Noteshelf is one of the most loved note taking apps in the App Store. It combines beautiful looks with great functionality to make something you would be proud to show off to your friends who are still carrying real notebooks.
The app starts you off on a virtual bookshelf with all of your notebooks on it. Tapping on one makes the notebook open up with a clean animation, presenting you with the last page of the notebook. The top menu bar presents you with buttons to go back to the bookshelf, clearing the page, undoing and redoing, pen, eraser, emoji icons, inserting a picture and several tools for manipulating your notebook.
The first of these tools is a zoom function. It does as the name suggests: it zooms in to the page allowing you to fit more notes in a smaller space. The next button turns on wrist-protection. This enables a little red slider on the side of the page that makes a virtual line across the page; any text written above the line stays and anything below does not, so any little dots your wrist has no effect your notes. Next are the export options. Noteshelf exports to almost everything including the always amazing Dropbox and Evernote, as well as the ability to print directly from the iPad (given all of the other requirements are met). The last two buttons change the paper style and notebook name and quickly jump from page to page.
Handwriting in Noteshelf is like a dream. The “ink” flows fast and smooth, almost too fast as it brings out my really bad handwriting better than any other tablet ever has. Noteshelf comes with 17 different colored pens to choose from as well as a slider to choose size. After the pens there are three different eraser sizes and then the emoji tray. Emoji are those fun little Japanese icons. They can be inserted into notes to provide some extra emphasis. Personally I put a crying face next to any fact that needs to be memorized for a test. The final icon here allows a picture to be inserted into the page note. The image can be scaled, rotated and positioned anywhere on the page.
I’ve been using Noteshelf for some time and all it does is get better and better. The developers listen to users and update the app, in fact many of the features seen in the latest version were added because of users. In the end, if you’re looking to ditch your notebooks in favor of your sleek iPad then Noteshelf is a great place to do so.
Noteshelf is available in the App Store for $4.99.
