Xournal++ icon

Xournal++

Xournal++ is a free, open-source notetaking and sketching software for Linux. It supports pen input and annotations on PDFs. Key features include sticky notes, rulers, page templates, shape recognition, and LaTeX support.

What is Xournal++?

Xournal++ is a free, open-source digital notebook application designed for notetaking, keeping a journal, and sketching. It is available on Linux and allows you to annotate PDFs, create notes, or just sketch ideas using a graphics tablet or other pointing devices.

Some key features of Xournal++ include:

  • Support for pen input, including pressure sensitivity and tilt
  • Annotations and sketching on PDF documents
  • Insertion of text, images, vectors, LaTeX, and shapes
  • Custom page templates and backgrounds
  • Shape recognition for drawing basic shapes like lines, arrows, circles etc.
  • Undo/redo functionality
  • Support for sticky notes and text boxes
  • Rulers and graph paper background
  • Multi-page documents
  • Customizable pens, highlighters, erasers, and color palettes

Xournal++ is designed to provide an easy-to-use interface for freeform notetaking and sketching. With support for a wide range of input devices, it's a great choice for students, teachers, artists, engineers, and anyone looking for a digital notebook. The ability to annotate PDFs makes Xournal++ useful for reviewing documents, marking up notes, or filling out forms. It's an open-source alternative to commercial products like OneNote or Evernote.

The Best Xournal++ Alternatives

Top Apps like Xournal++

Microsoft OneNote, GoodNotes, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Concepts, CollaNote, Drawboard PDF, Microsoft Whiteboard, Excalidraw, Penly, OpenBoard Whiteboard, Stylus Labs Write, Bamboo Paper, Evince, MuPDF, Skim, Notesnook, PDF Expert, Butterfly, NightPDF, Heynote, Scrivano for Handwritten Notes, MrWriter, Journalify, GitJournal, Saber: Handwritten Notes, NoteLab, AppSoftware Journals are some alternatives to Xournal++.

Microsoft OneNote

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GoodNotes

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Adobe Acrobat Reader

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Concepts

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CollaNote

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Drawboard PDF

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Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard is a collaborative digital canvas designed for teamwork, creativity, brainstorming, and freestyle ideation. It brings the power of pen and touch to Windows 10 devices, letting users create sticky notes, insert images and documents, type freely, and sketch using pen and ink.Whiteboard allows freeform content creation across multiple...

Excalidraw

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Penly

Penly is a feature-rich open source note taking application available for Windows, macOS and Linux. It allows users to create rich text documents for taking notes, saving webpages, writing memos or journaling. Penly supports text formatting, images, attachments, tags, notebooks as well as collaboration and cloud sync features.Some of...

OpenBoard Whiteboard

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Stylus Labs Write

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Bamboo Paper

Bamboo Paper by Wacom is a versatile notetaking and sketching app for mobile devices. It works with both styluses and touch input, allowing users to write, draw, annotate PDFs, and take handwritten notes.Some key features of Bamboo Paper include:Support for pressure-sensitive pens for natural-feeling writing and drawingVarious pen...

Evince

Evince is a lightweight document viewer application designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It supports the most common document formats including PDF, PostScript, DjVu and TIFF. Some key features of Evince include:Fast and efficient, optimized for GNOMESmooth scrolling and responsive UIThumbnails and two-page layout for easy browsingAnnotations and form-filling...

MuPDF

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Skim

Skim is a PDF reader and note-taking app designed specifically for macOS. It provides a clean, uncluttered interface and fast performance for working with PDF documents.Some key features of Skim include:Annotations - Skim allows you to highlight passages, add text notes, draw shapes and lines, and more to...

Notesnook

Notesnook is a free online note taking and organizing software. It provides users with a variety of tools to easily capture ideas, thoughts, web content, images, and more in an organized notebook interface.Key features of Notesnook include:Intuitive rich text editor for formatting notes - add headings, lists, bold...

PDF Expert

PDF Expert is a powerful PDF editor and reader application for macOS. Originally developed by Readdle, it is designed specifically for Apple's operating system to provide a seamless PDF management experience.With PDF Expert, you can easily view, create, edit, annotate, protect, sign, and fill PDF documents. Its clean and...

Butterfly

Butterfly is an open-source, cross-platform SQL client designed to make database management easy and intuitive. With Butterfly, users can connect to MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and other major database servers to manage databases and tables, write SQL queries, and visualize data relationships.Some key features of Butterfly include:Intuitive...

NightPDF

NightPDF is a free, open-source PDF editor and viewer application for Windows. It provides a wide range of PDF manipulation and editing capabilities in an easy-to-use interface.With NightPDF, users can merge multiple PDF files together, add or delete specific pages, rotate or reorder pages, split large PDFs into smaller...

Heynote

Heynote is a powerful yet easy-to-use open-source presentation software that is a free alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. With Heynote, users can create professional-looking presentations with a variety of templates, themes, animations, transitions, shapes, charts, graphics, and more.Some key features of Heynote include:Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for quickly adding and...

Scrivano for Handwritten Notes

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MrWriter

MrWriter is a free, open-source word processor and text editor software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It focuses on providing a minimal yet functional writing environment without unnecessary features or distractions.Some key features of MrWriter include:Clean, intuitive interface with only essential writing and editing toolsBasic text formatting like...

Journalify

Journalify is a popular journaling and diary app available for iOS and Android. It allows users to easily record their thoughts, feelings, and daily events in a private, secure place.Some key features of Journalify include:Clean, intuitive interface that's easy to navigateOption to add password protection and fingerprint unlock...

GitJournal

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Saber: Handwritten Notes

Saber is a feature-rich handwritten note-taking app available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices. It provides a natural pen-and-paper writing experience on your digital devices, aided by powerful handwriting recognition that converts your writing into text.Some key features include:Intuitive writing interface with a variety of paper templates...

NoteLab

NoteLab is a free, open-source note taking application for Windows. It provides a simple yet powerful platform for creating, organizing and finding notes.With NoteLab, users can create rich text notes that support text formatting like bold, italics, highlights, etc. Notes can be categorized with labels and colors for quick...

AppSoftware Journals

AppSoftware Journals is a popular journaling and diary application for personal reflection and life logging. It provides a private space for users to write down their thoughts, goals, experiences and feelings with options to add photos, audio recordings, video clips, location data, weather information and more to create a multimedia...