Comparison

ForNote vs PDF Viewer

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ForNote

Features
Read full description

The notebook that turns Apple Pencil strokes into searchable, organized handwritten notes. ForNote is a native iPad and iPhone notes app for handwriting, sketching, and annotating PDFs. Draw with Apple Pencil, organize notebooks in nested folders, drop a photo or PDF as a page background, and find any handwritten word from Spotlight. HAND-DRAWN PAGES • Draw with Apple Pencil on iPad, or with your finger on iPhone • Pen, marker, eraser, and lasso with a full color picker • Native page-curl animation between pages • Pinch to zoom up to 5Ɨ • Floating tool palette you can drag anywhere on screen FOLDERS & ORGANIZATION • Nest folders inside folders — Files-style hierarchy • Drag and drop notebooks and folders between locations • Spring-load on the back arrow to navigate while dragging • Select multiple items at once • Bulk export, move, or delete in a single action PAGE BACKGROUNDS • Drop a photo as a background and annotate over it • Import a PDF — every page becomes a notebook page you can write on • Scan a document with the camera and turn it into pages instantly • Annotate every imported page with Apple Pencil SPOTLIGHT SEARCH • Vision OCR runs in the background on every page you draw on • Search for any handwritten word from Spotlight on your device • Tap a result to jump straight to the exact page • Turkish and English recognition out of the box STATISTICS • Track your writing streak across notebooks, pages, and folders • Library overview with item counts • Content breakdown of OCR-indexed and image-backed pages • Everything stays on-device LIQUID GLASS DESIGN Every card, sheet, and toolbar uses iOS 26's stunning Liquid Glass material. The whole app is built with native SwiftUI — no custom chrome, just the system you already know from Notes, Files, and Reminders. FORNOTE PLUS — TRY FREE • Unlimited notebooks • Unlimited PDF imports • Photos, PDF, and document scanner page backgrounds inside the editor • Detailed writing statistics Start a free trial today. Cancel anytime. Built for students, researchers, planners, and anyone who thinks better with a pen. Available in 3 languages: English, Turkish, and Simplified Chinese. ——————————————— Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://cagandurgun.com/fornoteprivacy

About

PDF Viewer

Features
Read full description

PDF Viewer opens your documents instantly and gives you real tools to work with them — highlight, draw, sign, fill in forms, reorganize pages, and listen to any page read aloud. No account. No sign-up. No waiting. FAST, LIGHTWEIGHT READING • Opens straight from Files, Mail, or the share sheet • Smooth continuous scrolling, even in long documents • Vertical or horizontal reading modes • Adjustable page tint and light/dark themes for comfortable reading • Search inside any document • Outline, thumbnails, and bookmarks for fast navigation A COMPLETE ANNOTATION TOOLBAR • Highlight text in any color • Draw freehand with the pen tool • Add text notes anywhere on the page • Draw shapes — rectangles, circles, arrows, lines • Erase and undo/redo every change • Annotations are saved automatically as you work SIGN AND FILL • Draw your signature once and place it on any page • Fill in PDF form fields directly • Reuse saved signatures across documents PAGE TOOLS • Reorganize, reorder, and rotate pages • Extract a page range into a new document • Merge several PDFs into one • Print any document LISTEN TO YOUR DOCUMENTS • Read-aloud narrates any page out loud • Great for proofreading, studying, or reading hands-free EXPORT AND SHARE • Flatten annotations permanently into the PDF • Save a copy or share annotations on their own • Exports are true vector burn-in — your markup stays sharp at any zoom PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your documents never leave your device. There is no account to create, nothing to upload, and no tracking. Files you open stay in your own storage. BUILT FOR Students marking up textbooks and papers, professionals reviewing contracts and proposals, engineers reading plans and drawings, and anyone who just wants a PDF to open quickly and work properly. Questions or feedback? We read every message.

Screenshots

ForNote4 screens
PDF Viewer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PDF Viewer at none against ForNote's 2. PDF Viewer also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. ForNote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PDF Viewer asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
ForNote versus PDF Viewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterForNotePDF Viewer
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 11 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCAGAN DURGUNMohamed Nagy

In-app purchases

2 purchases

ForNote

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Yearly$9.991 Year
None

PDF Viewer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ForNote free?
ForNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PDF Viewer free?
PDF Viewer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ForNote or PDF Viewer have ads?
Neither ForNote nor PDF Viewer shows ads.

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