Xournalpp++ – closs-platform, open source note taking software
xournalpp.github.io
xournalpp.github.io
My notebook, which I use like a Bullet Journal, has no batteries that need recharging, no screen that can crack, no notifications, the pen has an ink capacity of over 2 years of daily writing, with a new recharge costing ~6€, no software updates.
There's no search, and occasionally I do flip through the pages longer than I'd like, but it's rare.
Nowadays I mostly write in my paper notebook, and if there's something in there worth keeping, I upload a photograph of it in Notion.
And also no backup of any kind. So if and when your precious dead-tree notebook is lost or stolen what are you going to do?
Who steals people's used notebooks? Or new ones?
Your nice bag or backpack gets lost or stolen with a notebook among all other things you put in there. You can replace a phone, a driver license, but you cannot replace priceless imprint of your own thoughts and memories lost forever.
If needed, I keep scans of my handwritten notes that are difficult to retype. And then backup, backup, backup ...
However...
Like psyc, I still have notebooks around from my teenage years. What I no longer have are the recordings from my piano compositions from that same period.
I did lose one notebook once. It had my email address in it, and the finder contacted me. Somehow, the handover failed. I was angry, but in all honesty, it hasn't affected my life a bit.
I've always had a stern preference for pen and paper, mostly for the reasons you also outline. Always had Moleskins and they never failed me.
But some time ago, I came across reMarkable (2) that seemed like a very good device for people with a distracted mind like me. And now I don't think I'd like to live without it.
Batteries last weeks between charges, screen feels indestructible (the entire device feel indestructible actually), no notifications or any other distractions, and the nibs are really long lasting. Extra plus is that the screen/pen makes it really nice to write on, something I missed when trying to use any other device for notetaking.
The reMarkable is a bit on the expensive side though, especially for its low amount of use cases. But the cases it's built for, it does it really well, so if you have the cash to spare, maybe look into it and see if it's interesting.
Not affiliated with reMarkable, just a happy user who never thought I'd dump my notebooks for anything else.
In other words, it's a trade-off.
I’m reading a book called “How to Take Smart Notes” which espouses the Zettelkatsen method, and I spent all weekend going down the EMacs + Org-roam rabbit hole to implement what the book espouses. However, it became too complex, and became too burdensome.
The real user pain point here is “it’s difficult to remember what I write down,” and “associating thoughts, and notes from disparate sources is too time consuming.” No software has solved these two pain points, I’m afraid.
I'm also guilty of just jotting quick notes into iOS Notes. It's always there, and "good enough" for most quick note taking tasks. I prefer plain text for longer notes (which i assume has a longer shelf life), but if i'm just jotting down a quick list of things i need to get done today, iOS notes is more than enough.
Straight forward OpenSource notetaking app with Markdown, sync Backends for your prefered cloud service (incl. WebDAV/Nextcloud) and smartphone apps. https://joplinapp.org/
That said what you said is absolutely true and in my projects idea folder I called this "Inner knowing". The main problem is that note taking apps are marketed as a replacement for human memory ("brain dump", "second brain", etc). Hence they create a dependency on them as they decrease the ability to remember. When infact what we need is the opposite. Also I believe it should be an OS/DE feature thightly integrated with file management/search.
Yes, i've tried obsidian, it somewhat works but it's always an electron nonsense.
I definitely think the physical action of writing in response to stimulus is critical to initial comprehension and memory.
My new note rewriting workflow is in obsidian. I’m really liking the way it comes together with the links and tags. I’m basically building a personal wiki highly relevant to me. And the final notes are way more accessible.
That's my Helm org-Rifle shortcut for my org-notes over 10ish org files in Emacs.
Works pretty well so far
This is what I realized as well—organization is the hard part. I kept struggling to find notes when I wanted to reference them. In my case, my notes are usually (but not always) captured in a meeting. I would struggle to find content because I might remember a person, a rough date, or some topic discussed… but if I put it in the wrong folder, tag, or physical notebook I was out of luck.
I put together a simple prototype that pulled all the metadata off my calendar included it in notes. That was really helpful.
We liked it enough playing with it internally that we built a product (witful.com). In 2.5 years of real world use I’ve almost never struggled to find stuff. Really has been a game changer for me, but my content is meeting centric.
I think simplicity is the key for any long lasting system. One of the ways to ensure that my zettlekasten system doesn’t get too complicated is to “discard” most of my writing.
