Android

JotterPad

Stone

16 Apr 2022 • 2 min read

JotterPad is a great note taking app targeted at authors and playwrights although it can be used by anyone. It's fast and has all of the features needed including Markdown, WYSIWYG editing, version history, and publish to Ghost or WordPress! It's relatively expensive at $40/yr although "you get what you pay for" as my Dad always said.

Screenshots

Ugly

Grid view of notes shows markdown, not the formatted text
Inline image from Unsplash wasn't included in export to PDF
Took me an hour of using it to find settings even when I had clicked on this icon multiple times. Hint: click the "person" icon and scroll down

Bad

Expensive relative to other apps: $6.49/mo or $39.99/yr
Requires you to login to add an image
Cloud uses Google and Apple authentication, I prefer email/password
Code editor didn't seem to work for me

Good

Fast
Text formatting: bold, italic, underline, strike-through
Horizontal line / divider
Undo and redo
Unordered / bullet list
Numbered list
Sub-bullets
Hyperlinks
Block quotes
Dark mode
Insert image from URL
Grid ("thumbnail") or list view of notes
Sort by date created, modified, or by kind of note
Set auto-save interval
Print note
Folders and sub-folders
Cloud support if you want it (Google/Apple authentication)
Statistics: word count, character count, reading time, readability score, word length, sentence length
Search within and across notes
Formatting toolbar

Great

Markdown support: can input in Markdown, import Markdown, view Markdown source but cannot edit markdown source (which is fine by me but some folks likely want that ability)
Inline check-boxes
15 font / type faces
6 font sizes
Insert page break
Love the font
Export to PDF
Share and copy note as HTML
Share as Markdown
Insert image from Unsplash (free photo service) and includes the attribution underneath
Fountain document (paid feature)
Publish to JotterPad profile (paid feature)
Insert symbols e.g. math symbols
Block or inline TeX equations although I wouldn't use this
Import Markdown, text files, fountain
Import FDX for screenplays although I wouldn't use this
Export to Final Draft FDX (paid feature although I wouldn't use this)
Research feature to lookup word in dictionary, thesaurus, rhymes
Pasting a URL on text makes it a hyperlink

Awesome

Version history of notes
Apps for Apple MacOS, iOS, Web, and ChromeOS
Tons of custom settings: line height, line width, enable ligatures
Export to Word (.docx)
WYSIWYG editing
"Night vision" ŧo reduce blue light
Outline tool to go to sections by heading
Active blog with ~ 68 posts in ~ 2 years on writing tips and app updates
Useful and well designed help pages
Publish to Ghost, Tumblr and WordPress
Support for addons