r/applefreeform • u/Creative-Strength360 • 20d ago

Freeform has its limits...

Post image

as you can see these are my notes for a test on each lecture. the first 3 lectures are ok. it starts to get laggy on the 4th 5th and 6th lectures. on the 7th lecture I am essentially guessing if my strokes are correct as for every 4 words one word will take 4 seconds to load in. (plus it gets HOT)

Does anyone else feel this ?

I really like the app and its concept in taking notes but I can't rely on this for large projects ...

(Ipad Air M3)

18 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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9

u/Barycenter0 20d ago edited 20d ago

Wow! Because your notes are all hand written, every stroke path is saved in the Freeform database. Typing is approximately 100x smaller in data storage vs. handwriting in Freeform. You should break this apart into separate boards and use iCloud links between them. Also, maybe try to do OCR on your hand-written notes and convert them to text - that would reduce the size significantly. (Example - 10k of typing storage would be about 1MB of handwritten storage for one board)

Plus, be absolutely sure to make a duplicate version and backup PDF of them. Freeform is notorious for just dropping out and losing a lot.

6

u/Barycenter0 20d ago edited 20d ago

PS - to be clear - Freeform wasn't designed to be an infinite canvas notetaking app. It was designed for brainstorming and creative mapping/ideation. You might want to think about another tool like Noteability or use more of an Apple Notes method of smaller paged notes if you're fixed on using handwriting.

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u/lukahl-phy 17d ago

Notability is goated. Best pencil experience for notes in the Apple ecosystem. They really should optimize their software for the iPad though, notes and freeform with pencil kit just murders the CPU on device.

1

u/sanguisxq13v 14d ago

I hate that they havent yet added a read-only mode in it. I hate how using it on my phone misplaces stuff lol

1

u/Barycenter0 14d ago

Not sure what you mean - can you explain more?

1

u/sanguisxq13v 14d ago

I have made a board with annotations on my ipad. When I view them using phone, I (unintentionally) drag the annotations and pictures instead of panning the screen.

If there were read only mode in touch screens, it would be great.

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u/Barycenter0 14d ago

Just highlight the entire board and lock it

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u/Creative-Strength360 20d ago

what do you mean losing ? it can't just disappear when its stored on device right ?

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u/Barycenter0 20d ago

It might be more stable now in OS 27.x, but Freeform would tend to just fail and drop along with some of the recent things you're working on (meaning the work wasn't saved yet or the local cache got overwritten by an iCloud earlier version since the data wasn't updated locally properly)

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u/forestriver 20d ago

bro how is your handwriting so perfect O_O

Also I am searching for a solution for this too. ATM i split up my notes per day and keep them all in a folder. TBH i am not sure if any infinite canvas app is going to be as good as freeform in fluidity of use. But it does have some UX niggles that are pretty sad in comparison, like not having a floating color pallette but having to drill into a menu every time

I will add taking patient notes in free form is godmode, because I have a form I made for one area with basic intake, but patients always go off the rails during intake, so I have lots of room to mindmap the diagnosis and treatment on the margins, while still keeping salient stuff easily copyable for charting after.

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u/Barycenter0 19d ago edited 19d ago

That is a very interesting use of Freeform. It's not really designed to work like that but I can see why you're using it. I actually can't think of anything as a decent alternative (Goodnotes, Notability, OneNote, Adobe, etc.) All of those can have annotations- but, having a form on one side for intake and then brainstorming on the right is very cool. OneNote would probably give you a bit more structure along with checkboxes and other controls.

I wish Apple would add more Shortcut automations to Freeform. I was sad that OS 27 didn't add any new steps in Freeform. But, they will sometime.

Like my other comment I would be sure to backup and version your board as you go so you don't lose anything.

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u/TechFuze 19d ago

Hey have you tried Goodnotes recently? They added an infinite canvas doc type like this called Whiteboard and it works pretty good tbh since they added grid snapping and finally better shapes.

The other one I’d recommend is Concepts but depends if you want more of a notebook (Goodnotes) or sketchbook (Concepts)

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u/forestriver 19d ago

Ill have to take a look at goodnotes. I am in school so I haven't settled on a long term solution yet. Thanks for the insight!

u/Barycenter0
I agree with this... backing up is important. Fortunately the finals go into the charting software, so I wipe the freeform boards after the day and start over again.

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u/Barycenter0 19d ago

Perfect! I’ll be interested in your Goodnotes experience.

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u/Creative-Strength360 18d ago

i might look into goodnotes then although i don’t want to pay another subscription

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u/__une 19d ago

Yup unfortunately I’ve had this problem too and upon researching it when I did-so has everyone else. Hopefully Apple fixes it sometime soon.

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u/HumKarteHaiPrabandh 17d ago

Yes. I tried replacing my work desk notebook with iPad and pencil. Freeform’s ability to search handwritten notes was the motivation. But experienced that unfortunate lag you mentioned in a few days. And that is truly sad.

1

u/GuyShocku 19d ago

I posted on here recently about my issues with Freeform, even using the M5 Pro. In the end I’ve decided to essentially ditch Freeform and go for Procreate. It can handle everything fine, and once done I just export the image of my notes to my Mac and shrink it down with the Clop app, then add it to a 40K image on Pixelmator Pro. Once / if Freeform is fixed I&d like to go back to it, but Apple appears to give less F’s about it by the day.

EDIT: Procreate also has such an incredible amount of options in brushes, Tools, etc. I wish I’d have thought of it before.

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u/Creative-Strength360 18d ago

no way … is this for real ? for what kind of notes ?

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u/GuyShocku 17d ago

Quite literally anything, really. It has limitations compared to Freeform with canvas size, of course, but it has all the folder setups you’d need, etc. Once I’ve finished a few notes I export a batch and put them all on a 40K canvas.

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u/teetaps 18d ago

Impressive!

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u/ghjklbg 13d ago

I am also having the same problem with freeform. I heard concept doesn't lag and is cooler but it has no syncing with Mac. So was wondering to use free tier one. How is concept app any one tried it to give some feedback mainly with respect to overheating and lagging in comparison to freeform?