Agree on one factual source
This workflow is for a family member or editor preparing memorial materials, not official death registration, legal paperwork or public-record research. Name one factual reviewer and one distribution owner. Preserve authorized spellings, supplied dates, venue details and memories with a revision date. Mark disagreements and unknowns; do not infer age from incomplete dates, a cause of death, surviving relatives, beliefs or achievements. Stop delivery while a material fact remains disputed.
Draft without confusing privacy or validation
The studio offers template assembly and optional AI rewriting. Real AI use requires consent and transmits supplied text for processing; do not submit unnecessary private information. A template run through an API is not inherently local merely because it uses no AI. Generic helpers also have their own processing paths: use synthetic or explicitly approved redacted copies, and use trusted local utilities for confidential originals. AI output validation checks structure and bounds, not factual fidelity. Review all three obituary lengths, the eulogy and card independently against the source.
Review photographs and every revision
Photographs are optional. Confirm family permission and usage rights, then check identity, orientation, framing and potentially revealing metadata on an approved copy. Metadata inspection neither strips data nor anonymizes the visible scene. Inspect the actual exported image/card instead of assuming a preview guarantees the delivered artifact. Use text diff to explain edits, not to judge truth automatically. Names, dates and ceremony details must remain consistent across versions. Do not let a warmer rewrite invent relationships or speak for all mourners. Rehearse the eulogy aloud; estimated reading time and generic text statistics cannot account for pauses or emotion.
Inspect the exact export and print
Export TXT or DOCX for review and printable HTML for the card, then open the downloaded files. A later form edit does not prove an earlier export updated. Check the final edited card text, not only the input fields. If using the browser to save a PDF, inspect paper size, margins, scaling, backgrounds, all pages, font coverage and photograph placement. Extract text from an approved PDF copy as an additional check for omissions; extraction cannot establish visual layout, correct reading order or accessibility. If the file has no extractable text, use visual comparison rather than treating empty extraction as an empty card.
Approve a bounded handoff
Retain the approved source, final files and a separate review note stating reviewer, date, recipients and withheld private information. Recheck after every last-minute ceremony change. Keep hashes for the exact final artifacts, using a local utility when files are confidential; never upload a private original just to obtain a checksum. Hashes identify bytes, not family consent or factual truth. No automatic publication is part of this workflow. Use general print preparation for complex imposition and broader editorial review for style, but neither substitutes for family factual approval.