GoodNotes 4 App Reviews

Everything is perfectly matching my needs; excellent writings and edits, brilliant underlining(I cannot even imagine my apple pencil without this app), easy text and image inserts as a reference, and so on. The one single thing that I feel sad is that this app doesnt support webdav system. If webdav format was available on this app and supports concurrent sync system along with it, it would be the ultimate form of my pdf annotating system that Ive dreamed of.. I couldnt help but use the dropbox/google drive system, but it makes me feel incomplete and hope this would be amended soon!!

I can barely think of a way to improve this app. It is simple but powerful and for projecting to Apple TV this app is perfect for classroom use. I like this better than notability also. Perhaps one improvement would be to be able to rotate an ink selection. Another feature that would be nice is to quickly jump between different notebooks. But otherwise the app is practically perfect.

Now that the Apple Pencil line smoothing has been turned down, this is easily my #1 piece of software for my iPad Pro. The ability to sync to Goodreader on my Mac, present as a whiteboard, annotate, etc makes it an absolute must have. I can absolutely recommend it. Ive tried Upad, Noteshelf, Notes Plus, OneNote, Notepad+, Notability, and several others, and this one is the keeper. Good job, guys.

I love using GoodNotes whenever I need to use my iPad screen as scratch paper. GoodNotes is also a good repository for all my bank PDF statements; once in GoodNotes, I can annotate the PDF all I want. Good way to go paperless e.g., instead of printing and mailing a PDF, you can fill out the PDF on your iPad, then click send.

Love this app, but after the last update, it always crashes whenever I try to search an imported PDF! Hope that gets fixed soon!

This app is wonderful for note taking. The choices in pens, inks, covers, and papers are very good, and the pens work really well. The app is very easy to use. The Shapes feature is very useful, especially for underlining. I miss just one thing: the ability to secure the notes with a password.

It started happening right after upgrading it on my iPad pro. The pdf link would not work either.

This is one of the best note taking apps Ive used, overall. It definitely wins when it comes to hand-written notes, but it lacks a fundamentally important component of electronic notes: good text input options. The only ability to input text is through text boxes, which is fine, but there are very few customization options, such as headers, bulleted lists, etc.

The latest upgrade makes my Joy Touch even worth than my fingers for note taking. First, the green light on the Touch is not going to be on when its connected, just as the same as the previous bug. Second, it takes much more pressure to write, otherwise it skips a LOT or even dont work at all. Third, palm rejection function is worth than before. My palm "cooperate" with the stylus sometimes, which is super annoying. I really appreciate you, Goodnote team. Hope to see a perfect version again.

Used the Apple Pencil to enter hand text. Did not follow my writing at all, re-formed many letters into circles. Totally useless.

Seriously, there are still only 2 pen styles?

There is nothing else out there that works this well!

I love this app! I use it with Apple Pencil, and unlike other note taking apps I have tried, this one has a setting that recognizes only input from the pencil, allowing you to use your fingers to easily navigate the page or select other tools.

Enough said

This app needs an options for a date stamp and other text options.

This app has completely changed the way I work. As a PhD student, I read a ton of research papers and have to mark them up quite intensely. At the same time, I go to various seminars/meetings/conferences, all of which requires note-taking. Plus, I like doodling reaction mechanisms and/or quick ideas on random loose paper sheets (which are usually around for only a couple of weeks before they mysteriously disappear). I had 3 problems: not being able to not print the research papers out before I can read and mark up comfortably (I use a LOT of paper just for this purpose alone), not being able to keep all my notes from different sessions together and neatly organized, and not being able to doodle whenever/however much I want and keep all the doodling around in case Id realize someday in the future that there would be something useful in there. Those were the initial incentives for me to go paperless and buy a 9.7" iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. But I was skeptical at first, not convinced that Id be able to find an app that solves all 3 problems for me. I was prepared to use multiple apps to address all the problems. Then I found GoodNotes, and my life has changed since then. This is THE app for me. It perfectly sweeps all my previous problems away, with a breeze. Taking notes on it with Apple Pencil feels super natural. Although it still doesnt match the experience with actual paper and a nice pen like the Lamy Safari, I didnt expect any electronic note-taking solution to come close to that experience either. In fact, it feels quite nice to write on GoodNotes, and my handwriting is close to if not identical to my pen-paper handwriting. Only gripe here, itll be even better if the digital ink doesnt auto-correct the strikes as intrusively. Another thing thats great is that the app manages files/notes neatly. All my PDFs, all my notes and all my doodles are perfectly resting in their respective folders now, and I couldnt be happier about the experience. One last thing that really blew me away is that the Mac version and the iOS version works very well together. With a little help from iCloud, Im able to just download research articles on my Mac, drop them straight to GoodNotes on Mac, then read/markup or whatever when everything is automatically uploaded to iCloud and pushed to GoodNotes on my iPad/iPhone. Now when I need to do a little more detailed reading, I just grab my iPad and Apple Pencil, and the article is already sitting right there with all my markups from the Mac. I can now write/markup naturally with the Pencil, and all changes are already synced up to iCloud as well. I can view these changes anytime with my Mac or iPhone. It just works so well that itll be a crime to not give it a try. I can honestly say that Ive gone entirely paperless after owning the 9.7 iPad Pro and GoodNotes. It just works. If youre a serious note taker with 5 different notebooks flying around, or if youre someone who reads a lot of documents and write on them, or if you just doubt that pen+paper can never be replaced digitally, try this and get your paradigm shifted.

Weve tried several free apps and the saying you get what you pay for certainly applies :/ Good Notes 4 was recommended by a friend...its worth every penny of the $7.99! Performs GREAT with the Apple Pencil.

This app is amazing and is well worth twice the price. It is darn near perfect. I want to give it 5 stars but really need to be able to export a page as text. Really looking forward to that feature. Keep up the great work.

update: Ive tried the others...this app simply gets it right. It takes some practice and tweaking to get handwriting to look nice in the app while using the Apple Pencil(adjust the writing position settings) but it is possible. Simply speaking, it is intuitive. You dont have to go through a crazy process to draw shapes. Curves would be nice and slightly better inking would help but when its all said and done, hands down best. And yes, the zoom window is still awesome. If you need to record lectures, just use another app or device. I hope that Apple or Microsoft buys this app and integrate it into the new Notes app for iOS 9 or OneNote accordingly. **Please, fix Bluetooth big for iOS 9.** 5 stars nonetheless. The zoom window is the best feature!

Two levels of TouchID security need to be implemented for this app to be truly perfect: Gallery level and Notebook level. This feature would truly make for a stellar update to a great notes app.