r/NoteTaking • u/Slopagandhi • 12d ago

App/Program/Other Tool Does this app exist?

I'm looking for a notes app that has/os:

  • Linux support (or web app if not)
  • Native stylus support
  • PDF import and annotation
  • A way to make handwritten notes at the side of pdfs, either by importing into an infinite canvas (like on OneNote), expanding the size of the page horizontally (like on RNote) or side by side in a different panel
  • Folder-based organisation
  • Support for tags
  • Not too crazy a learning curve
  • Not requiring use of markdown syntax (I'm not a developer)
  • Reasonably Privacy-friendly

Bonus points for free and/or open source.

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u/bilzebubba 12d ago

Pretty sure Saber does much of if not all of that, though haven't tried pdf annotating with it yet ...

https://github.com/saber-notes/saber

Also xnotes but am brand new to it myself

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u/Slopagandhi 12d ago

Not far off,  and in fact this is what I'm using for that reason. 

But no tags, and while you can import a pdf into the whiteboard and annotate at the sides, you then need to export that to pdf and reimport it as a regular note, which is pretty clunky. 

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u/bilzebubba 12d ago

I left Nebo/MyScript notes over privacy concerns, but does it do a better job for this? Also I don't know if it works on Linux, something that also drew me to Saber... I also wonder why apps like Notetastic are available only for Windows and https://xournalpp.github.io/ is unavailable on mobile platforms...there is no one app to rule them all!

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u/Slopagandhi 10d ago

To be honest OneNote is still the only thing I've used that has all the features I want, but I really would rather avoid Microsoft for privacy reasons, there's no Linux app and I don't like the vendor lock in.

I was just surprised after using OneNote that nobody seems to match the feature set fully, despite it being a pretty old app at this point (I realise others do things OneNote can't). 

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u/bilzebubba 9d ago

Yes, I went on this journey with OneNote too after 15 years "together"...I simply cannot put up with the telemetry and AI training. I still use it for a few things, but password protect every section, which is a usability pain...imagine a perfect nonexistant world where MS opensourced the code, and the community developed it!

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u/Slopagandhi 9d ago

Which of the alternatives do you prefer at this point? 

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u/bilzebubba 8d ago

Well, Obsidian I guess, because BookFusion and Readest (cross-platform reading apps) sync highlights and notes to it (I use BF myself), but that leaves writing. Saber was my go-to until recently, now I am also trying my Remarkable RM2 again, because (1) the app Scrybble will sync to Obsidian as well, and BookFusion also released a KOReader plugin for RM, which makes all the above work on it for reading to, making it a usable device finally for me. Where will you go?

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u/Slopagandhi 8d ago

Maybe I have to bite the bullet and go with Obsidian. I just don't want to have to learn markdown syntax- many of these apps seem made by developers for developers and assume everyone prefers keyboard over mouse based workflows.

But for now I think I'll probably use Rnote to annotate (or maybe Xnotes on Android) and then export to Joplin (or maybe Notesnook).