# Penultimate > Digital handwriting and sketching app with Evernote sync and search. (iPhone/iPad app by Evernote Corporation.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/penultimate/id354098826 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Evernote Corporation](https://appshunter.io/developer/281796111) - Category: Productivity, Utilities - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.03/5 from 1,688 App Store ratings · 50 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 10.3 · 52 MB - Languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and 11 more - Released: 2010-04-16 - Data updated: 2026-06-10 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/penultimate/id354098826/reviews.md ## What is Penultimate? The best digital handwriting on iPad. Penultimate combines distraction-free, natural handwriting and sketching with the power of Evernote’s sync and search. Take class or meeting notes, journal your thoughts, or outline your next big idea—in the office or on the go. From the first stroke, Penultimate makes the experience of pen and paper more productive. INK AND PAPER, MADE BETTER Notes and drawings look spectacular in black or colored ink. Our inking technology produces pen strokes that look natural, and Wrist Protection prevents stray marks for writers of all grips. Choose from a number of paper styles, or import an image to create personalized paper. STYLUS AND SOFTWARE BUILT TOGETHER We worked closely with Adonit to create the stylus we've always wanted: the Jot Script Evernote Edition, the first true precision-point stylus. Penultimate integrates tightly with the stylus and together they make digital handwriting the experience it should be. It’s like writing with your favorite pen. Available now in the Evernote Market. YOUR WRITING KEEPS PACE WITH YOU Penultimate lets you work on any part of the page effortlessly. To zoom in on a location on the page, simply pinch in and start writing. With Penultimate's Drift feature enabled, the page will move along with you, automatically adjusting to the pace you are working at. CONNECT AND SYNC WITH EVERNOTE Sign in to your Evernote account in the Penultimate app to organize your Penultimate notes in notebooks, separated by topic, project, or category. Your Penultimate notes are synced to Evernote automatically, so you can find and share them across all of your devices. FIND WHAT YOU NEED QUICKLY No matter how you prefer to organize your work, Penultimate makes it easy to find the notes you need. Penultimate processes your notes so you can search for handwritten text in the app. Save and browse your work in notebooks and insert, delete, duplicate, and reorganize pages any way you like within them. MAKE PENULTIMATE MORE POWERFUL Penultimate is free to download and use. Pair it with Evernote Premium or Evernote Plus for bigger uploads and many other great features. Two subscription options: Evernote Premium monthly for $7.99 per month | $69.99 annually Evernote Plus monthly for $3.99 per month | $34.99 annually --- Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. Manage your subscriptions in Account Settings after purchase. --- Privacy Policy: https://evernote.com/legal/privacy.php Terms of Service: https://evernote.com/legal/tos.php ## Key features - Natural digital handwriting and sketching - Evernote sync and search - Customizable paper styles - Wrist protection for clean strokes - Zoom and drift features for effortless writing - Organize notes in notebooks ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **Subscriptions** | Subscription | Price | Period | | --- | --- | --- | | Evernote Premium | $6.99 | per month | | Evernote Plus | $2.99 | per month | | Evernote Premium | $5.99 | per month | | Evernote Plus | $5.49 | per month | **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Design Collection | $0.99 | one-time | | Time & Tasks Paper Collection | $0.99 | one-time | | Music Paper Collection | $2.99 | one-time | | Young Writers Paper Collection | $0.99 | one-time | | Games Paper Collection | $0.99 | one-time | | Photo Album Paper Collection | $0.99 | one-time | ## What do users think of Penultimate? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 👍 Simplicity and reliability - 🚀 Smooth writing experience - 📁 Seamless Evernote integration - 🎨 Useful paper styles - 💻 Great for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil **Cons** - 🐛 Palm rejection issues - 🔀 Inconsistent scrolling behavior - 🎨 Limited color and highlighter options - 🔀 Difficulty reorganizing notes - 🔀 Losing place when switching apps **Commonly reported bugs** - Unexpected crashes and data loss - Syncing issues with Evernote - Compatibility problems with iOS 11 and newer - Disappearing pen strokes and notes **Most requested features** - Ability to insert pages between existing pages - Improved copy/paste and image manipulation features - Gesture support for common actions (undo, redo) - Customizable notebook covers and paper styles - Better organization options (tags, folders, etc.) ## Recent user reviews (10 of 50) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/penultimate/id354098826/reviews.md ### 5/5 — I love it’s simplicity and reliability *2023-01-11, version 6.4.1* I’ve been using Penultimate for over 6 years now - almost daily. I’m on iPad Pro with pencil and like this for basic note taking , morning pages, first drafts, etc. I’m an artist and use