Sketch and take handwritten notes.
Rnote is a vector-based drawing app for sketching, handwritten notes and to annotate documents and pictures. Targeted at students, teachers and those who own a drawing tablet, it provides features like PDF and picture import and export, an infinite canvas and an adaptive UI for big and small screens.
Written in Rust and GTK4.
Features
- Adaptive UI focused on stylus input
- Pressure-sensitive stylus input with different and configurable stroke styles
- Draw many different shapes with the shape tool
- Move, rotate, resize and modify existing content with the selection tool
- Different document expand layouts ( fixed pages, continuous vertical, infinite in every direction )
- Customizable background colors, patterns, sizes
- Customizable page format
- (optional) pen sounds
- Reconfigurable stylus button shortcuts
- An integrated workspace browser for quick access to related media files
- Drag & drop, clipboard support
- PDF, bitmap and SVG image import
- Save and load the documents in the native
.rnotefile format - Document and selection export to SVG, PDF
- Autosave, printing
Disclaimer
This is my first Rust and GTK project and I am learning as I go along. Expect some bugs and crashes.
Also: The file format is still unstable. It might change and break compatibility between versions.
Rnote is available as a flatpak on Flathub:
Downgrading
Because the file format still is unstable, downgrading to a specific version might be necessary and can be done with:
| version | command |
|---|---|
| v0.4.0 | sudo flatpak update --commit=2ee585842334ad976802f08a1952c3fdc40f6f3afe2e056f3597fe4a029d54d2 com.github.flxzt.rnote |
| v0.3.5 | sudo flatpak update --commit=34115ec5896cbe1b7c1b7a589ec2b6da45e9fcbd81ae53c665c08f2fc42bb52f com.github.flxzt.rnote |
| v0.2.5 | sudo flatpak update --commit=2036a51c8118a30eb4ceb2e16ba2f84fa8ca4dc814fb88d9424709380093a6c6 com.github.flxzt.rnote |
| v0.1.6 | sudo flatpak update --commit=ffb9781989704f3eb28910437bb26709357566a977178d5fb4ef1a2926edae8b com.github.flxzt.rnote |
After downgrading, the version can be pinned or unpinned with:
$ flatpak mask com.github.flxzt.rnote
$ flatpak mask --remove com.github.flxzt.rnote
Then the documents can be exported as an SVG or PDF and can be re-imported into the newest version of Rnote.
- Drag & Drop: Make sure Rnote has permissions to the locations you are dragging files from. Can be granted in Flatseal (a Flatpak permissions manager)
- odd location for current file: when the directory displayed in the header title is something like
/run/user/1000/../, rnote does not have permissions to access the directory. Again, granting them in Flatseal fixes this issue. - Stylus buttons move canvas / are not functional: make sure that the
xf86-input-wacom, drivers on X11 andlibinputon Wayland andlibwacomare installed and loaded.
It's a perfect on-demand user experience that — and this might be controversial — is more akin to professional-grade iPadOS apps than GTK apps. I know this will sound like a minor thing on paper but spatially, within the user experience, it reduces friction, and makes it so much easier to get things done.
-- omg!ubuntu! - https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/01/rnote-frehand-notetaking-app-for-linux-gtk4
#Linux always felt behind #Windows in supporting stylus-equipped 2-in-1 laptops. One of the reasons: the lack of a good, simple handwritten notes app. Until now: https://github.com/flxzt/rnote
Thank you, @flx_zt
! This is my favorite app release of 2022. For the rest of the year.-- Jorge Toledo, Twitter - https://twitter.com/eldelacajita/status/1482116515717648386
I[t] has everything it needs for note taking. I'm using this app for university, loading in the Data files and handwriting notes. I'm using a microsoft surface go 3 and an original pen. All functions are working like a charm. Best app i used so far.
-- Leroy, Gnome Software review section
- A huge thanks to the contributors, translators and to all that donated. You are the ones that help keep the project going!
- Freesound is the source for the pen sounds. The individual sounds are credited in
sounds/Licenses.md - Rough.js provides the algorithms for implementation of Rnote's rough shapes.
- Pizarra is a innovative drawing app with advanced shaping and featuring a infinite zoom. It is a great inspiration of the architecture of Rnote. Go check it out!
If you have any questions or want to start a general discussion, open a topic in the Github Discussions section.
There is also the #rnote:matrix.org chat room.
The .rnote file format is a gzipped json file. It is (de)compressed with the flate2 crate and (de)serialized with the Serde crate.
So far breaking changes in the format happened in versions:
v0.2.0v0.3.0v0.4.0v0.5.0
To be able to open and export older files that are incompatible with the newest version, look under Installation /Downgrading to install older versions of Rnote.
If you have drawn something cool in Rnote and want to share it, submit a PR so it can be showcased here. :)
Build instructions and guidelines how to contribute are outlined in CONTRIBUTING.md