CLUSTER TAKING-NOTE-ANNOTATION · 25 ENTRIES · EARLIEST ENTRY 2023-02-01
Stylus note-taking and PDF annotation apps
This cluster comprises handwriting-first note-taking and PDF annotation apps for stylus and touch devices, offering pressure-sensitive ink, templates, layers, cloud sync, and export options. Dated entries span from May 2010 through July 2026, with a steady trickle of one or two per month and no month exceeding two entries, indicating a long tail of incremental additions rather than a concentrated period. Traction leaders by activity signal are xnotes, SpeedyNote, and Noteful: Notes & PDF Markup, each showing 0 stars.
Entry timeline
ENTRY TIMELINE
Each bar is the month a member carries, which is a creation date where the source published one and a crawl date otherwise. Nothing in the index was found before 11 August 2026, and coverage broadened sharply on 14–15 August, so a bar from then on reports how much we found that month, not how much was built; an earlier bar reports how far back a member's own source dated it — not how long we have been watching.
Members by activity
Activity signals, not revenue.
Build origin · 3 hand-coded · 2 unlabelled
Operator · 1 hobby · 1 indie · 1 commercial · 2 open source
Two labels per entry, never collapsed into one: how it was built, and who stands behind it. Counted over the 5 listed below. Unlabelled means nothing has decided yet — not that the answer is small.
- 21NoteTaker, Note taking app0★4 yrabandonedlivehand-codedindieHandwriting note-taking app that turns tablets into digital paper, supporting PDF annotation, shape tools, text recognition, and cloud sync for paperless workflows.
- 22CanvasNote0★unknownlivehobbyNote-taking and drawing application for two-in-one devices with stylus support, offering multiple pen types, palm rejection, and PDF export.
- 23Xournal++0★5 yrabandonedlivehand-codedopen sourceNote-taking and annotation app that renders notebook files containing strokes, images, and text across mobile, desktop, and web.
- 24Xournal++0★unknownlivehand-codedopen sourceDesktop app for handwritten note-taking and PDF annotation with stylus pressure support, shape tools, and LaTeX integration for pen-tablet users.
- 25Note Taker HD0★2 yrabandonedlivecommercialTablet and phone app for handwritten note-taking that zooms ink, annotates PDFs, and organizes pages with tags and folders.
Ranked by traction, highest first, and paged 20 at a time — this is a window on the cluster, never the whole of it. Ties are broken by a stable id so a product cannot appear on two pages or fall between them. Browse every cluster.