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FlorenceArt · 11-24-2013, 02:50 PM

JOTTER

I said I had a few reviews to post. Here's one.

I bought this app ages ago when I was first looking for handwriting apps, and discarded it immediately. A couple of months ago I bought an iPad mini (which turned out to be a mistake) and started looking for an app that would let me sync handwritten notes between devices. I never found one, but Jotter was close. In fact it does have a sync option, but I was forced to turn it off as it had disastrous consequences. Basically, it doesn't seem to work when you create notes while offline. If you're lucky, the version uploaded to the cloud will be faulty. If you're unlucky, you may see your notes disappear when the device syncs.

So forget about syncing unless you're online all the time. What about the rest?

Handwriting is not bad, though not as good as Noteshelf's (but no app that I've tried comes close to Noteshelf in that area anyway). It's relatively fluid, good looking and recognizable, although it's not my handwriting. It looks more like my mother's handwriting, that's something I have noticed with other apps too. Oh, and it has palm recognition, which is not perfect but useable.

The main appeal of Jotter (apart from its low price: 0.89€ for a universal app) is that it's quick and simple. Start the app and press the + button and you can start jotting. There are some options though, you can choose between 3 types of pens, 3 width (which are either too thin or too thick for me unfortunately), a few colors. You can also use an album photo as a background or use one of the app's backgrounds. More are available as in-app purchases. I bought the calendar ones which allow me to annotate a calendar page or just time stamp my notes.

However there is no option to classify your notes: no folders or notebooks, no tags, no titles, not even an option to change the sort order. They are just individual pages presented in reverse chronological order on your screen. That's why I think of Jotter (and from the name that's probably also what the developers had in mind) as a useful app to jot down a few words or a quick sketch. You can then save it to the album as an image or save it as a PDF to send it to another app where you can put it in a folder or add it to a notebook, or tag it, or whatever you want to do with your notes.

Also missing is a selection tool. Once you wrote or drew something, you can't move or copy it, only erase it with the eraser tool. And you can't insert a photo in a note, only use it as background. No typed text either.

My conclusion: as I mentioned, for 0.89€ you get a universal app that, apart from the sync fluke, does what it says and does it rather well. I think it's good value for that price, but don't expect something too sophisticated.

I still have it on my iPad and use it occasionally.

11-24-2013, 02:50 PM	#112
FlorenceArt High Priestess Posts: 5,761 Karma: 5042529 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Montreuil sous bois, France Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus	Jotter JOTTER I said I had a few reviews to post. Here's one. I bought this app ages ago when I was first looking for handwriting apps, and discarded it immediately. A couple of months ago I bought an iPad mini (which turned out to be a mistake) and started looking for an app that would let me sync handwritten notes between devices. I never found one, but Jotter was close. In fact it does have a sync option, but I was forced to turn it off as it had disastrous consequences. Basically, it doesn't seem to work when you create notes while offline. If you're lucky, the version uploaded to the cloud will be faulty. If you're unlucky, you may see your notes disappear when the device syncs. So forget about syncing unless you're online all the time. What about the rest? Handwriting is not bad, though not as good as Noteshelf's (but no app that I've tried comes close to Noteshelf in that area anyway). It's relatively fluid, good looking and recognizable, although it's not my handwriting. It looks more like my mother's handwriting, that's something I have noticed with other apps too. Oh, and it has palm recognition, which is not perfect but useable. The main appeal of Jotter (apart from its low price: 0.89€ for a universal app) is that it's quick and simple. Start the app and press the + button and you can start jotting. There are some options though, you can choose between 3 types of pens, 3 width (which are either too thin or too thick for me unfortunately), a few colors. You can also use an album photo as a background or use one of the app's backgrounds. More are available as in-app purchases. I bought the calendar ones which allow me to annotate a calendar page or just time stamp my notes. However there is no option to classify your notes: no folders or notebooks, no tags, no titles, not even an option to change the sort order. They are just individual pages presented in reverse chronological order on your screen. That's why I think of Jotter (and from the name that's probably also what the developers had in mind) as a useful app to jot down a few words or a quick sketch. You can then save it to the album as an image or save it as a PDF to send it to another app where you can put it in a folder or add it to a notebook, or tag it, or whatever you want to do with your notes. Also missing is a selection tool. Once you wrote or drew something, you can't move or copy it, only erase it with the eraser tool. And you can't insert a photo in a note, only use it as background. No typed text either. My conclusion: as I mentioned, for 0.89€ you get a universal app that, apart from the sync fluke, does what it says and does it rather well. I think it's good value for that price, but don't expect something too sophisticated. I still have it on my iPad and use it occasionally.