workspace-wide brand look

Two things shipped in this release: by-hand publishing for founders who don't have a site connected, and a single brand look that now applies to the whole workspace instead of per voice.

Collections now tell you whether their articles publish automatically or wait for you to post them yourself. By-hand collections give you rich text, Markdown, or HTML versions of the article, plus the opening image to download, and a way to mark the piece published once it's live. Meanwhile, image posts, carousels, and card-style opening images now share one look, set under Settings › Brand, instead of a different style per voice.

Publish by hand when you don't have a site connected

If you haven't connected a site, Ballad used to have nowhere to put your articles. Now it does. Collections tell you upfront whether an article publishes automatically to your site or waits for you to post it yourself.

For by-hand Collections, you get a publish page: the article in rich text, Markdown, or HTML, plus the opening image ready to download. Post it wherever your site lives, then mark it published once the live link is up. Until you do, it sits in the Inbox under Post today, so it doesn't get lost.

One brand look for the whole workspace

Image posts, carousels, and card-style opening images used to take their look from whichever voice was posting. Now there's one brand look for the whole workspace. Set it under Settings › Brand.

Two things carry over without you doing anything: the footer still credits whichever voice is speaking, so readers still know who's talking, and your existing themes migrate automatically — nothing to rebuild.

While we were in there, we reorganized Settings itself. It now opens on Account, with Sign out placed right under your sign-in info, and Account listed above Workspace in the navigation. If you're connecting analytics, that link now goes straight to Settings › Site.