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All iPads iPads replacing Pen & Paper
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M-5
macrumors 65816
I've been using my iPad mini to take notes for school and personal stuff for almost two months now, and these are the apps of tried and use now:
- I use Evernote to keep my personal journal, as well as to store general lists of things I want to remember.
- For handwritten notes for class, I'll use UPAD. While the interface isn't the best, and it could use a better app icon, it's still pretty nice. I like that you can use handwriting as well as input text into text boxes and highlight stuff. The zoom feature for handwriting is also really nice and get can very small so you can write compactly. I like that you can upload your own photos to use as the paper material you want to write on. And of course, it also supports PDFs so you can upload them into UPAD and highlight stuff or write on them.
- I tried using Penultimate to write handwritten notes, but it's almost useless because there's no zoom feature, so you're forced to write large. You also can't upload PDFs.
- I also purchased Noteshelf and tried using it, because I think the interface is superior to UPAD, but there were several things I didn't like about it. I felt that the zoom box was too large, so you couldn't write as small as you could in UPAD, and you also can't load up PDFs to write on them.
- I also tried Notes Plus, but I absolutely hate the typefaces they used in all of the menus in the app. It looks so old and amateur. And the interface is extremely confusing.
- Also tried Goodnotes, which has a pretty interface. Like Noteshelf, I wish the zoom box was able to get smaller. You're also limited to the colors of pen you can use, whereas it's virtually unlimited in UPAD.
- The stylus i've been using is the Maglus stylus. It was kind of pricey and it took a while for me to receive it after placing my order, but it's a really good stylus. I like that it's magnetic, and the tip is rubber, but it is still very firm compared to the stylus I had before it (Nataal), and so it's easy to write with. I'm kind of interested in getting some sort of hand guard though, so that I can drag my arm against the iPad screen without it interfering with my handwriting.
- I use Evernote to keep my personal journal, as well as to store general lists of things I want to remember.
- For handwritten notes for class, I'll use UPAD. While the interface isn't the best, and it could use a better app icon, it's still pretty nice. I like that you can use handwriting as well as input text into text boxes and highlight stuff. The zoom feature for handwriting is also really nice and get can very small so you can write compactly. I like that you can upload your own photos to use as the paper material you want to write on. And of course, it also supports PDFs so you can upload them into UPAD and highlight stuff or write on them.
- I tried using Penultimate to write handwritten notes, but it's almost useless because there's no zoom feature, so you're forced to write large. You also can't upload PDFs.
- I also purchased Noteshelf and tried using it, because I think the interface is superior to UPAD, but there were several things I didn't like about it. I felt that the zoom box was too large, so you couldn't write as small as you could in UPAD, and you also can't load up PDFs to write on them.
- I also tried Notes Plus, but I absolutely hate the typefaces they used in all of the menus in the app. It looks so old and amateur. And the interface is extremely confusing.
- Also tried Goodnotes, which has a pretty interface. Like Noteshelf, I wish the zoom box was able to get smaller. You're also limited to the colors of pen you can use, whereas it's virtually unlimited in UPAD.
- The stylus i've been using is the Maglus stylus. It was kind of pricey and it took a while for me to receive it after placing my order, but it's a really good stylus. I like that it's magnetic, and the tip is rubber, but it is still very firm compared to the stylus I had before it (Nataal), and so it's easy to write with. I'm kind of interested in getting some sort of hand guard though, so that I can drag my arm against the iPad screen without it interfering with my handwriting.
saberahul
macrumors 68040
Well I've been using my iPad with a stylus for notes since the iPad 1 came out. I've tried Note Taker HD, Notes Plus, Penultimate, everything and haven't found one as quick and easy as Notability. Love the dropbox backup facility so I always have a PDF of my notes on the go (will help with your homeworks if you're one who tends to forget them at home or wherever).
Having taken a quick look in my Notability folder, I currently have over 400MB of notes (I don't use voice recording so it's all notes).
Having taken a quick look in my Notability folder, I currently have over 400MB of notes (I don't use voice recording so it's all notes).
Fireball Dragon
macrumors 6502a
I'll be getting the Truglide the main difference is that instead of a rubber tip it has a microfiber tip. I've seen reviews and they say that it doesn't "pull" the screen and it feels like if it is gliding. Maybe that can help get a better handwriting
M-5
macrumors 65816
Are you referring to a Moleskine stylus? The only styli I've tried have been this $10 Nataal stylus from Amazon, which was a simple black pen shaped aluminum stylus with a rubber tip similar to the Maglus. The tip was a little bit smaller in diameter, but it was definitely of a worse quality.
