Friday, September 26, 2014

Notes and Annotation on the iPad (Part Four)

Inkredible

This app stores single pages, it does not create notebooks.

There are two menus toolbars. The first one appears on the left side after a finger swipe. This toolbar disappears after you make your selection. 
The short menu has options to toggle between finger and stylus mode, and there is a "pin" option in the bottom to keep the toolbar visible.

When the pen menu is expanded there are options for different styles and sizes. The color pallet has options for color, outlined strokes and opacity (highlighter).

With the fountain pen option the app uses font recognition, this allow the characters to be more clear.

The zoom enlarges the area so you can type in more detail. Other options are undo and redo, add a page, delete the current page, remove the page, select a background, export, and help.

If you slide your finger up and down on the right edge of the page, you will create a new page or advance to the next page. Similarly, if the finger slides bottom up, the previous page is revealed.

Export through email as pdf or image with the option of transparent background, save as an image or Print.

The help menu is a mini-tutorial of how to use the app.



Pen and the word inkredible
Inkredible

Friday, September 19, 2014

Notes and Annotation on the iPad (Part Three)

Penultimate

This app is optimized for the retina display Ipad HD. You can create notebooks for different subjects or topics and access them in the homepage. Pages within a book can be displayed using the left and right, or use the icon on the top left to take a bird eye of all the pages within a notebook. 

The app has two menus, one on top of the notebook and one inside.
The outside menu contains the trash, paper background option, picture/camera import options, export and search. 

The inside menu has choices for pen, eraser, scissors, and undo/redo action arrows. The pen has 3 sizes and 10 color options, there is no highlight.

Penultimate synchs with a fine point stylus pen called Jot using bluetooth.

Export pages via AirDrop, Message, or Mail, Print or open in iBooks, Knovio, CloudOn, bContext, iTunes U, Chrome, Evernotes, Google Drive, and other annotation and sketching apps.

pen over notebook
Penultimate


Friday, September 12, 2014

Notes and Annotation on the iPad (Part Two)

Notes HD


This app allows you to create notebooks for different topics or events. To create a notebook click the plus sign in the upper left corner of the home screen; four options appear to create a new event: New, copy from iTunes, copy from Dropbox or copy from Drive.

The wrist protection activates automatically, however you have to turn off Multitasking Gestures in the iPad settings. There are two options for positioning the wrist also located in settings under Notes HD.

The application provides quick zoom to amplify the specific areas of the page. Keyboard text is available as in-app purchase.

The drawing tools menu pops from the button of the page. The few selections unlocked in the free version are a single size pen, eraser, and color swatches; other options are in-app purchases. 

The advance options are on the top of the tool box. White dots appear for every action, sliding the "clock" icon do and undo steps.

Pages can be shared in pdf or image formats. Files can be mailed, copied, printed, saved to iTunes, Dropbox or Google Drive.

fountain pen
Notes HD

Friday, September 5, 2014

Notes and Annotation on the iPad (Part One)

INKredible

image of a pen and the word INKredible
INKredible logo

I tested this app with the Jot Script , the JOY, and the Apex Fine Point Active styluses. I like this app because the stylus is responsive and glides easily on the screen. Also, the app is able to draw "periods" or "dots" which is fundamental for any math related notes, and not standard on notes or annotation apps.
INKredible has a button with the option to use the fingers or the stylus for writing. When you click the stylus option the app gives a wrist guard that allow you to rest the wrist on the screen without creating drawing artifacts. This is a nice feature, but did not worked constantly for me.

The menu bar is on the left side, you may slide the stylus from left to right to reveal it or pin it down permanently on the screen.

They recommend to go to the iPad setting and disable Gestures to improve the stylus option and be able to rest your hand on the screen.

I have no favorite stylus for this app, the three pens worked fine and in similar fashion. The only consideration is the battery. The rechargeable Apex may loose power sooner than the Jot and the JOY. 

At the time of this entry INKredible does not have the capability to import pdf or pictures.