Earlier today, while waiting for a meeting with Nexus in hand, I suddenly realized I didnt have even a single efficient note taking app for use with the stylus! And so when I got the time I tried out several apps who claim to be the best at what they do. There’re the following:
- Bamboo Paper
- Pen Supremacy
- Supernote
- Quill
- and Handrite
arranged from worst to best for now, at least until all bugs and compatibilities have been ironed out.
Bamboo Paper by Wacom remains, up till now, viable to mostly Samsung devices. On the Nexus it shows up black instead of the natural colors for the cover and paper, same as when I tried it before on the TF101.
Pen Supremacy works but you literally cant add a page and after trying to do so you cant open a notebook anymore, far too buggy to be used. It does work on a 10” device better but I havent used it extensively to be certain that there arent any bugs within true tablet operation.
Supernote is optimized for tablets… while you can technically use it, some of the buttons are obscured and do not scale to match the available area on the 7” device and you cant access them.
Quill is very good and I’ve decided to keep it along with my top choice because, like a true notebook, Quill can add pages instantly which is not available on Handrite and Handraw. What I dont like about Quill is the way the pencil and pen tools work both with 5 levels of thickness which almost doesnt make sense because some values you can hardly see making marks on the virtual paper.
Handrite and Handraw by NC Corp work in tandem using the available space efficiently and cleanly as well as executing what you want to do pretty quickly. Here they are in operation:
Both of the apps provide exceptional stylus response and with the lack of zooming functionality, it limits the input to 1 and allows for better device handling with the added effect of forcing the artist to use only the canvas just like it were real paper where you cant zoom in unless you squint your eyes and look through them much more closely.
Whether or not you’re using a 5/7/10” these two solutions along with everything I listed would allow for a pleasant note taking experience. Best try out multiple packages to learn whether or not the app is buggy and/or compatible with your device and to get a feel as to how responsive you would like the stylus to be for your style of note taking.
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