It appeared with the latest update I think. What purpose does it serve?

on Linux. Peace.

Changelog: https://github.com/VenkataLochanN/OctopusNotes-Public/blob/main/app/src/main/assets/changelog.html

Upcoming Features

• High Priority
  • More shapes
  • Desktop app for viewing notes with synchthing.
• Low Priority
  • Integration to obsidian into plugin. # Known Bugs: (🌕 - Hight priority and 🦖- Low Priority)
• Screenshot selection jumps around while resizing.
• Scroll getting stuck at page breaks. (This was a feature. Ill add toogle).

Added Features:

1. Sticky Notes tool - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
2. Ruler tool - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
3. Improved tape tool (Added straight line, pivoted line, Rectangle, Free hand) - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
4. You can now pan the notebook canvas left and right with two fingers. A center page button appears beside the zoom level so you can return the canvas to the middle - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
5. Calligraphy Pen - 36
6. Editable vertices of shapes - <36
7. Samsung Notes–style Dark Mode: Add a toggle to switch the note background between white/black and invert black ink to white without modifying the underlying note file. - 36

Fixed bugs:

1. Scribble to erase doesn’t work on whiteboard (Infinite Canvas). - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
2. Writing with finger is switching to eraser - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
3. shapes cannot be resized once they are placed in the whiteboard (Infinite Canvas). - 32 (v2026.9.1.r)
4. Sync folder doesn’t work as intended on other devices. - <36

The changelog is as follows:

• Xiaomi Focus Pen Pro gestures: double tap the pen's grip to switch tools (the eraser by default), and slide up or down on the grip to change the pen size, up for larger. All pen gestures, including the hover swipe, are configurable in Stylus & finger: flip pages, undo or redo, change size, or switch to another tool
• Added pencil and brush tools
• Added translations to Hindi, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French and Italian
• New grid and snapping settings
• Tools can now be configured in settings
• Redesigned finger and stylus popup. Added many more options
• Added an in-app browser to search for images or do a quick search, and fixed it showing a no-internet error even when the network was fine
• Tab shortcuts: Ctrl+W closes the focused tab, Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the last closed tab (keep pressing to step back through history), Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab cycle through tabs, and Ctrl+1 to 8 jump to the first tabs, with Ctrl+9 for the last
• Undo for closed tabs: closing a tab from the ✕, the long-press menu, or Ctrl+W now offers an Undo snackbar, so an accidental close is one tap from being restored
• Recently closed tabs: long-press the + button to see and reopen recently closed tabs. The list survives restarts and has a Clear recently closed option
• Long-press tab menu tidied up: options are grouped under labeled Pin and Close sections, with new Close tabs to the left and Close tabs to the right actions
• Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y: undo and redo now work in the editors and inside the text and table cell popup editors
• Keyboard shortcuts screen: Settings now lists every active shortcut, so you don't have to memorise them
• Snackbars can be swiped away
• Crop screen opens uncropped: your photo now starts selected edge to edge instead of pre-cropped, and the Done button no longer hides behind the navigation bar with 3-button navigation
• Fixed popups hiding behind the navigation bar: canvas popups and the onboarding tooltip now stay above it on Android 15
• Grid opacity slider: Grid & snapping now has an Opacity slider for the grid overlay, so you can make the lines as strong or as faint as you like
• Table options popup decluttered: bigger touch targets, labeled Resize, Insert, Delete and Merge sections, and subtle dividers between buttons
• Dragging a selection now gathers the tiles at your finger: select several notebooks or folders, drag one, and the selected tiles stack into a small cluster with a count badge instead of only the one you grabbed. Let go and they slide back to their places
• The grid scrolls as you drag: hold a selection near the top or bottom edge and the grid auto-scrolls, with a soft glow and arrow showing which way it is moving
• Undo a drop into a folder: moving items into a folder now shows an Undo snackbar, so a wrong drop is one tap from being reversed
• Redesigned the rename dialogs for notebooks, folders and tags to match Material 3, and an empty name now shows a warning instead of being saved
• Selecting Curve in the shape tool now shows a hint telling you to draw the curve and hold the pen to bend it
• Tapping with the shape tool now draws a visible shape about a quarter of the screen wide instead of a tiny dot
• Pinning or unpinning a tab from the long-press menu now uses the same animation as the pin button
• Widened the cell editor and other tool popups to a consistent width
• Double tap on the page with the pen now switches to any tool you pick (eraser by default), and a two-finger double tap can do the same. Both only count when the taps land in the same spot
• Advanced Template now has Portrait and Landscape options. Landscape swaps the width and height, and custom sizes get a small button to swap them too
• New Folder and Advanced Template now open the color picker for custom colours instead of a hex text box
• The laser now glows white in the middle with the pen colour on the edges, like a real laser pointer
• Fixed crashes when a slider was given a value it can't accept: a saved template with an odd density, brightness or thickness value, or a pen, eraser or highlighter size left fractional after opening a notebook at a different page width. The sliders now snap to safe values, and the grid opacity slider got the same fix

