Goodnotes vs paper: notes on a tablet or on real paper

Both start the same way: you write by hand because you think better and remember more that way. The difference is when your notes become digital.

• On a tablet (Goodnotes, Notability), every stroke is digital at once. You write with a stylus on the screen, erase, move things, change colours and search your handwriting.
• On paper with Axsuro, you write in an ordinary notebook. The page becomes digital when you photograph it. Axsuro then reads every line and sorts it.

Neither is right for everyone. It depends on what you write and what should happen to your notes afterwards.

Goodnotes is one of the best-known apps for digital handwriting. As of October 2026 it can, among other things:

• Mark up PDFs by hand: import lecture notes, slides, contracts or sheet music and write straight on them.
• Digital planners: many people use Goodnotes with planner templates as their calendar and journal on the iPad.
• Search handwriting: one search finds words in handwritten notes and PDFs. The lasso tool converts handwriting to typed text.
• Many devices: iPad, iPhone and Mac, plus Android, Windows and a web version.

Notability works in a similar way and has one strength students especially like: audio recordings are linked to your notes. Tap a word later and the recording jumps to the moment you wrote it.

If you already own an iPad with a stylus and work a lot with PDFs, these apps give you a great deal.

The table compares the two ways of working, not just the apps. Much of the tablet column applies to Notability too.

Axsuro doesn't do the writing for you; it does the work afterwards. A word at the start of a line says what the line becomes:

• todo: Send essay outline to Prof. Weber Mon becomes a task due on Monday.
• cal: Tue 14:00 Study group library becomes an event in Google Calendar or Outlook.
• q: What is opportunity cost? with a: the value of the best option you didn't choose below it becomes a flashcard.
• doc: Essay draft turns everything below it into a typed document, word for word.

Tasks and events wait for "Confirm", then sync both ways. Axsuro quizzes you on flashcards at intervals until they stick; see study notes. Drawings are taken over stroke by stroke with "Keep sketch"; see digitise sketches.

Instead of converting single spots with a lasso, Axsuro reads the whole page. If you only want part of it, drag a frame on the photo and copy just those lines. Formulas also come back as LaTeX, and tables you drew as cells for Excel.

There's a paper way for PDFs too: choose a PDF in the web app, and Axsuro prints it with room to write and a code on every sheet. Write by hand, scan the sheets, and get the original PDF back with your notes as comments, where you wrote them.

Then there's what paper does anyway: no battery, no notifications, and a notebook goes where a tablet doesn't.

If you use both: Axsuro also reads PDFs of up to 50 pages. Export handwritten pages from your tablet app as a PDF, upload it, and Axsuro reads them the same way.

• You want to write on PDFs right on the screen: lecture notes, slides, papers or sheet music. Axsuro now lets you write on PDFs on paper (print, write, scan), but if you want to mark them up directly on the screen, a tablet app suits you better.
• You already have an iPad with a stylus and like having everything on one device.
• You want a digital planner with templates, stickers and links between pages.
• You record lectures and want audio linked to your notes on the tablet; Notability does that. With Pro, Axsuro links a recording to the lines you write on paper.
• You erase and rearrange a lot while you write.

• You'd rather write on paper and don't want to buy a tablet or carry one everywhere.
• Your notes should become tasks and events in your calendar and task list, not just text on a page.
• You study with flashcards and don't want to write them twice.
• You write long text by hand, such as a journal or drafts, and want to pass it on as Word or PDF.

Axsuro runs in the browser and as an app for iPhone and Android. Every new account starts with 14 days of Pro without a card. Students get 30 % off Plus and Pro; details on the pricing page.

• Apps for handwritten notes in 2026, compared
  Apps for handwritten notes in 2026: Axsuro, Goodnotes, Notability, Rocketbook, Pen to Print, xNote, Penlo, OneNote and more, sorted by what they do.
• Flashcards from handwritten notes
  Turn notes into flashcards: write q: and a: by hand, photograph the page, and Axsuro builds a deck per notebook with five boxes for spaced repetition.
• Rocketbook alternative: Rocketbook and Axsuro compared
  Rocketbook or Axsuro? How the smart notebook and Axsuro work, what each does well, who each suits, and why you can use both together.