Similar to other text-first apps like Evernote, in order to handwrite with Apple Pencil, you have to add a handwriting 'section' inside a note. It's awkward to combine typed text and handwriting within the same note. There are a few drawbacks for more advanced (read: picky) note-takers.

In short, it's got most of the features you probably want for simple note taking, and it's easy to use from the second you open it. Notes supports handwritten text or sketches with the Apple Pencil, typed text, links, photos, and videos, and it offers some basic text formatting options like checklists, lists, and headings. Made by Apple, Notes comes pre-installed on your iPad and offers an intuitive user experience and flawless syncing over iCloud-and it's free. The best iPad note-taking apps: at a glance And if you're looking for the best free note-taking app for iPad, you're in luck: all of these apps are either completely free or have a free version. With these criteria in mind, and after weeks of testing apps with my usual workflow of creative brainstorming and client meetings, these are the seven best iPad note-taking apps. Today's top note-taking apps offer audio recordings, link and media imports, handwriting recognition, and more. Great apps go even further with collaboration tools and additional formats. Whether you want to archive, print, or email your notes, you'll probably need to save them as a PDF. You need to be able to easily access your notes-and preferably edit and create them-from all your devices.Įxporting and sharing options. For most of us, our iPad isn't our main work device. These apps offer easy ways to find your notes, such as folder (or 'notebook') organization, categories, tags, and more. The benefit of digital storage can also be its downfall: nearly unlimited storage can turn you into a packrat. For those who prefer to type, apps should also offer full keyboard support. Good note-taking apps make full use of Apple Pencil with pressure sensitivity and tilt support to make writing on the screen feel like paper. In my opinion, these are the five features that the best notes app for iPad needs to have:Īpple Pencil support. I'm sure you agree our notes now are more essential to daily life than previous scribblings about photosynthesis, right?

Like you, I've been taking notes since elementary school. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

Google docs note taking templates