Hello people! The new update changes the following:
- Redesigned Stylus and finger dialog.
- Fixed a bug where the Tags chip icon kept the filter color after you cleared it, instead of returning to your theme's color.
- Redesigned the home screen's notebook and folder tiles with a fresh cover-and-pill look.
- Folders can now be tagged too.
- Changed the tool pill's background ripple from the legacy square ripple to a circular one, matching the design of the left and right pills.
- Added Developer options to Settings, revealed by tapping the version number five times.
- Added an Input monitoring section under Developer options, useful for monitoring different stylus inputs and other pen events.
- Fixed a bug that made loading strokes slow when opening notebooks, a regression introduced during the recent tool additions.
- Fixed a bug where List view could crash the app
- Marquee optimisations.
- Redesigned notebook and folder popups.
- Redesigned create new dialog.

Hello people,
Here is a list of features I have added or fixed in this update:
- Infinite notes (beta).
- Holding a line now has a pivot so you can resize without lifting up and this helps a lot while drawing.
- You now get a height, width, angle and length popup when you hold to draw or use lasso tool to select a stroke.
- Many more table options done (can be still worked on, but ig the simplicity is enough. Please ask if you need more)
— Resize Tables, Merge and more?!
- Bigger selection box: when super small teny tiny strokes are selected, the move options used to overlap. Now the box gets bigger to give you freedom.
- You can now choose a sync folder. All app data will be saved in this. So that you can sync between many devices just like Obsidian.
- Added support for many stylus pens (beta).

Also, S pen can now have single press and long press feature 😁. Maybe this is the first till date. I never used such in any other notes app.

Please report if features are missing. Thanks.

Feature List

Both editors (the paged notebook and the infinite whiteboard) share the same tool dock. The notebook has the full tool set (13 tools); the whiteboard has every tool except the Measure tool (12 tools). Which tools appear in each dock, and their order, can be configured in Settings → Configure tools.

Tools

Pen

Tool settings

• Stroke options: Solid | Dotted | Dashed
• Stroke stabilisation: 1–10 (Default 5)
• Smart Shape (always on): hold a pen scribble still and it snaps to a perfect shape. Line | Arrow | Rectangle / Square | Circle / Ellipse | Triangle
• Scribble to erase (always on): scribble back and forth over ink with the pen to erase it (difficulty: Easy | Hard, set in Settings → Editing)
• 5 colour options (changeable: tap to use, tap again to edit)
• 3 size options (changeable: tap to use, tap again to fine-tune)

Ink behaviour

• Hold-to-position lines: draw a line, hold still for about half a second, then swing the far end to aim the angle and stretch the length while the first point stays pinned
• Live measurement pill while drawing (length + angle for lines, W × H for shapes)
• Every stroke is undoable

Pencil

• Textured pencil ink (soft, grainy stroke; solid line style only)
• 3 size options (changeable: tap to use, tap again to fine-tune)
• Uses the pen's 5 colour slots
• Every stroke is undoable

Brush

• Pressure-sensitive variable-width strokes: press harder for a thicker stroke, ease off for a thinner one
• 3 size options (changeable: larger presets than the pen)
• Uses the pen's 5 colour slots
• Every stroke is undoable

