Writing Apps For Ipad

[Faustina Bartsch]

Thisapp is most well-known for its audio syncing feature, which allows you to record audio and sync it with handwritten notes while you write, but other apps like Goodnotes have caught on and added this feature, too. However, Notability also recently introduced audio transcripts, which include time-stamped text of your recordings.

To set itself apart, Notability also boasts some unique features. Multi-note support gives users the ability to open two notes and arrange them in the app for comparison or multitasking. The new Pencil tool provides the app with added versatility, allowing users to draw and sketch.

By combining multitasking tools and technologies like handwriting recognition and math conversion, Notability makes it easier than ever to take notes during classes, meetings, conferences, and everything in between.

One of the biggest differentiators between Goodnotes and other competitors is its abundance of organizational tools. By default, Goodnotes allows you to create Notebooks and store everything within them. This is a fundamental difference from a tool like Notability or Apple Notes, where your ability to organize is somewhat constrained by the software.

Believe it or not, Apple Notes has been around since the early days of digital notetaking. The app launched with the first version of iOS, way back in 2007. Originally, it was a mobile version of the Notes app that has been (and continues to be) a staple on the Mac operating system.

You can open a Quick Note on your iPhone or iPad without even opening the Notes app. This allows you to quickly jot down a thought, save content from the web or another app, and more.

It works like this: When you open a file in LiquidText, the document is imported into a digital workspace. In the workspace, your document takes up half of the screen, and the workspace takes the other half.

#alt#A screenshot picturing the LiquidText interface, including a written article on the left, along with a window allowing for the selection of multiple documents. A mind map of notes and excerpts is located on the right side of the screen.

However, where LiquidText focuses on taking handwritten notes and marking up the document (all of which is possible in MarginNote), this software also allows for clipping notes, creating flashcards or mindmaps, and building study outlines.

One of the key differentiators in MarginNotes is that much of the mind-mapping generation can be done in a way that looks clean and crisp, with straight lines and blocks that feel sharp and organized.

MarginNote also allows you to compile a single set of notes from multiple sources or files, so if you have several books in a series or several documents where you should combine notes, MarginNote makes it easy to simplify that process.

#caption#Note how the handwritten text has already been pre-converted in the upper left corner of the text box. While you can keep the text in a handwritten format, Nebo gives you a clear indication that it understood what you wrote. (Image: Nebo / Screenshot by Scott Summers / Paperlike)

In many respects, CollaNote is still a work in progress that has gained a massive following in recent years. The app provides a rock-solid notetaking experience with simple and intuitive tools that look good and feel great to use.

#caption#In CollaNote, pressure sensitivity is enabled by default, so your text will shrink and grow as you write based on how hard you press your Apple Pencil against the screen. Converted text is framed within a text box and can be adjusted to taste. (Image: CollaNote / Screenshot by Scott Summers / Paperlike)

OneNote also includes features like a Math Assistant and audio recording that are great for students and a web clipper to capture content from the internet and video recording, which is completely unique to this app (Desktop or Windows app only).

Similar to both Evernote and OneNote, Zoho Notebook is available on a variety of platforms and seamlessly syncs across your devices using its own cloud service. It was awarded Best App of the Year in the App Store in 2016 and has risen in popularity since then.

But as a notetaking app, it takes a different approach than most of the other available apps in this space. It has an aesthetically pleasing UI, and the available covers for your Notebooks are works of art.

Individual notes inside the Notebooks are called Cards, and they look like little (brightly colored) sticky notes. You can change the background color on every note, making it easier to visually differentiate between topics.

Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but the Smart Card is a really neat feature worth mentioning. When you want to save content from the internet or another app, Smart Cards automatically take that information and format it into a beautifully designed Card.

While the tools are pretty basic (Pen, Pencil, Highlighter), you can change the line thickness and color on each, and you can even customize or use hex codes to get the perfect shade. Once you have what you need, you can add up to six custom tools to your toolbar for easy access in the future.

