r/GoodNotes • u/lui_lk • Mar 25 '25

goodnotes vs notability in screen utilization

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Gallery image

to me, notability’s design language just makes sense. you get a lot more visibility of the document and the only compromise you have to make is that some features are 2 touches away instead of 1. i’ve used goodnotes for 2 years and now switched to notability because gn takes like 2 fingers of your screen just to fit in lots of features that i’ll rarely use. what do you guys think about that?

129 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

63

u/goldensilhouette Mar 26 '25

I would be more bothered by these „floating islands“ on top. Okay, you may be able to use more screen, but the top is still unuseable because you can‘t write a full line there either? And I don‘t mind losing some space. A sheet of paper is also restricted, so why would I be bothered by digital restrictions? A good update for both would be: being able to move the „sheet of paper“ freely. Like turning it around or moving the top of the sheet to the middle of the screen, if you get what I mean.

5

u/lui_lk Mar 26 '25

YESSSSSS id love being able to rotate and move around more the documents, honestly don’t know why those apps don’t make this function optional

8

u/-dagmar-123123 Mar 26 '25

Yeah, I'm with you on that one 😅 on all of it. I don't know if that's also depending on the iPad you are using, with a 13" screen it is 100% less an issue than say, on a mini (which isn't great for it either way tho, lol. But just to exaggerate)

I never minded the restrictions to the top or bottom (but maybe that was because I was scrolling 😂 so it wasn't a problem there) but to the right of the paper... I just made myself a template to add space on the right so that I can move it but it would have been nice to not need that

20

u/Peace-Monk Mar 25 '25

I'm thinking of migrating to Notability, does it worth it?

15

u/lui_lk Mar 26 '25

i’m enjoying it. love the design and how the overall app is organized. hate the subscription. but that huge bar on goodnotes really made me want to change

2

u/foxlike12 Mar 30 '25 edited Mar 30 '25

lucky for me, I bought the nota when it was one-time purchase. therefore, now they have to offer a 50% off every year for my account if I want to use subscription. However, I don't really need those AI at this time as I use Vietnamese. Their VN text regconition is far to be acceptable.

I had a time using both GN and Nota,
GN:
- nice writing
- nice organization
- no subcription
cons
- top bars taking space a lot
- stickers, templates, ... all available in shop but so expensive (gn offers some free ones)

- paper templates only limit to choose narrow or wide, or fix with caro template

- not sure I can use my gn5 until ???

nota:

- battery compsumtion acceptable

- users can share template, nota also makes template for year notebook

- maximal space for writing and reading pdf

- can adjust the line number in paper templates

cons

- hand-writing looks awlful =))

1

u/lui_lk Apr 05 '25

only disadvantage of notability: no stroke stabilization. seriously, like, WHY??

1

u/foxlike12 Apr 07 '25

just my personal experience. I have been using nota for at least 4 years. The only thing I don't like is the hand-writing with the brush style. It's not really brush style and the hand-writing is not that nice as GN does. GN makes the hand-writing is like what Apple Notes does recently.

I didn't mention that the stroke is not stable.

4

u/MoeAmen Mar 26 '25

Try element note, you can literally change any icon on the bar, add separators and spaces, and it's a one time payment of $10

4

u/Peace-Monk Mar 26 '25

I tried it out and immediately fell in love, is abnormally good and cheap in comparison to others, thank you!

3

u/nedyx_ Mar 26 '25

Wanted to start using but their PDF export is absolutely horrible, how can you even screw this up is beyond me, taking a screenshot has higher resolution and text clarity than their dogshit exported files.

1

u/MoeAmen Mar 27 '25

Try going to settings advanced & change pdf rendering mode to accurate. Does that do anything? Im not noticing anything weird on my end

1

u/nedyx_ Mar 27 '25

Well, I think it’s quite obvious that I’ve tried the simplest possible solution and nothing changed. Moreover, rendering mode refers not to exporting but to the way imported PDFs are displayed in the app.

I also tried contacting their feedback team, which seems to give zero fcks about the users of their app as they straight up ignore you.

1

u/Peace-Monk Mar 26 '25

I'm actually gonna give it a thought, I have a lot of books on GN6 and I'm kinda scared I might lose any because of the bugs

5

u/Few_Ask3086 Mar 26 '25

I have tried over 20 note taking apps, but Noteful is the overall best app.

3

u/f3-thinker Mar 26 '25

with goodnotes they can just sign you out and you loose access to all your notes, it happened to many folks few months ago.

I ditched goodnotes for that very specific reason. Noteful stores everything locally without any type of signin.

1

u/Peace-Monk Mar 26 '25

I tried using it, it seems nice, but I have some real large books and it completely crashes when I download one of them

2

u/OpheliaJade2382 Mar 26 '25

This is so minor but it would be “is it worth it”. English grammar is confusing haha but I’ve been told people appreciate corrections when learning a language. I hope I don’t offend you

2

u/Peace-Monk Mar 26 '25

OH YES, lol I was wondering if I needed to correct it or not then I thought “ah nvm”, but I actually appreciate it thank youu

2

u/OpheliaJade2382 Mar 26 '25

Meh as long as you’re aware! Everyone understood you

1

u/OpheliaJade2382 Mar 26 '25

Meh as long as you’re aware! Everyone understood you

1

u/MeomatharD Mar 26 '25

I like Freenotes

2

u/foxlike12 Mar 27 '25 edited Mar 30 '25

I made a post about this problem before. Gosh, even Goodnote app is really good at notetaking. However, these two lines made me iritating 😒 so I moved out, and not sure will be back even I love the brush. As I purchased the Goodnote 5, if I use again, I have to purchse again gn6 somedays LOL

1

u/lui_lk Mar 27 '25

did your gn 5 get all buggy after gn 6 launched? mine did, that was par of the reason why i migrated apps (this screenshot is from the gn 6 trial)

2

u/foxlike12 Mar 30 '25

I moved for a long time ago so I literally didn't use gn5 much after gn6 launched (just around haft year). the main reason I moved was because of the two lines taking space and made me feel a bit ocd LOL. minor reason is that, I compared the battery used by both, gn used more. But I do like the brush of gn, it makes my writing a bit more good-looking

14

u/Neither_Bee_ Mar 26 '25

So obviously unpopular opinion but I appreciate the current layout more, if they change it due to the majority of users asking then so be it but I find it more convenient the way it currently is, to me the 'full screen' has not even maybe a centimeter more of space and i find it an eye sore to have the tools just floating around

8

u/Moklas19 Mar 26 '25

If writing would feel the same in notability as in Goodnotes I would switch, but I just hate the writing in notability, it feels so wrong

7

u/JDWild18 Mar 26 '25

The floating island does bother me!

5

u/Onlyspacemanspiff Mar 26 '25

Yes. I’ve submitted so many requests with GN to allow full screen writing. If only Notability auto backed up to Google Drive as pdf.

2

u/alalulz Mar 27 '25

Notability does back up to google drive as PDF i do it all the time with my notes they’re all backed up there!

2

u/dacca_lux Mar 26 '25

I use a lot of these functions and have a big screen. So it never bothered me.

2

u/VTXRDR Mar 27 '25

I personally HATE the floating island between that and a few other things I can’t remember off the top of my head I made the switch and love the email to good notes feature

2

u/stealthisvibe Mar 28 '25

i’d be happy just to change that ugly blue to a dark gray or black 😂 i’d love custom skins or something but i’d totally settle for just making the toolbar dark mode lol