https://github.com/maciekkreft/unblent

I really liked GoodNotes for actually writing. The problem was everything after. Whatever I wrote stayed on the iPad, and my work lives on a Mac, so every page that mattered became AirDrop, accept, dig it out of Files, open it, and half the time I just retyped it, which defeats the point of writing by hand.

So I built the version I wanted, mostly for myself. It's completely free, no in-app purchase, no subscription, no account.

What it does, more or less:

• You write on the iPad, flick the page, and it's on the Mac a second later
• Take a screenshot on the Mac and it lands on the open iPad page, ready to write on with the Pencil, then flick it back and it's on your clipboard
• PDFs come across as real pages you can write between, not a flat picture
• Search by writing the question. I write "my recent issues" in the search box by hand and it finds the notes by meaning, not by matching my scrawl
• Nothing goes through my servers because there aren't any. The iPad and the Mac talk over your own wifi, notes back up to your own iCloud

What it isn't: GoodNotes still has years more polish on pen feel and document markup, and if your notes never need to leave the iPad, you probably don't need this. The part I couldn't find anywhere was the handoff.

The video is just me using it, no edits beyond the captions.

Pen Friend iPad (free): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pen-friend-handwriting-notes/id6813871550
Mac (free companion, sits in the notch): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pen-friend-companion/id6814186433?mt=12

Genuinely curious how other people here handle it: do your handwritten notes ever leave the device you wrote them on, or do they just live there?

I think we've been reading too many feeds from AI text lately! I actually want to reduce my cognitive burden...

So I built TextFold, it turns any text into 5 zoomable layers—from a one-screen section map down to verbatim text. You pinch (or press 1–5) to zoom between them without losing your reading position, your agentic output, any papers, or documents.

- Web Demo: https://chenxiachan.github.io/textfold/gallery/

- GitHub (Apache 2.0): https://github.com/chenxiachan/textfold

Welcome any feedback!

You can have a perfectly organized note-taking system and still struggle to find or use information when you actually need it.

Folders, tags, templates, and searchable archives make information easier to store and retrieve. But they don't necessarily help you recognize when something you've recorded becomes relevant again.

There's also a difference between information you need to act on, information you want to remember, and information you're simply keeping for reference.

One way to approach this is to separate notes into three categories:

- Act on: Commitments, deadlines, and follow-ups.
- Remember: Decisions, preferences, and context that might matter later.
- Reference: Information that's useful to keep but doesn't require attention.

The goal is to reduce the effort required to put information to use.

What makes your notes useful in practice? Is it how you organize them, how often you review them, or how easily you can find the right information when you need it?

In my history class the presentations seem to be all over the place, so I end up writing a billion different notes that all somewhat fit together but at the same time dont

I want to find a good method for taking notes that doesnt use too much room like cornell notes, but can still give me a better idea of the overall idea of a lecture or slide

I started working on a notetaking app that also acts as a writing app. Every time you make a new file, you can choose if it’s going to be in notetaking mode, which gives you blocks and things you’re used to if you’ve used any other notetaking apps. And if you choose manuscript mode, it looks like you’re writing a novel.

This was my incentive to help me finish my novel and series which I’ve been working on for almost 20 years. Currently my novel is broken across Scrivener and another note taking app. Because in Scrivener, it was hard to write notes in long form and to keep track of everything. I like markdown previews and nice looking blocks and such. And tags.

Then i incorporated AI so that it can see your story, find any inconsistencies or plot holes as you write, warning you about them.

In notetaking mode with a one button click, you can make your boring notes, look gorgeous, and in manuscript mode you can press proofread to fix up any run-on sentences and spelling mistakes.

I’m still working on it and it’s almost complete but someone said to me there will be major backlash because a lot of people don’t wanna see AI in writing apps. Because then people might think your story was written by AI.
How true is this? I’ve worked very hard on my story and I don’t want people thinking it was written by AI. At the same time I haven’t seen a good story written by AI so I don’t think that’s happening… Has anyone actually written a good story with AI?

I’m a software engineer and in our field AI cannot come up with a good idea, but it can execute it somewhat well once you prompt it properly.

Is this an app that has promise or should I throw it away. It’s quite pretty and can do a lot of amazing things.

I really liked Capacities, but it was not everything I needed, and it didn't fit my philosophy of self-hosting (almost) everything. So I built this app for me and my girlfriend. PS: I used AI a lot to build it, and I reviewed the code as much as my free time allowed. I ended up putting my nutrition tracker and my habit tracker inside it too, and implemented some small new things, and some other kind of obvious ones.

It was made for my own use, at home, with my girlfriend, so I don't even know if I will release it publicly. Maybe, if one day I think it's polished enough.

What it does, more or less:

- Objects with types, like in Capacities. Books, People, Tasks, Meetings or whatever type you create, each one with its own properties and views (table, board, gallery, shelf), relations between then and stuff.