Another feature that sets this app apart is the ability to create a page within a page. These sub-pages can be separate notes, like a mind map of your full notes, a sticky note with key concepts or reminders, or even a full PDF document that relates to your notes.

It syncs to iCloud and even integrates with your Apple Calendar and Apple Reminders, so you can easily manage your checklists and schedule. Importing, exporting, and sharing features round out this app, making it competitive with apps like Notability and Goodnotes.

I work a lot on my iPad handwriting app (I use Goodnotes5) and paperpile handwriting app is not rich enough for me yet. I want to understand if cross editing is possible i.e. annotate pdfs in Goodnotes and have the pdf uploaded automatically.

+1 for a solution that makes it easier to use other apps to interact with the PDFs in Paperpile. I agree with the linked post, the issue with trying to implement all of these features is that no matter how much Paperpile works on things like handwriting with a stylus, dedicated writing apps like Goodnotes are probably always going to do it better (this is not a criticism, these apps are putting all of their resources into giving the best writing experience possible, while this is only a small subset of the many [great] features that Paperpile offers.)

I absolutely agree with @gavinbrooks. Starting out with my PhD I want to keep my handwritten notes & summaries as close as possible to the source PDF and this seems to be a perfect way to do it. Particularly adding blank pages in the PDF could be very helpful to write more comprehensive summaries - as would be possible with Goodnotes. However, if i may cherry-pick, i than would rather use your text marker, that easily spans multiple lines, rather than Goodnotes text marker, which is more of a freehand single line tool.

I like Zinnia. It requires a subscription, but I find that it offers the greatest amount of flexibility for what you want to do in a Notebook. I create custom .PDF journals to import to it as well which helps me to personalize my experience.

@echoopera said:

I like Zinnia. It requires a subscription, but I find that it offers the greatest amount of flexibility for what you want to do in a Notebook. I create custom .PDF journals to import to it as well which helps me to personalize my experience.

Defter Notes looks pretty cool but I already have something similar, Liquid Notes - also very cool but I just find I don't really need these kind of wormhole type features. What's the writing experience like in Defter? Seems it doesn't have a manual, only a bunch of short ipad vids? That's a bit annoying for a 20 dollar app, but at least it's not a sub like Zinnia

@Luxthor yes, great thead! Wow, 30 fountain pens lol. Of course you're right, it all depends on the pen, paper, ink etc. That's why ideally an app should seek to give flexible emulations of various combinations of these to come close to the real experience of writing. I love pens but I can't afford, and don't want to, go down a collecting rabbithole. Although I still use pen and paper, I'd mostly prefer to get my fix from a good app. I mean, you could spend thousands on colored inks alone, irl, not to mention various pens, nibs, paper, etc ?

This one seems ok, I downloaded the free version yesterday, but for me the writing experience does not match that of Sketches Pro, for example. I also find the UI a bit ugly and dated looking. Icons are crammed together. I care about Ui in general, but especially when it comes to things like a note taking or writing app.

Apple Notes has always remained my go to. I tried what had to be everything back in 2019-2020 or so, but keeping an eye on this thread just in case. I just personally never found anything more enjoyable to write with.

This respect for handwriting as a task seems to be high;y respected in japan and most likely many other cultures. I recall reading that D.T. Suzuki liked to write handwritten notes for all his violin students after their recitals. Calligraphy is elevated to high art in japanese culture. In other cultures there are individuals that also see the beauty in an artfully crafted page of text.

I got one in Thailand that I read about online and bought in store. It's magnetic so you can take it on and off. Cost slightly over 20 dollars. I just put it on top of the tempered glass screen protector I had. Haven't had it long but so far I like it. The brand name is Apple Sheep, no idea if you can find them outside Thailand. You might want to look at this, which seems very promising, but is not available where I am and no way I'm going to pay for DHL or whatever to buy a damn screen protector lol:

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