What’s the Best iPad Notes App For Drawing and Handwriting?

Out of GoodNotes, Notability and Noteshelf — it’s not the one you think

Picture by Author, drawn in Noteshelf

No artist or designer that I know picks up a notes app like GoodNotes, Notability or Noteshelf when they need to do serious work. Paid work.

We use those apps for our beautiful interactive planners and for general note taking, but we still like to embellish and doodle without pulling out the big guns.

You’ve got your iPad and Apple Pencil ready to go, so which of the big three is the best app for you, if the writing and drawing experience is your main consideration?

If you’d asked me this question at the end of last year, I’d have said GoodNotes, no question. Especially now that they have that wonderful sticker saving feature built-in! That’s a stroke of genius. And there’s no denying that their Brush Pen is pretty good at creating beautiful modern calligraphy.

GoodNotes seems to be king of the heap for artistic-minded people at the moment, if the number of “made for GoodNotes” interactive planners available on Etsy is anything to go by. It’s a hard one to beat in many areas, but for reasons I’ll go into next, it’s not the one I’ve chosen to use this year.

Cartoon sketches and scribbles drawn in GoodNotes while teaching my online class

You’ll be married to this app for a year, so choose wisely

I’m mostly paperless (except for my favorite notebook and pen), so I like to choose my interactive planner as well as the app I use it in, very carefully. I imagine you feel the same.

Starting in one app and transferring to another part way through the year is possible, but you’ll find it’s best to stick with one the whole way through if you can — if only to keep your notes in native format, and therefore editable, searchable and copy-pastable without having to resort to screenshots.

In the past I’ve used digital versions of the Passion Planner and GoodPlanr, both excellent products. Now I’m using the Teacher’s Weekly planner for my part time teaching, and a Hobonichi-inspired interactive…