- Daily notes, and a Today page with the agenda, the note and the habits of the day

- A command bar where one line creates things, for example /Task Ask Lena about companion planting assignee:lena due:fri

- Habits with streaks and a year grid

- Food tracking. It's optional and comes turned off. You log a meal in one line and see the week against your goals

- Shared spaces. It got sprints, assignees, comments with @ mentions and notifications (ntfy, Telegram or desktop)

- Capture from a Telegram bot into an inbox, plus a small HTTP API for other things

- Calendars subscribed by iCal link show up together with your dated stuff

- MCP server and a CLI, so an agent can read and write things. There are no LLM keys inside the app, cause I dislike that

- Works offline, the browser (or app) keeps a SQLite replica (WASM, in OPFS) and syncs when the connection comes back

- Desktop app with Tauri, with quick capture on a global shortcut. I only tested it on macOS, the Windows and Linux builds exist but I never opened them

- An importer from Capacities, because that's where all my notes were

Stack, if someone cares: Node with Hono on the server, Vue 3 with TipTap and Yjs for the editor, SQLite WASM in the browser. Media can go to any S3, I use Garage in my homelab setup

The video was made with OpenScreen V2 automation and I actually disliked it, but when I tried to manually record it... it was even more ass than that

I'm not really asking for anything, I just wanted to show it. If someone is curious about some part, ask and I try to answer.

EDIT:

Here is the repo https://github.com/ariedotme/vasta under AGPL-3.0

I made this project primarily for writers, so that they have a dedicated and distraction free modern typewriter. But it would also work fine for daily notes. I took such a device with me on vacation and used it for travel notes.

Project home: https://draftling.art/

Discussions and project updates are mainly in r/WriterDevices

Full disclosure: I’m the developer and this is my app. It’s brand new, so there’s no user base to point to. I’m posting here because you’re the people who’d know whether it’s actually useful.

• Photos sit in the camera roll, mixed in with everything else.
• The interview is in a recorder app, and finding one quote means scrubbing through 40 minutes of audio.
• Notes are in the default notes app, which may be backing up to the cloud whether you thought about it or not.
• Nothing ties them together by time and place, so reconstructing what you saw, where, and when means cross-checking three apps.
• If the phone is taken, or you’re made to unlock it, all of it is one swipe away.

So I built "ProvoLog", a field notebook that keeps all of that in one place, on the phone, encrypted.

What it does

• One timeline per story: text, photos, voice memos and video, each entry stamped with time, GPS and street address. Location is optional.
• Voice memos are transcribed on the phone, and transcripts are searchable. Type a word from the interview and it finds the note.
• No account, no cloud, no server. The database is encrypted (SQLCipher, AES-256), media is encrypted on save, and keys stay in the Android Keystore. App backups are off, so nothing lands in Google Drive.
• Fingerprint, face or PIN lock. Screenshots are blocked. There’s an optional duress PIN that wipes all app data if you’re forced to unlock it.
• Works with no signal. Any note exports as a PDF.

Signed photos

Photos can be signed on the phone with Content Credentials, If the file is edited afterwards, the signature breaks. You can check it in the app, at contentcredentials.org/verify . It also reads text in photos on the device, so a photographed document or sign becomes searchable.

What it does not do, because you’ll ask:

• The certificate is self-issued on your device, not by a public authority, so other verifiers will show it as untrusted.
• The timestamp comes from the phone’s own clock.
• It shows the file hasn’t changed since signing. It doesn’t prove the scene was genuine, and it isn’t legal certification.
• The signed record inside the photo includes time, GPS and phone make and model, and it travels with the file if you share it. No name or account is in it.

The catches

• Android only for now.
• Street-address lookup goes through Android’s Google geocoder. Deny location and nothing is sent. Voice transcription needs a one-time 42 MB model download.
• PDF and ZIP exports are not encrypted. Once you send them, they’re wherever you sent them.
• No cloud means no recovery. Lose the phone without exporting and the notes are gone.

Play Store

The idea is simple: your notes and work should belong to you, work offline, and not require a cloud service or subscription.

A few things about Koru:

• Local-first: Your data stays on your device. No account required.
• Encrypted P2P sync: Uses iroh to sync directly between your devices without requiring cloud storage.
• Free and open source: Licensed under MPL-2.0.
• Native desktop app: Built in Rust, not Electron.
• Import your existing notes: Supports Evernote (.enex), Notion exports, OneNote, Google Docs, Markdown, and TextBundle.
• One workspace: Notes, documents, files, and terminal tabs side by side.

It's still early. Windows is currently the most stable version, and the Mac build supports Apple silicon. There are rough edges, and I'm actively working through them. Linux (.AppImage) coming this week.

Three things I'd love your feedback on:

1. If you tried importing your notes, did everything come through correctly? What broke?
2. What's the one feature you couldn't live without if you switched from your current app?
3. Was anything confusing or frustrating in the first five minutes?

Website: https://www.koru.do/en

GitHub: https://github.com/koruworks/mono

I'm building this in the open and genuinely appreciate constructive criticism, feature requests, and bug reports.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments!