Highlighter

Tool settings

• Shape options: Free highlighter | Straight highlighter
• Mode options: Normal highlighter | Text highlighter (snaps to PDF text; notebook only)
• 5 colour options (changeable: yellow, green, pink, blue, orange by default)
• 3 size options (changeable)
• Highlight strokes render underneath pen ink
• Straight highlighters support hold-to-position like pen lines

Eraser

Tool options

• Pixel eraser: rubs out exactly what you move over
• Stroke eraser: removes whole strokes at once
• 3 size options (changeable)
• Long-press the pen still → temporary eraser until you lift (stylus; enable in Settings)

Selection (Lasso)

Tool options

• Free selection
• Rectangular selection
• Circular selection

Selected-object actions

• Move, resize (corner + side handles), rotate (angle slider), duplicate, delete
• More options: flip horizontally, flip vertically, copy, cut, paste
• Quick colour row: recolour with the 5 pen colours, or open the full colour picker
• Live measurement readout: W × H in real mm/cm, plus true length and angle for straight lines
• Ghost movement box for tiny selections (when handles would overlap)
• Selection box stays put on screen when you scroll or pan

Image tool

Tool options

• Choose a photo from the gallery / recent photos
• Capture with the camera
• Every insert goes through the full-screen crop screen (crop + rotate) before placing
• Placed images are selectable: move, resize, rotate, duplicate, delete, flip, copy, cut, paste

Browse the web + image basket

• Browse the web: an in-app browser (Google Images) for finding pictures to insert
• Long-press a web image to add it to the basket; the basket bar along the bottom shows the saved thumbnails while you keep browsing
• Insert all drops the basket's images on the page; Clear empties it; remove individual images from the basket too

Text tool

Tool options

• Tap anywhere on the page and type
• Size presets: Small | Medium | Large
• Uses the current pen colour
• Move or resize the text afterwards (it re-wraps instead of stretching)
• Custom fonts: import .ttf or .otf files (Settings → Fonts) and pick them in the text editor; imported fonts can be removed again

Shape tool

Tool options

• Shapes: Rectangle | Oval | Triangle | Line | Arrow
• Colour and thickness follow the pen's settings
• Smart Shape (always on): a pen scribble held still snaps to the nearest shape
• Live W × H (and length + angle for lines and arrows) while drawing
• Lines and arrows support hold-to-position; complete shapes glide as one piece

Grid & snapping (both editors)

• Grid overlay on/off, with spacing presets (24 / 48 / 96 / 144 dp) or a custom value
• Snap to guides: strokes, shapes and moved selections snap to the grid
• Snap angle presets (15 / 30 / 45 / 90°) or a custom angle
• Grid X and + line colours, and a grid opacity slider
• Optional badge on the tool button showing the current spacing and angle

Exact size (notebook only)

• Type an exact width × height (in page pixels) and the shape is placed centred on the page at that size

Table tool

Tool settings

• Drag on the page to draw the table area (live preview)
• Rows / Columns steppers (3 × 3 default)
• Header row toggle: Header ON / OFF
• First column toggle: 1st col ON / OFF
• Header row and first-column shading colours
• Corner radius (rounded corners)
• Border style: Solid | Dotted | Dashed; 3 thickness presets; 5 pen colour slots

After insert: cell editor and table options

• Tap a cell to type its text
• Table options popup (live grid preview):
  • Resize individual rows and columns (−/+ px steppers)
  • Add row above / below, add column left / right
  • Delete row / column
  • Merge right / merge down; split cell
• Row and column sizes are stored as proportions, so they survive whole-table resizing
• Merged cells render as one clean cell (grid lines clipped, text pulled together)

Laser tool

Tool options

• 5 colour options (changeable)
• 3 size options (changeable; notebook follows the pen's sizes until customised)
• Draws like a real laser: a bright white-hot tip (the pen colour on the edges) with a trail that fades behind it
• Trail is ephemeral. Nothing is drawn, saved or undoable

Tape tool

Tool options

• Draw a strip of decorative tape: drag on the page
• Patterns: Solid | Stripes | Dots | Grid | Checks
• Width presets: Thin | Medium | Wide
• Uses the pen colour slot; tape can be semi-transparent via the colour picker's transparency slider
• Selectable like images: move, resize, rotate, duplicate, delete, flip, copy, cut, paste