Procreate for digital art so I like the fact that Penultimate is not tool heavy- I don’t need a lot of choices to distract me when I just want to write. I sync all of my Penultimate notes/notebooks in Evernote which is really handy for organization. ### 3/5 — You’d be toast if it were not for Evernote *2022-12-01, version 6.4.1* I only use Penultimate because it automatically imports into Evernote, which makes my terrible handwriting searchable. The Penultimate writing interface is a little unusual. The sliding advancing window works really well for me. It keeps my hand in one place. On iPadOS, the central control at the top is too close to the split screen, for example when you want to change color, you wind up hitting the 3 dots. I’ve seen on Good Notes a really cool thing that I now can’t live without, and Penultimate suffers because it doesn’t have it. When you select the eraser, after you erase and raise your pen, Penultimate should return the tool to the one it was before the erase tool was selected. This is so smooth on other apps, but clunky here, where you have to re-select the prior tool (pen/brush/…) And whatever you do, don’t waste your time and $80 on an Adonit Jot. Complete horror show. ### 3/5 — Small Fixes Required *2022-08-14, version 6.4.1* Great app, love the overall aesthetic. There are a few changes that need to be made in order for it to be more user friendly. 1st. The feature to only use an apple pen doesn’t work. It will often pick up my hand resting on the page. I’ll even recollaborate it and it continues. It’s SO irritating. 2nd. The color changing tool is now underneath apples new split screen button on my iPad Pro. I cannot change the color with ease. I also wish there were more colors or a color when to pick from. I want pink 😍 3rd isn’t that important but I wish there were a todo list template with skinnier rule. There’s so much space in between lines. ### 4/5 — Works great with Evernote but could use some tweaks *2022-03-04, version 6.3* Penultimate could be a great app with a little TLC from the developers. It’s integration with Evernote is seamless. The only othe app that comes close is Noteshelf, but it uses a different organization system, so it’s not as intuitive. As a note taking app, Penultimate is pretty good. It’s simple enough to start using right away but still has a fair number of features. There are a few things I think the developer could fix pretty easily but they don’t appear to have done any work on the app for a number of years. -palm rejection with the Apple Pencil doesn’t work well. It’s pretty good, but I still get marks on the bottom of my notes. -when cutting part of a note and moving it, there are stray marks left behind. -you can’t add a title to the note when first entering it. You have to exit the note first. -image manipulation is problematic. One example is if you make notations on an image and then move the image, the notations get left behind. I like Noteshelf better, but still use Penultimate the most because of it’s integration with Evernote. ### 5/5 — Obsessed! *2021-10-09, version 6.3* Love everything about this app! From the different features, ways to organize, and the fact that you can have multiple notebooks for free is great. The only thing that you have to do is create an Evernote account so that you can create multiple notebooks. Other than that I’ve had the app for a few months and haven’t ran into any problems or bugs if I do I’ll definitely come back and update this review but for right now it’s top tier 5 stars for me! ### 3/5 — Getting long in the tooth - needs revamp *2021-07-02, version 6.3* When penultimate first came out, it was awesome and nothing available quite like it on the market. But with the passing of time, other apps have come into the market, and one can’t help notice that penultimate /Evernote has done little to keep up. So many annoying quirks with this app are ignored. When opening my app, I expect my notes application to remember my preferred pen size settings and not default to …’default state’ When I open my note, why am I randomly dropped in the middle of my notes, rather than at the end or latest written page? Or why not ask? There should be support for Apple Pencil tap functions for erasing…. Scroll bars or transparent ones are ok. Maybe a page hopper? How about tags? Oh boy how can I search for tags? I mean seriously, these should be no brainer updates in 2021. ### 3/5 — Needs update!! *2021-05-12, version 6.3* This app has some significant bugs that are making it difficult to use with consistency. When you move away from the app or move to the multi page view, it returns you to a random page in the doc. SO ANNOYING. Also, the copy page button has stopped working. It just brings you to the multi page view. This means there is no way to insert a new page between pages except to add a page at the end of the doc and move it up. If it’s more than 8 pages, that is a huge hassle. This is more problematic because there should be a way to insert a page easily in between anyways, and the copy page button was a workaround for a feature which should exist anyways. The zoom has issues too. The writing in this app is very smooth, but I’m about to switch because it’s very impractical. ### 5/5 — Best notes app out there! *2021-03-24, version 6.3* Penultimate is one of the best note taking apps available on the App Store! I use this app almost on a daily