I always put everything into Obsidians daily notes and leave it there without any processing. I process the writing into cards only if I look for it again or it’s interesting enough.
I find that at the end of the day, the only thing that works over long periods of time (and a large number of notes) are hierarchies with a regular structure that can be applied consistently. The pain point with this system is that hierarchies are hard to change and the way we think of things does change. This is why I ended up creating my own note taking tool built around the idea of flexible hierarchies (https://dendron.so)
"This is my first Rust and GTK project and I am learning as I go along. Expect some bugs and crashes. Also: The file format is still unstable. It might change and break compatibility between versions."
I wonder though, what if I don't have a pen? I imagine using it with keyboard for typing, and making some drawings/sketches etc. with mouse. Is that a first-class workflow?
Also, plugins written in Lua, I like that. Whether one is a fan of Lua or not, at least it is an low-entry bar to writing plugins, which generally is nice.
One more question, since the "Config"-part of the docs are very todo - is there some kind of dark mode? All screenshots are light mode, so I wouldn't take that for granted.
Mostly I am curious about the audio-record feature, I can imagine well, writing a brief summary and just talk a few additional remarks into my headset instead of typing that down.
Note that this is a rewrite of Xournal (a GTK application), and there are still some things Xournal get better, but many things xournalpp do better.
It's worth it to try both.
I'm a lecturer and used Xournal extensively during COVID to write on slides while lecturing. I had a Wacom on my desk, and switching from slides to handwriting was completely seamless. I think it made the lectures much more engaging. So thanks to the Xournal team!
I used the older Xournal, since - if I recall correctly - the rewrite is missing full-screen support.
Please, launch OneNote or any popular note-taking app on iPad, and just copy whatever they are doing. It's going to be much cleaner and more accessible.
Very useful.
I would really like it if it had better snapping to lines/boundaries on the underlying PDF.
Mostly when I have to fill out a stupid form and sign it.
I've been doing this with xournal for years :)
the shape recognition is a bit rough... I need to make an almost perfect circle so that the tool recognizes it...
For hardware, I'm using Wacom 672. It has pretty good Linux drivers.
Not tried other use, nor I have not much idea of the differences with this fork...
Written in C++ with GTK3, supporting Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, SUSE), macOS and Windows 10.
> Which Wacom tablet should I get? It doesn't have to be wacom, there are lots of options - Huion and XP-Pen come to mind as two low cost ($20+) examples, to get your feet wet in the wordle of tablets, although there are lots of other companies as well
> Would an iPad be a better choice for note taking? Depends on how you like your notes - an iPad is about as portable as a graphics tablet, so it's mostly personal preference and cost here
> How do Wacom and iPad compare hardware wise?
In terms of horizontal/vertical resolution: you probably don't need to worry about it, it'll be fine as long as your tablet is well matched in size to your screen (I quite like 8" diagonal or similar for a 24" screen, scaling up and down from there? personal preference though)
Both will do the basics of pressure sensitivity (any number of levels of sensitivity above 1024 is probably indistinguishable unless you are serious about it, ignore the marketing) and tablets will support tilt from a fairly low price. The main difference is that graphics tablets support 'hovering' the pen above the tablet to show the cursor on the screen, although this is not necessary on an iPad where the image is directly underneath.
The Wacom One is a fine choice (its their smallest and least expensive model). Maybe artists would need a larger one, but the Wacom One is, IMO, large enough to take notes on.
Haven't tried an iPad, but that Wacom is a really excellent writing/drawing experience.
They're all plug-and-play under Linux, Windows, and Mac. Some come with extra drivers for Windows and Mac, but you don't want those. It's like mouse and keyboard drivers -- they add a layer of obnoxiousness for normal users, and unless you're doing something specialized, worthless.
For whiteboarding, 6"x4" to 8"x5" is sort of ideal. Bigger than that, and it's too cumbersome. Bigger has upsides for e.g. artists doing Photoshop, but it's not really for business use.
I like these a lot better than screen tablets or similar. Your hand and eyes are both at comfortable heights. You can also have multiple views open -- I can share a large full-screen view of a whiteboard over Zoom, and on a different screen, zoom in on what I'm specifically drawing. Working this way, I have perfect handwriting, and uncanny artistic ability. You also don't have alignment issues.
Major issue is having lag-free software. Very low latency makes a huge difference.
Anecdotally, I once saw a codebase littered with the variable "rambda".