NiblyNotes vs FluidNotes

NiblyNotes is the digital exercise book for everyday school life — made in Germany with teachers. Every tool a lesson needs in one app: no subscription, no ads, no tracking. English and German. FREE AND AD-FREE NiblyNotes stays free for at least 5 years. In the supporter area you can buy us a coffee if you like — it unlocks nothing. WRITING AND DRAWING - Pen, fountain pen, pencil, highlighter and laser pointer, many colours and widths, plus two of your own - Lasso to move, scale, rotate and copy, even from book to book - Object eraser for whole strokes, Apple Pencil double-tap switches to it - Shape recognition for line, circle, rectangle, triangle and rhombus; rest the pen briefly and it straightens at once - Lines and arrows whose endpoints stay movable PAPER RULINGS Blank, ruled, 5 mm squares, dot grid, music staves with lyric lines, French Séyès ruling, isometric and dimetric paper to ISO 5456-3 — per page, with a margin left or right. RULER, SET SQUARE AND COMPASS Strokes snap to the edge, tools move and rotate with two fingers, the ruler attaches to the set square. The zoom adjusts so that 5 mm squares and 9 mm lines are exactly that size — check it with a real ruler. TEXT, TABLES AND STICKERS Text boxes with font, size, colour, word-by-word formatting, Scribble, web addresses recognised. Tables to write into with the pen. Stickers cover up answers and reveal them with a tap; next time you open the book they cover again. IMAGES, AUDIO AND VIDEO Photos from library or camera with a photo editor, audio files right on the page, videos embedded cookie-free. SPLIT PAGE A reading pane on the left with a PDF or a second book, the writable page on the right, the divider moves freely. SCANNER AND IMPORT Scan worksheets and blackboards with the iPad camera — multiple pages, black/white or colour, croppable. PDF, Word and PowerPoint become book pages. BOOKS AND PAGES Folders, duplicate books, take pages from other books. Insert, delete or clear pages — all recoverable. Page overview as a sidebar, outline that jumps to a topic. ZOOM WRITING An enlarged writing strip at the bottom — write big, it lands small in the book. CURTAIN, PRESENTATION, FULL SCREEN The curtain reveals a page step by step, on the external display too. When mirroring, presentation mode shows only the page, full screen leaves just a mini toolbar. PRINT, AIRDROP, SAVE AirPrint, AirDrop, save locally as PDF or NiblyNotes file. Teachers can hide the handwritten answer key on export. SCHOOL CLOUDS AND BACKUP BayernCloud Schule, Nextcloud and NetMan for Schools are built in: upload and share, open files straight into a book, daily backup. Local backups password-protected on request. CLASSROOM MODE Put worksheets, single objects or images into the class inbox by QR code and collect submissions — locally over the school Wi-Fi. For devices without NiblyNotes there is a compatibility mode you can switch on: files in the browser. If the Wi-Fi blocks the connection, the inbox runs encrypted via a web server. Can also be linked to BayernCloud Schule. VIEW STUDENTS' WORK Students release pages, the teacher writes notes into them, the class sees the corrections. Encrypted, own school server possible. SHARED BOOKS Work on one book together via iCloud — directly between Apple Accounts, no third-party server. FOR SCHOOL IT Configurable by MDM: preset cloud addresses, fix the language, hide the supporter area. PRIVACY Book contents are stored locally. Cloud connections are optional. Trademarks: Apple, Apple Pencil, iPad, iCloud, AirDrop, AirPrint (Apple Inc.), Word, PowerPoint (Microsoft), Nextcloud (Nextcloud GmbH), NetMan for Schools (H+H Software GmbH). BayernCloud Schule: Free State of Bavaria.

FluidNotes is a notebook for iPad and iPhone that feels like paper: write with Apple Pencil on iPad or with your finger on iPhone – and find everything again with search that reads your handwriting. WRITING THAT FEELS RIGHT • Ballpoint, fineliner, fountain pen, pencil, felt-tip, watercolour, highlighter and more, all pressure-sensitive • Ruler, colour picker and custom colours on all your devices • Hand-drawn shapes become clean circles, rectangles, lines and arrows • Convert handwriting to typed text, with word suggestions as you write – on the device • Cross out typed words to delete them • Lasso: cut out exactly, colour, move, duplicate • Zoom window: write large at the bottom, and it appears small on the page ORGANISATION THAT GROWS WITH YOU • Folders and subfolders, tags, favourites and bookmarks • Headings automatically build an outline; links connect pages and notebooks, and a knowledge network shows topics and connections – in 3D too • Search handwriting, typed text, PDFs, photos and recordings – through Spotlight too • Collect the highlights of a PDF into an excerpt, with links back to the passage • Lock notebooks with Face ID or a passcode THE PAPER YOU WANT • Lined, squared, dotted, planners, sheet music and more – in colour too; plus a whiteboard that grows • Save your own pages as templates; import PDFs, Word, PowerPoint and Goodnotes • Photos, document scans, GIFs, tables, mind maps and reusable building blocks STUDY • Flashcards with spaced repetition and a study plan across all notebooks, with a daily reminder if you like • An exam date per deck, also as a proposal to the group; import and export decks as Anki packages or text files • Flashcards from your handwriting: circle a question or sketch and turn it into a card • Apple Watch: review due flashcards on your wrist, with a complication for the watch face • Study time with breaks, on iPhone also on the Lock Screen • Study tape: cover passages and test yourself • With Apple Intelligence: flashcards, cloze exercises from A1 to C2, summaries and mind maps from your notes – and answers to questions about them • The AI runs on the device only – no internet, no third-party AI service STUDY GROUPS AND SHARING • Study groups: join once and get every notebook of the group, including later ones • Invite others to a notebook with a link or QR code – to write along or just to view • Colour each person’s contributions and see what others have changed since your last visit • Send a copy of a notebook or of single pages, with the recordings if you like – through a link that expires by itself • Comments with replies; everyone shares the flashcards, each person keeps their own progress RECORD AND PRESENT • Record sound while you write; on playback, your note reappears stroke by stroke • Transcripts on the device: search finds spoken words too • Present on a projector or TV: only the current page, with a laser pointer HANDY • Quick Note from the app icon, as a widget, in Control Centre, with Siri or Shortcuts • Widgets for recently opened notebooks and cards due • Sync through your own iCloud and Handoff between iPhone, iPad and Mac • Automatic backups to iCloud Drive; export as PDF, Markdown or FlexiNote package • Select text in a PDF and translate it • Optional: Zotero for PDFs, citations and the bibliography • Getting started in five short exercises; help mode explains every button YOUR NOTES BELONG TO YOU FluidNotes has no server of its own and no account. No ads, no tracking, no analytics, no in-app purchases. Your notebooks live on your device and, if you like, in your own iCloud. FluidNotes is a personal project, built with care. Questions and ideas: j.gomez@web.de