Top Penultimate Alternatives for Superior Digital Handwriting
Penultimate, with its seamless blend of natural handwriting and powerful Evernote integration, has long been a favorite for digital note-takers. It excels at capturing ideas, journaling, and outlining, offering a highly productive pen-and-paper experience on a digital canvas. However, as needs evolve and new features emerge, many users seek a reliable Penultimate alternative that offers even more flexibility, advanced features, or platform compatibility. If you're looking to explore other options for your digital handwriting and note-taking needs, you've come to the right place.
Top Penultimate Alternatives
Whether you prioritize advanced PDF annotation, cross-platform syncing, or a highly specialized drawing experience, the following alternatives offer compelling features that might make them the perfect replacement for Penultimate.
Notability
Notability is a highly integrated note-taking app for iOS, Mac, and iPad, offering a robust Penultimate alternative. It stands out with its automatic linking of notes with audio recordings, making it ideal for lectures or meetings. Notability is a commercial platform, supporting features like Apple Pencil support, handwriting recognition, drag-and-drop, and seamless syncing with iCloud, alongside PDF editing and robust search capabilities.
Storyboarder
Storyboarder is a free and open-source Penultimate alternative focused on visual storytelling, available on Mac, Windows, and Linux. While not a direct note-taking app, it allows users to quickly visualize stories through drawing, making it a great option for those who primarily use Penultimate for sketching out ideas and concepts in a more animation-focused context.
GoodNotes
GoodNotes provides a natural writing experience for handwritten notes on iOS and iPad, serving as a powerful commercial Penultimate alternative. It functions as a smart digital notebook with features like integrated search, Apple Pencil support, drag-and-drop, handwriting recognition, and iCloud syncing. GoodNotes also offers robust PDF annotation and OCR capabilities, making it excellent for academic or professional use.
Stylus Labs Write
Stylus Labs Write is a free Penultimate alternative available across Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iPad, designed as a word processor for handwriting. It offers the functionality of a vector drawing application with specialized features for tablets and active styluses, including a functioning eraser, support for Wacom tablets, and easy PDF export, making it highly versatile for digital ink.
Squid
Squid, formerly Papyrus, is a freemium Penultimate alternative for Android, Chrome OS, Android Tablet, and Kindle Fire. It allows natural handwritten notes on paper-like canvases, featuring infinite canvas, PDF import and combination, and easy PDF export, making it a solid choice for Android-centric users seeking a fluid writing experience.
FiiNote
FiiNote is a freemium Penultimate alternative widely compatible with Android devices, Windows, and Web. It offers convenient note-taking with support for handwritten notes, smart auto-alignment, and integrated to-do lists, making it a practical and accessible option for users across different platforms, especially Android.
MetaMoJi Note
MetaMoJi Note, previously Note Anytime, is a freemium Penultimate alternative available on Windows, Android, iPhone, Windows S, Android Tablet, iPad, and Kindle Fire. It's a powerful note-taker and PDF annotation tool with robust features like collaborative writing, Dropbox and Google Drive integration, and the ability to work offline, making it a highly versatile digital scrapbook for your ideas.
Map Note
Map Note is a commercial Penultimate alternative for iPhone and iPad users who prefer visual brainstorming. It provides an infinitely spread canvas for organizing ideas, perfect for creating rough mind maps and idea sketches. With Apple Pencil support, it's an excellent tool for educational and creative brainstorming.
ThinkSpace : Mind Map & Note
ThinkSpace: Mind Map & Note is a freemium Penultimate alternative for iPhone and iPad, designed to facilitate creative thinking. It's a powerful tool for brainstorming, creating diagrams, flowcharts, and mind maps, with full support for note-taking and pencil input, aligning well with those who use Penultimate for visual organization and ideation.
Noteshelf
Noteshelf is a commercial Penultimate alternative for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, known for its beautiful handwritten note capabilities and PDF annotation. It supports Apple Pencil, audio recording, and syncs with Dropbox and iCloud. Noteshelf also offers password protection and visual organization, making it a robust and secure option for digital note-takers.
Each of these Penultimate alternatives offers unique strengths, from advanced handwriting recognition to extensive PDF features and cross-platform compatibility. Consider your primary use cases, desired features, and preferred operating system to choose the best fit for your digital note-taking workflow.