5 Handwriting Apps for Taking Notes on Your Tablet or Smartphone
The
funny thing about Evernote and other so-called note-taking apps: Most
don’t support note-taking of the actual handwritten variety. That’s
a shame, because discreetly jotting down shorthand during a critical
client meeting trumps pounding away at an awkward virtual keyboard
every time.
Fortunately
for inveterate stylus lovers, a bevy of handwriting apps offer bells,
whistles, and the ability to scribble all over your smartphone or
tablet until your hand cramps. Here are a few worth checking out.
Notes
Plus (iPad,
$7.99): Few handwriting apps can top Notes Plus. Its powerful
handwriting-recognition engine parses scrawl by fat fingers and slim
styli alike, sharpens hastily drawn shapes, and enables you to edit
notes or drag-and-drop whole sections to other areas. Notes Plus
doesn’t skimp on the extras, either: It offers audio note support,
sharing, PDF import/export capabilities, and automatic Dropbox
synchronization. The only major downside is that it’s currently an
iPad exclusive.
Penultimate (iPad,
99 cents): If you don’t need the extra features of Notes Plus,
Penultimate is a highly regarded — and cheap — handwriting app
that also happens to be an iPad exclusive. It lacks audio support,
PDF import options, and multitouch capabilities, but the handwriting
recognition is crisp and responsive. Like Notes Plus, Penultimate
packs numerous note-sharing tools and plays nice with Dropbox. It
also adds Evernote support, which compensates for its inability to
turn notes into editable text, a major flaw of most handwriting apps.
Exporting a PDF of a note to Evernote lets Evernote’s excellent
optical character recognition technology shoulder the burden.
Antipaper
Notes (Android
tablets, free; $5.49 upgrade available): Not every tablet sports
Apple’s iconic logo. Hordes of happy Android users say that
Antipaper Notes is the best tablet-optimized handwriting app
available for Google devices — and the basic version is free. The
attractive-looking app mimics a real notepad and sports a wide
variety of page and pen types. Writing appears quickly and
flawlessly, but Antipaper Notes has some notable drawbacks: The
number of pages is limited in the free version, and notes may only be
exported as PNG or JPG image files (not PDFs) via email. (pictured)
PenSupremacy (Android,
$1.49): PenSupremacy offers a little more flexibility than Antipaper
Notes. The app works on Android phones and tablets,
for one thing, and it can export PDFs of your notes via email,
Evernote, Facebook, and various other means. The ability to import
pictures into pages is another plus, as is voice dictation for audio
notes. However, not everything is rosy in PenSupremacyland: Users say
the app’s handwriting recognition can be sluggish and inaccurate,
and there is no Undo option.
WritePad (iOS,
$3.99; Android, $9.99): WritePad doesn’t even try to save your
notes in shorthand. Basically, you scribble your notes on the screen,
and when you pause WritePad converts them to text. Even better, the
software adapts to your chicken scratch and grows more accurate the
more you use it. The handwriting-recognition engine understands
English, French, German, and Spanish, and text can be automatically
translated into a dozen different languages. There’s even a
built-in calculator. The more expensive Android version
adds a WritePad virtual keyboard to your device that lets you
hand-write emails, website URLs, text messages, and more, which the
keyboard then converts to text. It’s all very intriguing, but
beware: User reviews say the handwriting-to-text conversions are
inaccurate until the app catches up with your penmanship. Customer
service and Android device support can also be hit-and-miss.
by Brad
Chacoson
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