Penultimate and Maglus – a glorious writing experience

I’ve been trying out writing and notetaking apps with the Maglus, and the second one I’ve used is Evernote’s Penultimate – happily, there’s a free version in the App Store, at the time of this post.
I am really impressed with Penultimate. Using the Maglus stylus plus original tip, and my iPad 2, the writing experience is glorious – like writing on a fine vellum with an expensive fountain pen! It feels so smooth and flowing, it’s the best app I’ve used with the Maglus so far.

Once downloaded, it’s very straightforward to get going and get writing. Penultimate asks you if you want to make an Evernote account, so you can share your notes on Evernote, and sync across your devices – but you don’t have to, which is a nice touch for a free app.

Catch my drift?

One feature I particularly like is Drift: when zoomed, the screen scrolls as you write, so you can write continuously without having to manipulate a box (as with some other notetaking apps).
The clever part is that it reacts to how you’re writing – write slower and the scrolling slows right down, write faster and it speeds up with you. If you stop, it stops!
There’s a convenient Return button on the screen you press to move quickly to the next line.
Also, there’s very faint zoomed-out image of the page that always shows in the background to give you context for where you’re writing.

Penultimate drift – zoomed in and zoomed out

I made a short YouTube clip too:

My only quibble – I couldn’t find a Landscape mode, only Portrait. I personally like landscape much better for notetaking, the traditional notebooks I buy are landscape sketchpads, but maybe that will be a feature in a future release. I got on with it and ended up loving the portrait mode, but the choice would be nice.

So to sum up – get Penultimate now! It’s free and works great with the Maglus.

Got a notetaking app recommendation? Let me know by email at caroline at maglusstylus dot com – or leave a comment below!

Caroline

Caroline knows the Maglus can help with all aspects of life - workflow, creativity, fun, and everyday tasks. She likes to talk to people, and figure out the problems we all have that the Maglus can solve. She likes retrogaming, music, making comedy shorts, cats, yoga, running - and thinks Dublin is the greatest city on Earth!