If I asked you to name a handwritten note-taking app for Linux chases are you’d namecheck Xournal++. It’s arguably the best one out there as it’s open source, well featured, and a real best-in-class application.
But there’s always room for more.
Scrivano is a relatively new hand-written note taking app for Linux (and Windows) that could prove itself handy for anyone looking to jot down hand-written notes, draw simple charts and diagrams, mark-up images, and other similarly nimble tasks.
The app features four different paper backgrounds: Plain, Lined, Grid, or Dotted. The space between the lines/dots/grid spaces are all configurable too, which is great if you want to get really detailed with sketches and notes.
Grid snapping makes it easy to draw tables, charts, and other diagrams precisely, while freehand drawing is (relatively) pressure sensitive to allow for emphasis and more finessed artistic sketching (pressure sensitive is configurable in the app but it wasn’t ‘active’ with my hardware so YMMV).
To help save time/repetitive hand injuries you can save symbols, diagrams, and other markup elements as “stickers” so you can drag and drop them in to future documents whenever required.
Auto-fill is another time-saving feature. When toggled on, auto-fill automatically “fills in” whatever you draw free-hand, as well as any shapes you add while it’s active.. This saves you needing to scribble frantically over boxes to “colour them in”, as with the ‘hearts’ on show in this screenshot:
These and other features present in the version of Scrivano I tried (0.11.4):
- 4 customisable page formats: lined, grid, dotted, plain
- Infinite vertical canvas
- Basic set of colours in picker
- Adjustable line thickness & style
- Freehand and standard selection (to move, copy or delete)
- Save and reuse drawings/notes as stickers
- Drag and drop image files on to canvas
- Local saving (not cloud)
- PDF export
- Laser tool
Features planned for future releases include PDF import.
Download Scrivano
Now, Scrivano is not open source. As always, my aim with this blog is never to dictate what you should or shouldn’t use (or do, add, configure, etc) on your own system, simply surface options and alternatives that you can make use of if you want to.
While Scrivano lacks a few features found in more established apps of this time it’s nonetheless a promising alternative that’s worth being aware of so.
Want to try it out first hand? Windows users can get the latest release of Scrivano on the Microsoft Store, while Linux users can download binary builds from Github (note: this doesn’t have a built-in auto-updater).