I wasn't able to find the stylus, so I ended up purchasing the Maglus. The tip is really firm, so almost no pressure is needed to register contact. It also has much less drag than the Nataal, so it just glides on the surface. I noticed that there is a minimal pressure that is needed when you first place the pen on the screen so that it registers, and then you can alleviate almost all pressure and glide the pen and the screen will still register the pen as touching the screen.
Fireball Dragon
macrumors 6502a
Thanks for your reply. I meant the Bamboo stylus, made a typo by saying Moleskine lol
It's interesting you mention that the tip is firm ad requires less pressure, as that is exactly what I am looking for. All the Styli I have tried until now have a soft tip, which makes writing seem less fluid.
Will now have to find this in the UK; doesn't seem to be widely available here... 😕
M-5
macrumors 65816
I just want to be clear and state that the pen still requires some pressure and isn't perfect. I wouldn't say it's a 'hard tip' but a 'harder tip.' The pen actually works best when it's used perpendicular to the screen rather than at an angle.
But you're definitely not having to push the pen very hard into the screen; it feels pretty effortless when compared to the other pens.
I tried a number of apps and have settled on Projectbook. I like the file organization. It has a nice search feature. The developers are very active. I tried the Jot and some rubber tipped styluses (styli?) but now I really like the iFaraday. It is a sort of cloth tip that glides very smoothly.
The problem with a fat stylus is not the stylus but the iPad. The digitizer built into the screen is coarse. It requires eight or so points to be on before it records pen down. I'm hopeful that a future iPad will have a more precise digitizer. As an alternative, you can find a few active stylus makers. These don't work with all apps but they are more precise.
Even though I record a lot of notes on the iPad I'm still not as happy with it as using a notebook. There are a lot pluses, it's always with you, you can add photos, you can email the result. On the down side you can't write as finely as you can with a fine point mechanical pencil. You can't flip through lots of pages as with paper notebooks. If you add text you can do a search which is really nice. The iPad is actually rather small, I'd like a letter size or A4 size iPad for note taking. Someday handwriting recognition will make note taking easier and richer.
The problem with a fat stylus is not the stylus but the iPad. The digitizer built into the screen is coarse. It requires eight or so points to be on before it records pen down. I'm hopeful that a future iPad will have a more precise digitizer. As an alternative, you can find a few active stylus makers. These don't work with all apps but they are more precise.
Even though I record a lot of notes on the iPad I'm still not as happy with it as using a notebook. There are a lot pluses, it's always with you, you can add photos, you can email the result. On the down side you can't write as finely as you can with a fine point mechanical pencil. You can't flip through lots of pages as with paper notebooks. If you add text you can do a search which is really nice. The iPad is actually rather small, I'd like a letter size or A4 size iPad for note taking. Someday handwriting recognition will make note taking easier and richer.
Finally I got my iPad.
I bought my iPad yesterday, black 16GB WiFi. My stylus is the TruGlide Pro, my note taking app is Note Taker HD.
With just a day of use I'm truly impressed by the power of Note Taker HD, I've been able to successfully take notes in my thermodynamics class and economic engineering class. I've pass to digital format my notes from statistics, operations research, and mechanical engineering.
Once I have a few more pages written I'll share them with you.
I'd appreciate if you tell me if there's a way of uploading PDFs here.
I bought my iPad yesterday, black 16GB WiFi. My stylus is the TruGlide Pro, my note taking app is Note Taker HD.
With just a day of use I'm truly impressed by the power of Note Taker HD, I've been able to successfully take notes in my thermodynamics class and economic engineering class. I've pass to digital format my notes from statistics, operations research, and mechanical engineering.
Once I have a few more pages written I'll share them with you.
I'd appreciate if you tell me if there's a way of uploading PDFs here.
Night Spring
macrumors P6
Yes. Scroll down when you are making a post, and you'll see a button to attach files. Might not work from an iPad though. 🙄
Thank you!!
I've attached a PDF with the first notes I've made. I'm sure that with time my handwriting will improve. My notes are in spanish but check the amount of infomation I can get on a page, including drawings.
Hi, i know what you mean. I have been trying to figure our what is the best way to write. The pen and paper looks fine and we used it for many years and we still use it. But the problem is as steve jobs said, writing is the slowest method of input. This is why they went on introducing siri and dictation apps on macs. which is kinda inacurate most of the time. I don't like any iPad apps to do with writing. I recommend a good sound recorder with good sound quality. Do not try to record your lectures with iphone or ipod touch because of sound quality on those is unusable. Very quiet and hard to make out words. Get a professional sound recorder with a long battery life and good recording sound quality. I think it is easier to scan your notes than to write on the iPad. Although it will save you money printing lecture notes every time you want to write in your lecture slides. hey don't think that ipad is a good writing device. pen and paper still work better. Scanned them in if you do not want to have piles of paper notes.
