A family tree you can actually hang on the wall.

The same invented family on both sheets, drawn by the same code that lays out a real one. Nothing is stretched to fit: only the room between people changes, so a landscape sheet sets the generations wider apart rather than leaving half the paper as margin. A family this deep suits portrait; a wide family with few generations suits landscape, and the panel tells you how tall the names will actually print either way. What the print shop receives is a vector file at the true size of the sheet.

Choose the size and shape

Pick a paper size: A2, A1, A0, or 24 by 36 inches, in portrait or landscape. Ukoo Yangu works out how many people actually fit at that size before you print anything, so you are not guessing. It tells you how tall the names will really print, in millimetres, and says so plainly when they would be too small to read, with the next sheet up offered.

Choose who is on it

Print the whole family, or just one branch or line. Choose whether to show photographs or only names, whether birth and death years appear, and whether a homeland heading sits at the top.

Choose the background

Each one is measured for how much ink it actually uses, and the figure is quoted on the panel, because a print shop charges by it. Those measurements are taken from the drawing rather than estimated.

The part that matters most: asking first

Being happy for your name to appear in your family's private tree and being happy for it to be printed on a poster that hangs on a wall are two different things. Ukoo Yangu treats them that way, and the consent is asked for separately even from somebody who has hidden nothing.

• They are asked directly, on whatever they actually use: WhatsApp, text, or email.

• If they say yes, their name goes on. If they have not answered yet, their name is left off. Not guessed at, and not left as an awkward blank either: the poster is built to show where somebody belongs without naming them until they have said it is fine.

• If it is you being asked, only you can answer. Nobody can clear your name on your behalf, and you can withdraw your answer at any time without anybody approving it.

• If there is truly no way to reach somebody, whoever is putting the poster together can write down what that person told them directly, in person. That note names the steward who vouched for it, holds the place rather than the name, never hardens into permission however long it sits, and is cancelled the moment anybody objects.

You cannot export a poster with unanswered names still on it. Ukoo Yangu tells you exactly how many people still need to answer before printing is possible, and the count sits on the button.

Why bother with all this, instead of just printing it?

Because a family tree usually includes people who never agreed to be researched, only to be loved. A poster makes that public in a way a private app does not. Asking first is slower. It is also the only honest way to do it.

One thing that is not built yet

The poster cannot yet be narrowed to a chosen number of generations, the way the tree on screen can. A large family will therefore print larger than it strictly needs to. Your own family's cloth as a background is not built either, only the four grounds above. The FAQ lists what else is still rough.

What it costs

Nothing, while Ukoo Yangu is in early access. Design the poster, clear the names, and download the file for free.

It will not always be free. When that changes, the price will be shown before you pay anything, it will be said plainly whether anything else is added on top, and nothing you have already downloaded is taken back. Building and keeping your family tree is a separate thing and is not what this is about.