looking for writing and drawing apps

moworks2 · Sep 29, 2014

I'm thinking of an ipad air to replace both my hand written daily note taking and my sketchbook.

Can you suggest any apps that might do both really well?

If not, how about one app to write and add clips to from news, blogs, etc. and one great sketching app. I generally use black ink markers to sketch.

I'm a photographer, graphic designer, painter. I do wonder if going all digital for day to day reference work, jotting down quick ideas, will be satisfying. I kinda like the feel of a pen scratching over real paper.

Suggestions? Thoughts? thanks kindly for any help...

GerritV · Sep 29, 2014

Writing and sketching in one and the same app = Noteshelf IMHO.
This app stands out in it's toolset. While most others have pens and markers, Noteshelf adds a pencil. And that I find indispensable for sketching.

Perhaps less important, but Noteshelf comes with a long list of paper backgrounds as well.

Jessica Lares · Sep 29, 2014

You can also add your own paper templates to it.

moworks2 · Oct 1, 2014

GerritV said:
Writing and sketching in one and the same app = Noteshelf IMHO.
This app stands out in it's toolset. While most others have pens and markers, Noteshelf adds a pencil. And that I find indispensable for sketching.

Perhaps less important, but Noteshelf comes with a long list of paper backgrounds as well.

thanks so much for showing me this. It may be my solution. It also opened a few other avenues. The link to it showing other similar apps. I'm not sure I can go down this path 100 percent, but it might help me with 80 percent and that would be fine.

kind regards...

Traverse · Oct 1, 2014

GerritV said:
Writing and sketching in one and the same app = Noteshelf IMHO.
This app stands out in it's toolset. While most others have pens and markers, Noteshelf adds a pencil. And that I find indispensable for sketching.

Perhaps less important, but Noteshelf comes with a long list of paper backgrounds as well.

Jessica Lares said:
You can also add your own paper templates to it.

Did either of you make the planner in app purchase? I'm looking for a good planner app, but this one provides no screen shots of it.

If you have, could you post a screen shot? Thanks.

Jessica Lares · Oct 1, 2014

Traverse said:
Did either of you make the planner in app purchase? I'm looking for a good planner app, but this one provides no screen shots of it.

If you have, could you post a screen shot? Thanks.

They are just backgrounds that you write on. There are templates people have made that are much better IMO.

This will give you an idea of what it comes with:
http://noteshelf-blog.tumblr.com/post/96428806248/creating-a-study-schedule-on-noteshelf

What do you want in a planner? We can try and help you. Noteshelf is more like a fancy Bamboo Paper.

Traverse · Oct 1, 2014

Jessica Lares said:
They are just backgrounds that you write on. There are templates people have made that are much better IMO.

This will give you an idea of what it comes with:
http://noteshelf-blog.tumblr.com/post/96428806248/creating-a-study-schedule-on-noteshelf

What do you want in a planner? We can try and help you. Noteshelf is more like a fancy Bamboo Paper.

Oh, I see. Thank you. I've done my research on planner apps on the web, here, and in iTunes and I'll keep looking.

Even I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but I use a combination of Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and OneNote*. I was hoping for something that consolidated these apps into one. Those do exist and I've tried some like iStudez and Readdle's Calendars 5. Planner Plus looked interesting, but I'm unwilling to pay $20 to only be disappointed again. I was hoping it could display content in day/week/month view like Calendar, but also in a week view like you'd have in a hard cover planner. My current multi-app system is working, I just always look for a better, more seamless alternative. I would prefer it to sync to Reminders/Calendar via iCloud unless it has a Mac client. If you have any thoughts I welcome them, if not don't worry about it. Thanks for the thought though!

*I use OneNote for serious note taking, but also for quick day notes. I want to replicate the day notes part.

GerritV · Oct 2, 2014

Traverse said:
Oh, I see. Thank you. I've done my research on planner apps on the web, here, and in iTunes and I'll keep looking.

Even I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but I use a combination of Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and OneNote*. I was hoping for something that consolidated these apps into one. Those do exist and I've tried some like iStudez and Readdle's Calendars 5. Planner Plus looked interesting, but I'm unwilling to pay $20 to only be disappointed again. I was hoping it could display content in day/week/month view like Calendar, but also in a week view like you'd have in a hard cover planner. My current multi-app system is working, I just always look for a better, more seamless alternative. I would prefer it to sync to Reminders/Calendar via iCloud unless it has a Mac client. If you have any thoughts I welcome them, if not don't worry about it. Thanks for the thought though!