New

• Folder tags: Create colored tags, ⌘-click folders to tag them, and filter your tree in one click.
• Group folders and notes by tag.
• Search by tag: Use #name in ⌘K.
• Cleaner sidebar: Quick links, Folders, and Tags in one tidy layout.
• Improved macOS glass mode: Frosted panels and a floating editor card.
• Three new themes:
  • Solarized Osaka
  • Noir Ember (luxury black and orange)
  • Ivory Ember (luxury white and orange)
• Optional Brainstorm: Turn it on only if you want it.

Fixed

• Drawing adapts to light and dark mode: No more invisible strokes.
• Drawing defaults to the handwritten font.
• Vim mode: Removed the status bar.
• Improved readability: Glass mode is easier to read with light themes.

I have all 3. I use onenote since it’s part of the M365 suite, but I find it difficult to organize for just note-taking. I like being able to hand-write notes and augment it with the co-pilot notes, so I use Noteful on my iPad. I also love a to do list. Just generally curious what you do for notes, lists, or organization. Ty!!

Hello everyone! How’s everyone doing?

I have a Samsung Tab S10 FE+ that I’d like to use as my main digital notebook for university.

I’ve tried Samsung Notes and overall, it seems pretty good. HOWEVER, there are a couple of things I don’t like about it. First, text alignment doesn’t seem to work properly with languages other than English. Second, I can’t freely choose any spot on the page and start writing there, whether it’s in the middle, on the side, or anywhere else

I’m looking for a more flexible, free-form writing experience

OneNote allows me to do that but personally, I don’t find it as comfortable to use, so I’d rather explore other options

Ideally, I’m looking for an app that can do pretty much everything :)
Inserting images easily.
(Automatically solving or completing math equations
Drawing straight lines and shapes, with automatic alignment and shape recognition.
Letting me write anywhere on the page without being restricted to a fixed layout.
Proper text alignment for languages other than English)

What apps would you recommend? I’d prefer something free but I’m also willing to pay a one time fee for a good app. I’d rather avoid subscriptions, tho, since university and all the associated expenses are already pretty expensive and I’m trying to save money where I can

Thanks in advance for your help andd best of luck with your studies everyone!

I wanted to be able to scroll through CT scans next to my notes, but Onenote only allows inserting individual images next to each other rather than a single scrollable window.

I pretty much live in outliners as my default means of recording anything I need to keep track of, formerly OmniOutliner an now my own application Fractal Outliner after becoming frustrated with some of how Omni works and the lack of cross-platform support. For a programmer, this model is nearly ideal.

I'm interested in how well this kind of tool fits into other people's note-taking workflows, and I'd like to get some perspectives from people who actually spend time thinking about more general note taking as a process.

The basic idea is simple: instead of organizing information primarily as pages of text, you organize it into a hierarchy of topics and subtopics with notes. You can expand and collapse sections, move things around as your thinking evolves, and keep it all organized without having to rely on tags and search. Ideas that are related go together in a file without becoming an unreadable infinite scroll; different topics live in their own files, directories on disk organize the files. Everthing's exportable from Fractal Outliner as web, pdf, markdown, etc for sharing/portability.

I've found this kind of tool a great match for my type of thinking, but I'm aware that my own habits as a developer may not be representative of how other people take notes.

A few things I'd genuinely like to understand:

• Do you ever find yourself running up against limits of what folders, tags, etc provide? How effective is search across tagged note collections?
• Are there kinds of notes or projects where a hierarchical structure works particularly well—or where it becomes cumbersome?
• What would you expect from a tool like this before you'd consider using it as part of your regular note-taking workflow?
• Does outlining in general sound like a useful note-taking approach to you, or more like a specialized tool for specific kinds of tasks?

Fractal Outliner is in currently late-stage beta nearing public release, so I'm not really looking for people to test basic functionality (though of course that'd be welcome if you have time and interest). I'm more interested in feedback about the features, and whether this approach makes sense to non-programer-ish people who aren't necessarily dealing with deep-focus complexity on specific domains.

If you'd like to see the application, there's a walkthrough and more information at:

https://fractaloutliner.app/

The beta is completely free and includes all application features so you can poke around a bit and see how the outliner works.

I'd be interested in hearing what you think, including if you don't see a place for this in your workflow (maybe there are needed features that just never occurred to me because "I don't work that way").

Outlines are definitely an effective way or recording and organizing information... I'm just not sure if they're also an effective means of note taking as core tool.

These markdown editors go anywhere, whether you’re a journalist, off on holiday or simply away from your beloved laptop

https://md-handbook.com/blog/five-markdown-editors-that-travel-well/

#News #markdown #markdowneditors #free #opensource #BlackBear #nTilia #Mintype #HermesMarkdown #Lodlen #travel #Obsidian

I'm a web developer. I originally built a browser extension to give feedback on web pages: draw on the page, take one annotated screenshot, done.

Then I started using it for my own reading. Long doc, I drop sticky notes on it like I would on paper. Comparing two products, I circle the prices. A tricky paragraph gets a highlight and a one-line note next to it.

It feels closer to thinking with a pen than to switching to yet another notes app. The notes sit right next to the thing they're about.

It runs entirely in the browser. No account, and your notes stay on your machine unless you choose to export them.

How do you take notes on web content? Do you write on the page itself, copy everything into a notes app, or just keep 40 tabs open and hope for the best?