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Free: Penbook (Was AU $14.95) @ Microsoft

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This one is for free for next 6 days.
Update : This is free again for another 6 days
Available on HoloLens & PC

Penbook is FREE to celebrate its nomination for the Windows Developer Awards! Support Penbook by voting here for App Creator of the Year: http://r.penbookapp.com/vote

Penbook is the nicest freehand writing experience on Windows 10.

Take notes, plan your day (or year), draw a sketch, or do your math homework. Penbook includes dozens of kinds of stationary, from graph paper to sheet music. You can even import your own photos or PDFs to write on.

Keep your work organized with beautiful, customizable notebook covers. Create in portrait or landscape mode, and share and export your work with just a few taps.

Penbook was built for pens (but you can use your finger or a mouse, if you want), and includes support for Surface Dial.

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closed Comments

  • -6

    free app usefull of you have $1200 device with pen support …..

    • +6

      Microsoft pen support devices have been around for like 5 years - you could find one on gumtree for $300 if you're that hard up ad want to use this app

    • +26

      Also, you need electricity to power that laptop.

      And a house to store it in.

      And food to give you energy to hold the pen.

      Hell, this app isn't free, it costs somewhere in the vicinity of a million dollars once you factor in all the requirements.

      • +17

        If you wish make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

        • +8

          Invent universe? Meh, I'm lazy… I'll just create a god so I can outsource it

        • @surethang:
          Sounds annoying, perhaps outsource the creation of good to an Indian God who can do it cheaply?

    • iPad, Apple Pencil, and duet display app. Some of us already have all that.

      • +1

        May be he/she sold it on garage sale by mistake

        • I already have all that anyway. Still won’t bother with this free drawing app, PS is enoug for me

  • +1

    Thanks perfect for my Surface Pro 4.

  • +1

    i really thought this is a real paper book.

  • +5

    I thought this was a free stylus :/

  • +1

    searches penbook on microsoft store.

    No apps found

    Have to go to link and get redirected to microsoft app app.

    my does microsoft suck this much?

    • You must be new to computers…

      • You must have never cared about design usability…

        I'm so new to computers that I've owned the surface 1, 2, 3, 4 pro and book …

        • +2

          gonna give chonkie the benefit of the doubt and assume they were joking that you must be new if you were previously unaware of microsoft's questionable software design

        • @dltra:

          I would've caught that if he said "You must be new to microsoft "

  • +4

    For those that use the surface to edit/annotate pdf's I highly recommend Drawboard PDF despite some functions locked behind a subscription.
    Normally costs $15 but I got it for half price and used bing points by using the search engine.

    PDF exchange is also a great reader and editor. I tried a bunch of the applications but they were lackluster in comparison.

    • +4

      Has it become socially acceptable to admit to using 'Bing'?

      • It's fine 99% of the time plus you get points.

      • Bing for pron for life.

  • +1

    So how is this better than onenote?

    • +1

      OneNote just doesn't feel right when you're primarily using it with a stylus and tablet, for freehand note-taking.

      OneNote's UI is very Office-like, rather than this, which is very much like a tablet app.

      Also, OneNote has weird inconsistencies. Like it has ruler support built in, but to unlock it, you have to buy a Surface Dial.

      This app is for freehand drawing, and for that it does a decent job.

  • +2

    I just tried this app out. It's pretty decent.

    I'd previously been using Bamboo and Nebo for doing diagrams. The former is slick, but lacks features. The latter is geared around OCR, and doesn't feel "paper like" to me, so is best when you intend to convert everything to text and shapes.

    Penbook is more similar to Bamboo, but actually has proper support for rulers, copy and paste, etc. On the downside, the writing experience just doesn't feel as slick. It's a bit rough around the edges in terms of the smoothness of the ink. It feels like the stylus is controlling a pointer that is drawing, rather than better apps that really feel like writing on paper.

    Still, it's a keeper for me. The fact that it is almost-but-not-quite as good as Bamboo, but offers copy and paste and ruler functionality, means that it's definitely something I'll keep using when I need that functionality.

  • My Lenono yoga has wacom pen, would this app work?

  • Is there a way to get this app without a compatible device as I wasn't able to add it from my mobile.

    • Loaded fine on my desktop. You can draw with your mouse.

  • Can you use this on Lenovo Miix 500 the surface clones?

  • +1

    If you want to annotate PDF files, there is an app that is available on Android, Ios, Microsoft and Chrome. It's called XoDo, and it is always free. https://www.xodo.com/

    With XoDo, you can scribble on top of the PDFs, highlight sections, and even merge PDF files together.

    It doesn't do exactly the same thing as Penwise, but it's similar.

    • +1

      Can confirm - using XoDo for all my lecture notes at uni right now. Takes only one or two minutes to get used to it, but would 10/10 recommend it, especially given that it's free.

    • +1

      A couple of weeks ago I went through all the most promising apps in the Microsoft store that had pdf editing/annotation, and xodo seemed to be the best. Main limitations I've found are are a limit on number of pdfs open simultaneously (I think six), and (on my devices) crashing on using the "typewriter" function.

  • "Creative stationary types like penmanship, calligraphy, and sheet music."
    What do the creative active types like?

  • I can't install it. It tries, but then it gives a message that it couldn't install and it will try again shortly. Surface Pro Windows 10 with latest updates.

  • You've got to love how Microsoft doesn't even know how to spell StationEry…

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