basis for homework notes, notes at work, to do lists, and also sermon notes at church. You can organize all of your notes in folders within the app itself. If you are looking for a note taking app within the App Store...look no further! Penultimate is the right app for anyone! ### 1/5 — Absolutely disappointing *2021-03-07, version 6.3* Absolutely disappointed by this app. I used it to write submissions for my university courses, and it’s done nothing but crash every time I even exit the app and try to use it again. Plus, the scroll feature doesn’t work properly when I zoom in and write. I finally managed to write my submission somehow but when I tried sharing the doc to submit it, it says it shared it, but when I check my submission portal for something else the next day I find that it never went through. I tried upgrading to premium so I could move my stuff to Evernote, but it won’t even let me do that because it restricts the card I can use to pay for premium and then fails to process the subscription payment on the card that it allows me to use. In summary: constantly crashes, scrolling doesn’t work properly, sharing files is hit-or-miss, and I can’t even upgrade so all my notes get saved. If I could give it a lower rating I would. ### 5/5 — Penultimate +iPad Pro +plus iPencil +Evernote *2021-01-17, version 6.3* I have been using this combination for about 4 years. It does everything that I needed to do. I am sure that I am not using it to its fullest potential as I use it for a personal notebook and sketch pad but rarely share or collaborate with others. It has worked flawlessly for me in that job. I have always been a note taker. With this combination notetaking is easy, it’s fast and I can always find every note even from years ago. Penultimate is the best application for creating a combination to do, I did, I shouldn’t have done, why did I do that, and did I really do that list. And for better or worse it is all in written down for you to reflect on. ## Frequently asked questions about Penultimate ### What does this app do? This app allows you to take digital notes and sketch using natural handwriting on your iPad. It offers a fluid writing experience similar to pen and paper, with features like customizable paper styles and wrist protection. Your notes can be organized and synced with Evernote for easy access across devices. ### What are the key features of this app? Key features include natural-looking ink strokes, wrist protection to prevent stray marks, various paper styles, and the ability to import custom paper. It also offers zoom and drift functionalities for a seamless writing flow, and integrates with Evernote for organization and search. ### Is this app free to use? The app is free to download and use. However, it offers optional subscription plans for Evernote Premium and Evernote Plus, which provide additional benefits like larger upload limits and other enhanced features. These subscriptions are charged through your iTunes account. ### What devices is this app compatible with? The application is designed for iPad. It also integrates tightly with the Jot Script Evernote Edition stylus, which is available separately, to provide a precise digital handwriting experience. ### How can I use this app for note-taking? You can use this app to take notes during classes or meetings, journal your thoughts, or outline ideas. The app's handwriting recognition allows you to search your handwritten notes, and Evernote sync ensures your notes are organized and accessible on all your devices. ## Version history (last 1 release) ### 6.4.1 — 2022-06-23 Miscellaneous bug fixes ## Apps similar to Penultimate | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Linea Sketch](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/linea-sketch/id1094770251) | 3.7 (768) | Free | Productivity | | [Bear - Markdown Notes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bear-markdown-notes/id1016366447) | 4.7 (459) | Free | Productivity | | [Notebloc Scanner - Scan to PDF](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notebloc-scanner-scan-to-pdf/id1077023687) | 4.7 (1,177) | Free | Productivity | | [Flexcil Note & Good PDF Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/flexcil-note-and-good-pdf-reader/id1531466462) | 4.4 (377) | Free | Productivity | | [New Note Notebook - Draw Memo](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/new-note-notebook-draw-memo/id995861016) | 2.0 (7) | Free | Productivity | | [Paper: Sketch, Draw & Create](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paper-sketch-draw-and-create/id506003812) | 4.6 (69,174) | Free | Productivity | ## More apps by Evernote Corporation - [Evernote - Notes Organizer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/evernote-notes-organizer/id281796108) - [Skitch - Snap. Mark Up. Send.](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/skitch-snap-mark-up-send/id490505997) - [Paper: Sketch, Draw & Create](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paper-sketch-draw-and-create/id506003812) - [Evernote Scannable](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/evernote-scannable/id883338188) - [AI Transcribe by Evernote](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ai-transcribe-by-evernote/id6749301494) All apps by Evernote Corporation: https://appshunter.io/developer/281796111 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*