Sketching and drawing in Notability is downright delightful.
The app offers a delightful writing experience, yet it also makes it easy to embed images, annotate PDFs, and even record voice memos. If we had to recommend just one iPad note-taking app, it would be Notability.
Note: All of the apps below work for both the iPad Pro and Classic, though the Pro’s larger screen size makes note-taking easier. With a bit of practice, these apps will give you all the benefits of writing by hand without sacrificing the convenience of digital organization (except for app #5, discussed below). In this post, we’ll show you six of the best note-taking apps for the iPad. The key is to use a quality stylus, a screen protector that mimics paper, and, most importantly, the right note-taking app. And we’re excited to share that we’ve finally found a method that combines the best parts of writing by hand with the best parts of digital note-taking. So for a while now, we’ve been experimenting with ways of taking handwritten notes with an iPad. While this approach worked, it wasn’t as seamless as we wanted. Start Taking Notes With Your iPad Todayĭo you love the tactile experience of taking notes on paper but prefer the organizational features of digital note-taking apps? We do, too.Īnd until recently, the best compromise we’d found was taking notes on paper and scanning them into an app like Evernote.
If you have an iPad Pro and a newer Mac, you can connect your iPad to your Mac and turn it into a fully functional secondary display and drawing tablet (with Apple Pencil support) using the new Sidecar feature in macOS Catalina and iPadOS. You can also import and annotate PDFs and work on two notes side-by-side. Plus, it can sync audio along with your notes, which is handy during revision time. It lets you record audio, type out notes, and take handwritten notes, all in a single interface. Notability is a popular notetaking app among students. The app comes with a myriad of templates, and there’s a feature that lets you zoom in to a particular part of the page. You can add shapes, images, and text to the note. You can switch between different pen styles and scrolling direction. You can customize virtually every single part of the handwritten notetaking interface. GoodNotes 5 is the most versatile notetaking app when it comes to Apple Pencil. The Apple Notes app is a good place to get started with handwritten notes on the iPad, but if you want more features, you’ll have to look at one of the many third-party apps on the App Store. This will now become the background of your note, making it much easier to write in straight lines. Move your Apple Pencil over anything that you want to erase. Tap on it to turn your Apple Pencil into an eraser.
RELATED: How to Change the Double-Tap Action on Apple Pencil for iPad Pro You can also customize the Action button to switch to the last used tool instead.
If you have the second-generation Apple Pencil, you can double-tap on the Action button to switch to the Eraser. You can do the same thing for the next two tools which are Marker and Pencil. Tap on it to see the option for the thickness of the nib and the transparency. When you’re taking notes with the Apple Pencil, use your finger to swipe up and down.įrom the drawing tools, the first is the Pen tool. You can doodle, write, or type anything in the note. You’ll see drawing tools appear at the bottom of the screen. Now, you can tap the tip of your Apple Pencil on the screen to enter the handwritten notes mode. From there, tap on the Expand button to make the note full-screen. Open the “Notes” app on your iPad and create a new note. Simply use the built-in Notes app on your iPad.
It’s quite easy to get started taking notes on your iPad as you don’t even have to download an app. How to take Handwritten Notes on iPad Using Notes App The accessory is only supported on the following iPad Pro models with Face ID (again, at the time of writing): It now magnetically latches on to the edge of the iPad Pro and charges wirelessly. The second-generation Apple Pencil is quite a bit smaller, with a single flat edge.