the problem with writing on ipad, is that when you put your hand on screen it thinks that your hand is a pen. and even though some apps have a area where you tell it that here is your hand, it still isn't fast. The magnifying thing is also good but it's all fiddly.
writing on macbook in lectures is good but terrible when it falls on ground. it happened to me once, since then i haven't typed lecture notes on my computer. if note pad falls on ground you pick it up and nothing happens. if computer falls it may break. bro i tell you, from a practical point of view, it's useless. get pen and paper and a dictophone sound recorder.
the problem with writing on ipad, is that when you put your hand on screen it thinks that your hand is a pen. and even though some apps have a area where you tell it that here is your hand, it still isn't fast. The magnifying thing is also good but it's all fiddly.
writing on macbook in lectures is good but terrible when it falls on ground. it happened to me once, since then i haven't typed lecture notes on my computer. if note pad falls on ground you pick it up and nothing happens. if computer falls it may break. bro i tell you, from a practical point of view, it's useless. get pen and paper and a dictophone sound recorder.
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coachingguy
macrumors 6502a
I have tried and still own all of these notetaking apps. I have tried all of the stylus's, except the jot pro. Now, I'm all Evernote and when needed, PDF pro, Neu Annotate or some other PDF handling app. I was using Paperport Notes (now Just Notes), as were my students, for working with PDF's, but it became pretty buggy, so I had to stop. If I'm not going to use Evernote (rarely nowadays) my fall back has always been Penultimate (which was bought by Evernote)
As for Stylus's, it's such a personal preference and there has yet to be one made that functions anywhere near a good pen IMHO... Any my handwriting, I've been told, is... terrible... 😉 So, as long as I can type, I'm good to go.
I'm diligently working on becoming paperless... I'm planning on scanning a significant number of my paper docs over the summer, so my "stuff, is digital.
Good Luck!
Coachingguy
As for Stylus's, it's such a personal preference and there has yet to be one made that functions anywhere near a good pen IMHO... Any my handwriting, I've been told, is... terrible... 😉 So, as long as I can type, I'm good to go.
I'm diligently working on becoming paperless... I'm planning on scanning a significant number of my paper docs over the summer, so my "stuff, is digital.
Good Luck!
Coachingguy
Note Taker HD - Best app (IMHO)
First of all, I have no relationship with Software Garden, the developers of Note Taker HD and LynkTec.
Some moths ago I had the idea of buying an iPad for college to replace my notebooks. At first I thought of replacing my notebooks just in the classes that didn't require a lot of drawings, for example economic engineering.
I'm the kind of person that before buying something I make a lot of research about it and buy only what I consider the best so for a note taking app and stylus I did just this.
For a stylus it was pretty much easy, because it was a rubber tip vs a microfiber tip. And from the reviews I got to see the microfiber tip didn't drag the screen, while the rubber tip did. So I got the Lynktec TruGlide Pro.
Choosing a note taking app required more research because there are a lot of apps and a lot of people have great comments about each app. The three apps I chose were Noteshelf, Penultimate, and Note Taker HD. Noteshelf was the first to go, because once you put an image there is no way you can move and because there is no pan tool. The second to go was Penultimate because the lack of a zoom box. During all my decision process PC Mac was really helpful with the reviews on note taking, and, as they said, the go to app for the heavy note taker should be Note Taker HD.
I thought I would need more time to get the hang of NTHD, but just in a few minutes I was able to get a good handwriting and write and a decent speed. The day after I bought my iPad I was able to perfectly follow a thermodynamics class, an economics class, and an electrical engineering class.
I've read comments about many people saying that note taking on the iPad is uncomfortable but I find it really comfortable. The zoom box is a great way of writing.
I would love to hear comments about this topic. What do you think? Have you tried it?
If you are thinking of trying it and you're not sure please drop me a comment and I'll do my best to help you.
First of all, I have no relationship with Software Garden, the developers of Note Taker HD and LynkTec.
Some moths ago I had the idea of buying an iPad for college to replace my notebooks. At first I thought of replacing my notebooks just in the classes that didn't require a lot of drawings, for example economic engineering.
I'm the kind of person that before buying something I make a lot of research about it and buy only what I consider the best so for a note taking app and stylus I did just this.
For a stylus it was pretty much easy, because it was a rubber tip vs a microfiber tip. And from the reviews I got to see the microfiber tip didn't drag the screen, while the rubber tip did. So I got the Lynktec TruGlide Pro.
Choosing a note taking app required more research because there are a lot of apps and a lot of people have great comments about each app. The three apps I chose were Noteshelf, Penultimate, and Note Taker HD. Noteshelf was the first to go, because once you put an image there is no way you can move and because there is no pan tool. The second to go was Penultimate because the lack of a zoom box. During all my decision process PC Mac was really helpful with the reviews on note taking, and, as they said, the go to app for the heavy note taker should be Note Taker HD.
