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Rnote

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 .rnote file 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.

Installation

Rnote is available as a flatpak on Flathub:


Download 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.

Screenshots

main_window_dark main_window_light pdf_annotation selection

Pitfalls & known issues

  • 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 and libinput on Wayland and libwacom are installed and loaded.

Reviews, media:

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

Credits

  • 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!

Community

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.

File Format

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:

  • v0.2.0
  • v0.3.0
  • v0.4.0
  • v0.5.0

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.

Drawings created with Rnote

If you have drawn something cool in Rnote and want to share it, submit a PR so it can be showcased here. :)

Pikachu Tree Love

Building, contributing

Build instructions and guidelines how to contribute are outlined in CONTRIBUTING.md