PDNotes
Write like on paper. Own it like paper.
PDNotes is a notes app for handwriting and PDF — with a canvas that follows the pen instead of trailing behind it. Your notes are ordinary files in a folder you choose. No account, no subscription, no server.
- No account
- Fully offline
- Buy once
- Export anytime
Sound familiar?
Notes apps used to be tools. Many of them have become contracts.
The tool becomes a rental
First a one-time purchase, then a switch to a yearly subscription — and if you don't renew, you lose features you had already paid for. A pen that charges monthly.
Your notes live at someone else's place
Create an account before your first stroke. Your entire degree's worth of notes then sits in a database you cannot reach the moment the provider changes something — or disappears.
The exit is blocked
Want to switch? Sure — but years of notes stay behind in a proprietary format, and the export is a pile of PDFs without layers, without searchable text, without a way back.
PDNotes turns that around
Three decisions that are not marketing copy but architecture — they cannot be quietly revoked.
A note is a file
Visible in the Files app, copyable, backup-able, shareable. Delete PDNotes and your notes stay put — they are your files in your folder. There is no server they could be trapped on, because there is no server.
Buy once means once
€14.99, done. No subscription, no time window, no version 2 that demands a repurchase. Syncing between your devices runs through your own cloud and is included — it costs us nothing, so we charge nothing.
The app is quiet
No ads, no tracking pixels, no usage statistics, no account. PDNotes does not know who you are and does not want to. That is why the privacy label in the store is a single line: no data collected.
Built for writing, not for managing
Three tools are visible: pen, highlighter, eraser. Everything else you fetch when you need it — and then it stays.
A stroke that lands
Paper has no lag. Screens do — and that is exactly what tells you, while writing, that you are not writing on paper. So PDNotes does not draw with the usual building blocks of an app; it talks straight to the device's graphics: the line sits under the nib, not behind it. Width follows your pen's pressure, and where there is no pressure, it follows speed or tilt.
Tables you can write in
A real table, not a drawn grid: rows grow with their content, columns can be dragged wider, rows and columns come and go. You can type into the cells — or write by hand. Handwriting then belongs to the cell and moves and grows with it. We know of no other note app that does this.
PDF as paper
Import a lecture script, write into it, pass it on. The export creates real vector paths instead of pixel images — every line stays sharp, even in print. Image exports run at 300 dpi, and a full library export runs through in the background, even with a hundred notebooks.
Handwriting too
One search field across everything: titles, tags, typed text, PDF contents and recognised handwriting. Recognition runs on the device; nothing is uploaded.
Ruler, compass, shapes
A ruler with a millimetre scale that you can draw along from either edge — a set square and a protractor are there as alternatives. Plus a compass, shapes that show what they will become while you drag, a writing zoom for small handwriting, and layers that stay invisible until you look for them.
Time travel and audio
Every stroke point carries a timestamp. That is why you can replay how a page came to be — and a voice recording jumps to exactly the place you were writing at the time. Scrubbing and pausing work like in a voice message.
Split view
Source on the left, notebook on the right: the script beside your notes, in one window. Marked passages move into the note with a single tap.
Show it, don't film it
A presentation mode for projectors and AirPlay: the big screen shows the page only, without tools or menus. Plus a laser pointer that leaves nothing behind, and cover-ups for studying that lift with a tap.
Order without pressure
Several notes in tabs, links from note to note, and jump marks within a notebook. Headers and footers as in Word, with building blocks such as page number and date that fill themselves in. Folders, tags, favourites — and a bin that keeps deleted items for 30 days.
Backups without a cloud
One button starts a short-lived service on your own Wi-Fi: on your computer you open an address and download single notes or the whole library as an archive. With an access code, read-only — uploading has to be enabled separately. No account, no third-party server.
At home on your system
Share PDFs, images and text into PDNotes from other apps; on the iPad they also land on the page by drag and drop. Plus widgets, Siri shortcuts, Handoff, printing — and in the Files app every note shows a real preview.
The pen you cannot buy
Every note app hands you a handful of pens and a choice of colour and thickness. If yours is not among them, hard luck — we know of no other note app where you could build it yourself. In PDNotes a pen is not an entry in a list but something that belongs to you: you set it up, give it a name and send it like a picture.