I thought I would need more time to get the hang of NTHD, but just in a few minutes I was able to get a good handwriting and write and a decent speed. The day after I bought my iPad I was able to perfectly follow a thermodynamics class, an economics class, and an electrical engineering class.
I've read comments about many people saying that note taking on the iPad is uncomfortable but I find it really comfortable. The zoom box is a great way of writing.
I would love to hear comments about this topic. What do you think? Have you tried it?
If you are thinking of trying it and you're not sure please drop me a comment and I'll do my best to help you.
Notetaker HD is a very small and powerful notetaking app, with some features greater than desktop applications. Exploring the app I found out tons of useful features that are very good for both notetaking and pdf annotation. I have even edited a pdf exported from illustrator sized at 8' x 4ft' with no lag or saving problems, that definitely had my attention. But my only problems are that because I need speed for class notes and quick usability I use noteshelf, which has led me to use this all the time now. NoteTaker HD sometimes requires a tad bit to much steps for me to do a task but besides that, daily and simple notetaking it is the best app. Oh and it just needs some smother handwriting, but with its vector type lines hand writing quality is always good when up and printed, noteshelf blurs.
The only task I use regularly that requieres more than 1 step is adding a new page. Until now, this has not been a problem. About the ink engine I agree with you, it needs to improve.
What really turn me away from Noteshelf was the lack of a tool to move around the page, how do you deal with this?
I know what you mean, but as I generally use the zoom box for writing, moving the zoom box on the page just works for me, so that just became my method for as I write, outside of that it a feature would be useful.
When it comes to speed noteshelf just works out better for me, not sure why, maybe it is the layout and usability, BUT I like notetaker HD a lot and I have even personally emailed the creator to tell him what a great job he has done.
ReallyBigFeet
macrumors 68030
Been using an iPad an stylus for two years now as a replacement for my leather journal. Noteability is my app, I use it for everything from taking notes to importing PDFs for editing those to capturing a whiteboard image and doing notes on that. It works well.
My only "missing feature" is the inability to search based on my notes. Without handwriting recognition, you can't do that. Then again, you can't do that with a leather journal either. But at least I can categorize notes by client or project and then sift via dates. Not perfect but nothing is.
One other small downside is the iPad can be an annoying note-taking surface under bright overhead lights. I've tried over a dozen cases and still settle on a Snapcase just because I get a nice angled writing surface in landscape mode. With Noteabilitys zoom box, no hand block issues in that mode since your hand wrests on the table rather than the screen.
My only "missing feature" is the inability to search based on my notes. Without handwriting recognition, you can't do that. Then again, you can't do that with a leather journal either. But at least I can categorize notes by client or project and then sift via dates. Not perfect but nothing is.
One other small downside is the iPad can be an annoying note-taking surface under bright overhead lights. I've tried over a dozen cases and still settle on a Snapcase just because I get a nice angled writing surface in landscape mode. With Noteabilitys zoom box, no hand block issues in that mode since your hand wrests on the table rather than the screen.
I use the iFaraday RX-II stylus with Good Notes. I had to get the stylus shipped over from the states as I couldn't find it over here but it was well worth it - so much better than the rubber tipped Boxwave one I had before.
I like Good Notes as in the zoom window it has the continue area that shifts the focus along positioned to the left of the zoom window which feel more natural to me - most other apps except for Notes Plus have this on the right. It also automatically syncs with Dropbox so I have a copy of all my notes in PDF format there.
I like Good Notes as in the zoom window it has the continue area that shifts the focus along positioned to the left of the zoom window which feel more natural to me - most other apps except for Notes Plus have this on the right. It also automatically syncs with Dropbox so I have a copy of all my notes in PDF format there.
This is true, I've thought about getting a matte screen protector. Have you tried this?
Today I bought the matte screen protector for my iPad. I had it applied at the Apple store to have a perfect placement.
While I'm not a huge fan of matte screen protectors because the screen loses some quality, I'm very happy with my screen protector for 2 reasons:
1. No more glare, I don't have to look at the ceiling while writing or see my face while reading.
2. The feeling I get with the stylus is much better, it even seems that my handwriting is better.
While I'm not a huge fan of matte screen protectors because the screen loses some quality, I'm very happy with my screen protector for 2 reasons:
1. No more glare, I don't have to look at the ceiling while writing or see my face while reading.
2. The feeling I get with the stylus is much better, it even seems that my handwriting is better.
ReallyBigFeet
macrumors 68030
I've used screen protectors on my iPhones and Android phones, but never on a surface the size of an iPad's screen. I'm not a big fan of them in general due to the degradation of the screen.
Which Matte screen protector did you buy? I'll try anything once.
I don't know the maker. I just went to the Apple Store and asked for a matte screen protector for the iPad.