*I use OneNote for serious note taking, but also for quick day notes. I want to replicate the day notes part.

Not sure if there's an app that would cover so much...
I purchased GoodTask on iOS over the weekend, along with the trial Mac client. I love it's sync with Reminders and iCal. But there's not that much room to add notes.
I also use Notebooks, but that one has no calendar.
And there's DailyNotes, also from Fluid Touch (maker of NoteShelf) - you might want to check that one.

Perhaps create a new topic on this, not to pollute the OP's topic.

Traverse · Oct 2, 2014

GerritV said:
Not sure if there's an app that would cover so much...
I purchased GoodTask on iOS over the weekend, along with the trial Mac client. I love it's sync with Reminders and iCal. But there's not that much room to add notes.
I also use Notebooks, but that one has no calendar.
And there's DailyNotes, also from Fluid Touch (maker of NoteShelf) - you might want to check that one.

Perhaps create a new topic on this, not to pollute the OP's topic.

True, thank you.

As for OP, Paper by 53 seems to be a popular free choice. You pay to get other digital stencils, but you can use it free.

moworks2 · Oct 2, 2014

Traverse said:
True, thank you.

As for OP, Paper by 53 seems to be a popular free choice. You pay to get other digital stencils, but you can use it free.

Yes, thanks Traverse, quite a few recommendations for Paper on several different review sites I checked this morning. For writing I'm wondering if any of you guys have tried Notebook by circus ponies.

Also this morning, review sites talk highly of these photo apps...mextures, snapseed, camerabag2, vsco,...

other apps I read about this morning that sound interesting...adobe Ideas, quark design pad, adobe photo touch, idraw, penultimate, notability, and hello camera...

guess when I try the ipad I'll have this big list of things to trial, see what works for me...maybe a mix of two or three to cover graphics, drawing, photography and the writing I do...seems like noteshelf or notebook might be good apps to gather all my work in one place?...kinda like a scrap book...

well...think I'm gonna have to get the ipad and just have at it...priced a nice ipad air with just wifi and 128gb drive and it's over eight hundred...man, that's approaching macbook air territory...didn't realize the ipad would be up there in price...

Traverse · Oct 2, 2014

moworks2 said:
Yes, thanks Traverse, quite a few recommendations for Paper on several different review sites I checked this morning. For writing I'm wondering if any of you guys have tried Notebook by circus ponies.

Also this morning, review sites talk highly of these photo apps...mextures, snapseed, camerabag2, vsco,...

other apps I read about this morning that sound interesting...adobe Ideas, quark design pad, adobe photo touch, idraw, penultimate, notability, and hello camera...

guess when I try the ipad I'll have this big list of things to trial, see what works for me...maybe a mix of two or three to cover graphics, drawing, photography and the writing I do...seems like noteshelf or notebook might be good apps to gather all my work in one place?...kinda like a scrap book...

well...think I'm gonna have to get the ipad and just have at it...priced a nice ipad air with just wifi and 128gb drive and it's over eight hundred...man, that's approaching macbook air territory...didn't realize the ipad would be up there in price...

I have not used Notebooks, but I've heard a lot of good about it. Notability is a really nice app with a newly released Mac client if that matters to you. It allows you to draw, hand write, type, etc.

If you're looking for a dedicated drawing app (not for notes) Procreate is really nice.

GerritV · Oct 2, 2014

Traverse said:
I have not used Notebooks, but I've heard a lot of good about it. Notability is a really nice app with a newly released Mac client if that matters to you. It allows you to draw, hand write, type, etc.

If you're looking for a dedicated drawing app (not for notes) Procreate is really nice.

Both ProCreate and Paper53 are nice apps to draw, but I wouldn't categorize them as notetaking apps.
For that, you probably need to narrow it down to apps that support a zoom box.

The one problem I have with Notebooks is the way it syncs. You need to drill down to the last subfolder in line to trigger the syncing process. If you don't, the main screen will display wrong information. This has caused me to miss several deadlines in the past, because these tasks were burried in a subfolder and therefor left untouched while other folders were in fact up-to-date. The dev says this is by design, to avoid endless syncing. I understand, but it's a problem. My workaround is to avoid subfolders.
But indeed, Notebooks is a scrapbook - and universal! It's great to drag-and-drop files on your Mac into your Notebooks and later see them on your iOS devices (that is IF you force the sync hehe).
Notebooks for iPad has a Sketch part, but it's rather basic.

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looking for writing and drawing apps

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