Best Note Taking Apps And Ipad Mac App Within

GoodNotes even does a slightly better job of organizing notes by subject than Notability, as it lets you keep separate notebooks for each class or project, each with their own covers.

Apples recent push to get its scrappy tablet back in schools means you no longer how to shell out mountains of cash if you want to use the iPad like a digital legal pad, and thats good news for all of us regardless of whether were in boardrooms or third-grade history class.

Even better for Apple Pencil newcomers, the App Store is already stuffed with note-taking apps that use it to its full potential.

Here are our favorites, chosen after years of enthusiastic experimentation.

Weve updated this article with a video demonstration.

Weve also included Cardflow, which is a different type of note-taking app than the others weve discussed, but its no less effective.

Apple Notes: The best free app I used to think Apples Notes app was only good for one thing: trying out the Apple Pencil when youre in a store.

Once you brought the Pencil home, youd have been better off spending most of your time with any of the other apps on this list.

Notes still isnt my favorite app for the Apple Pencil, but Apple greatly improved it by giving us 120 colors to choose from and the ability to change the stroke weight for the pen, pencil, or highlighter.

The new version also comes with a pixel eraser, dark mode, and the ability to move the palette to any edge of the screen you wish.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it syncs swiftly with your other devices through iCloud.

It also remains the only app thatll open a blank page when you tap the glass of a locked iPad with an Apple Pencil.

Notes remains too stuck in the mindset of working with real paper for my tastes, though, so you wont find features like the helpful infinite canvas that youll see elsewhere.

That can be a pain when youre making mind maps or adding illustrations to your notes.

Ginger Labs Notability: The best all-purpose app Notability, fittingly enough, is by far the most notable app that supports the Apple Pencil, and for good reason.

If youre going to spend money on any handwriting-compatible app, consider spending 10 on this one.

Not only does Notability lets you do everything from annotating PDFs to making shapes, but it also captures the experience of writing with a pen or pencil better than any of its competitors.

The strokes are fluid and precise, allowing you to forget about trying to get the stylus to work properly and simply focus on your writing.

Notability also excels by letting you choose between nine styles of lined and unlined paper, and it gives you 15 choices for paper color as well.

Weirdly, none of those choices mimic the sulphuric yellow of a legal pad.) Its easy to import PDFs and webpages and mark them up as though they were paper.

You can record audio while youre writing by hand, and you can hear exactly what was being said when you wrote a note.

Best Note Taking Apps And Ipad Mac App Within

Notabilitys iCloud support works like a dream, so you can easily write out notes from your iPad and consult them on your (separately sold) Mac app within seconds.

Its not quite as intuitive as Notability and so it falls short of great, but it offers many of the same options found in its notable rival and even a couple of better ones for good measure.

You cant record audio, though.) For one, you can easily create shapes such as triangles, circles, or rectangles.

Simply click on the appropriate menu item, doodle the shape on the screen with your Apple Pencil, and GoodNotes automatically converts it into the perfectly formed circle or triangle you had in mind.

It doesnt fully convert your handwritten notes to typewritten text as some apps do, but its handwriting recognition is good enough that you can search all of your notes for specific words.

Best Note Taking Apps For Mac And Ipad