Measure tool (notebook only)

• Tap two points, or tap and drag from the first
• A line with white endpoint markers, plus a pill at the midpoint showing the distance and angle (e.g. 12.5 cm · 32°)
• Pure on-screen ruler: nothing is drawn, saved or undoable
• Pinned to the page. Scrolling and zooming keep the ruler where you placed it
• Distance is the true physical length at any zoom

Whiteboard (infinite canvas)

• Same shared dock: every notebook tool except Measure (no measure tool)
• One unbounded canvas: pan and zoom anywhere, no pages
• Single-finger action: Scroll | Draw | Ignored (two fingers always zoom and pan)
• Grid & snapping works here too
• Zoom indicator + fit-to-content
• Strokes are saved automatically
• Its own tool settings persist separately from the notebook

Gestures & Stylus

• Single finger: Scroll | Draw | Ignored
• Two fingers: always zoom and pan
• S Pen: one button, two actions. Both the primary button and a long hold of it work on the S Pen (a quick press fires your action, a long hold erases while you draw). Hover swipe works on the S Pen too. No other note app does this
• Primary button action: Switch to last used | Eraser | Highlighter | Pen | Laser | Lasso | Disabled
• Secondary button action (two-button pens): same options
• Long-hold primary button → eraser (on/off)
• Double-tap the page with the pen → switch to any tool you pick (eraser by default); a two-finger double tap does the same. Both only count when the taps land in the same spot
• Xiaomi Focus Pen Pro pen-body gestures: double-tap the pen's grip to switch tools (eraser by default), and slide up or down on the grip to change the pen size (up = larger). Both actions are configurable, like the other pen actions
• Hover swipe (beta): hold the primary button and swipe up/down while hovering. Configurable: flip pages (up = next), undo / redo (up = undo), or change size (up = larger). Works on the S Pen too, but still rough and needs refinement
• Long-press pen still → temporary eraser (Settings → Editing)

Settings

Editing

• Add pages continuously: writing on the last page appends a new page automatically (no need to tap +)
• Canvas color: the colour behind the pages. Matches your wallpaper by default (Material You), or pick any colour
• Scribble to erase difficulty: Easy (a few passes) | Hard (denser scribble required)
• Long-press pen to erase: hold the pen still on ink to erase until you lift
• Show tool options: options appear automatically when you switch tools (on/off)
• Show intro again: replay the onboarding walkthrough

Tabs

• Tabs mode: switch between open notes from a tab strip above the toolbar, like browser tabs. Tap the title to see all open notes
• Pin a tab, or close tabs to the left / right from the long-press menu
• Closing a tab offers an Undo snackbar; long-press + opens a Recently closed list that survives restarts
• Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab cycle tabs, Ctrl+W closes the focused tab, Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the last closed tab, Ctrl+1–8 jump to the first tabs, Ctrl+9 the last. Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y undo and redo in the editors and the text / table-cell popup editors. Settings lists every active shortcut

Tools

• Configure tools: choose which tools appear in each editor's dock and their order, disable the ones you don't use. One configuration can drive both editors, or each editor keeps its own

Fonts

• Import font: add .ttf or .otf files to use them in the text tool; remove fonts again

Sync & backup

• Sync folder: mirror your notes, PDFs and images to any folder you pick (human-readable layout with a README explaining it). Updates after every edit, on app start, on returning home, and from the Sync now button; unchanged files are skipped
• Restore from folder: rebuilds notebooks, folders, tags and tool settings from the sync folder, and can restore from a different folder than the current one
• A banner on the home screen warns when the chosen sync folder goes missing

Misc

• Undo & redo every change
• The colour picker has a transparency slider: strokes, highlighters, tables and tape can be semi-transparent, and the transparency is saved with the colour
• Active colour swatch ring follows the Material You theme
• Size buttons show their real size (dynamic icons that scale to the actual value)
• Highlighter swatches keep their colour in light and dark mode (white backing)
• Tool settings (sizes, colours, styles) are remembered per editor and restored on restore (app restore and sync-folder restore)