- Twelve values on sliders: width range, smoothing, opacity, grain, tilt, tip shape — and how much the stroke breaks up on the paper.
- The sample stroke changes as you move a slider. No guessing, no saving in between, no test stroke on an empty page.
- Photograph your real pen: one stroke on paper is enough for the app to read off the values. It runs on the device, the photo goes nowhere.
- A pen is a file with a preview image. Passing it on means copying it — no account, no store, no sign-in.
- Every stroke remembers its pen. Delete it and your note still looks the way it did the day you wrote it.
Four of them come built in. The fifth is yours.
Who this is built for
University
Load the lecture as a PDF, write into it, link it to the recording. Later, search your handwriting instead of leafing through pages. And when revising: hide the solutions layer, quiz yourself with spaced intervals.
- Annotate PDF scripts
- Recording jumps to the passage
- Handwriting search
- Worksheet without the solutions layer
Work
Meeting notes, sketches, signed documents — as files in the company folder instead of a third party's cloud. Without an account there is no compliance question about where the data lives: with you.
- Files instead of third-party cloud
- Vector PDF for handover
- Fully usable offline
- No data collection
School
PDNotes Education is procured centrally and distributed via MDM. No student accounts, no sign-in, no data on our side — and no purchase on every single device.
- Apple School Manager
- Device-based assignment
- Schoolwork integration
- No learning profiles
The difference, in black and white
No names — you will recognise your app yourself.
| PDNotes | Typical subscription notes app | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment model | €14.99 once | ≈ €10–35 every year |
| Account required | No | Yes, usually before the first note |
| Notes live | In your folder, as files | In the provider's cloud |
| Without internet | Fully usable | Limited to not at all |
| After cancelling | There is nothing to cancel | Reading yes, editing often no |
| Data collection | None | Account, usage, often analytics |
| PDF export | Vector paths, with layer choice | Often rasterised |
| Tables you can write in | Yes, rows grow with content | Not available |
| Your own pens | Built by you, shareable as a file | A fixed set of pen types |
| Backup without a cloud | Yes, via the browser on your own Wi-Fi | Only via the provider's cloud |
| If the provider quits | Your files remain, export remains | Hope for a grace period |
As of August 2026. The comparison describes common subscription models, not any specific product.
“Your notes stay editable. Always. Even if you never pay again.”
- A purchased version remains usable permanently.
- There will never be a major version that demands a repurchase.
- Notes stay readable and editable without an account and without internet.
- There is no subscription for core functionality.
- A complete export to an open format is always possible.
This is not an advertising claim — it is part of our terms of use, section 6, for anyone to read.
One price, once
The free edition is not crippled, it is capped: all tools, no watermark, no time limit — only the number of notebooks.
PDNotes Free
permanently, without an account
- All tools, no watermarks
- PDF import and annotation without limits
- Export without limits, always
- Three notebooks
PDNotes Full
one-time, no subscription
- Unlimited notebooks
- All future tools, at no extra cost
- Sync through your own cloud
- No account, no internet, permanently
For scale: a yearly subscription of about €11 adds up to roughly €55 over a five-year degree. PDNotes costs €14.99 once — and still runs afterwards.
For schools, without student accounts
A separate app a school procures centrally through Apple School Manager and distributes by MDM. Fully unlocked from the first launch — no purchase on every device, no sign-in for learners, no data on our side.
- Distribution via Apps & Books, device-based
- Education volume discount: 50% from 20 licences
- Schoolwork integration: share notes as assignments
- No class lists, no learning profiles on our side
- Runs on managed iPads and in lessons with Classroom
- Worksheets with a hideable solutions layer
- Fully offline — including classrooms without Wi-Fi
Frequently asked
Where are my notes?
How does syncing work without a server?
How do I get content in?
How do I get my notes onto a computer?
Are there tables?
Can I build my own pens and pass them on?
What happens to my notes if I delete a pen?
What happens if you stop?
Why no subscription?
Does the app work the same on Android?
Can I move over from GoodNotes or Noteshelf?
What about an account for multiple devices?
How safe are my notes?
Is there a Windows or Mac version?
What is different about PDNotes Education?
Starting costs nothing
Download, write, decide later. The free edition has no time limit.