This gives you the best of both worlds - handwritten notes vs typed text. Even if you have terribly messy scribble-scrabble like mine, the app can identify the characters and turn it into digital text. Using that same technology, it can also convert handwriting to text. Since GoodNotes uses an advanced OCR technology (Optical Character Recognition), you can even search through handwritten notes. How to Use GoodNotes 4 to Convert Handwriting to Text You can write, draw, type, highlight, underline, circle, and add graphic elements to any PDF file. Create notebooks with colorful covers, choose from different paper types (lined grid, wide ruled, blank, music sheets, etc.), and organize notebooks into category folders. As far as I’m concerned, this is as close to writing with paper and pen as you can get using digital media.

This app is $7.99 in the App Store and I have to tell you that it is worth every penny. But, for straight note taking, the functionality was lacking.Īfter reading several online reviews and getting a recommendation from one of my sisters, I decided to try out GoodNotes 4. PDF Expert is great for editing documents and scribbling things here and there. But, I still wasn’t able to take notes in a way that felt natural to me. This program allows you to highlight, type text, add signatures, annotate PDFs freely, and more. For a while, I was using a paid app we already had called PDF Expert (costs $9.99). I downloaded several free apps but it was a pain to use them. While this app does support the Apple Pencil, it is so bare bones and klunky. GoodNotes 4 - The Best Note Taking App for iPad Pro & Apple PencilĪt first, I tried taking notes in the free Notes app. Not all note taking apps are made equal, though, and few can convert handwriting to text as well as GoodNotes 4! While the fine precision and pressure-sensitive technology is great for art, I mostly use it for taking notes. It seriously hurt to shell out that $100 but, I have to say, that was one of the best purchasing decisions I made in a long time.

When I received my iPad Pro 9.7” a few months ago, the first thing I did was run out and buy an Apple Pencil.

Convert handwritten notes to text app