Write with Apple Pencil, type anywhere, record, and mark up PDFs. Keep a daily journal that turns like a real book. Even set your notes in your own handwriting.
Get PenaraSee it on Duo
Six pens with colour, thickness and presets that stay put. Hold the pen still at the end of a stroke and a rough circle, rectangle or line snaps clean. Tap anywhere and type. Draw with a phrase as the brush.
Import PDFs, Word, Pages, RTF, HTML, Markdown and images. Every page becomes a page you can annotate with Apple Pencil, shapes, photos and text. Export it back as a PDF with the original pages intact, or as PNG or Markdown.
Choose the paper, the density, the margins and the page size. Planner pages are alive: they follow the real calendar and highlight today and the hour you're in.
Six page sizes: notebook, A4, Letter, square, landscape and slide. Page by page or continuous scroll, in any paper colour.
Every day gets a page with a timeline, your calendar events, photos, mood and place. Make to-dos and Reminders right on the page. Start notes from any meeting in your calendar, and the notes link back to the event in the Calendar app.
Write the way you like: with Apple Pencil and keep it as ink, or let Pencil turn into text in your chosen font, with bullets, numbering, indents, colour and full formatting. Your choice, entry by entry.
On iPhone Duo opened flat, and on wide iPads, a month calendar, the day's details and the scrolling log sit on the left, and your writing page fills the right.
Shown on iPad. The Duo layouts are built for the device and tested in the simulator; we haven't yet tried them on real Duo hardware.
Write each letter once in the handwriting studio. After that, anything you type can appear in your own hand, with the small variations that make it look written, not printed. Or choose from 13 hand-lettered typefaces.
Dear future me, remember how this felt.
Open it flat and Penara becomes a two-page spread. Fold it like a laptop and you get a page overview above the hinge and your writing below. It also runs beautifully on every iPad and iPhone.
Shown here on iPad. Penara follows the hinge on iPhone Duo and we're testing it on real hardware ahead of launch.
Twelve themes, any colour, nine patterns, an emoji, an elastic band and a ribbon. Seasonal cover packs are coming later as add-on packs.
Choose whether Penara opens to Today, a new note, your latest note, or the note you wrote nearest to where you are. A Home Screen widget and icon shortcuts jump straight in.
No Penara account. No ads. No tracking. Your notes live on your device and in your own iCloud, and we can't read them.
Everything is stored locally first. Penara works offline, always.
Sync uses your private iCloud database, which only you can read.
Handwriting search and conversion run on the device with Apple's frameworks.
Lock notebooks with Face ID. Back up everything to one file whenever you like.
Penara is built to do what the great note and handwriting apps do, in one place.
| Penara | Typical notes app | Typical handwriting app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Pencil ink, any zoom | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDF, Word and Pages markup | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Pencil to text, in your chosen font, with formatting | Yes | Some | Some |
| Daily journal with calendar and Reminders | Yes | — | — |
| Live planner pages | Yes | — | Some |
| Your own handwriting as a font | Yes | — | — |
| Shape snapping and mind maps | Yes | Some | Some |
| Audio recording synced to ink | Yes | Yes | — |
| Journal with day, diary and all-entries views, split on wide screens | Yes | — | — |
| iPhone Duo layouts (book and tabletop) | Yes | — | — |
| No account required | Yes | Varies | Varies |
Start free. Pay once for Penara 1 and keep it.
One notebook and 10 pages across your notebook, quick notes and the Journal. Every pen, paper and tool, six templates, and export whenever you like.
Unlimited notebooks and pages, every template, and importing PDFs and documents. Pay once, no subscription. Keep using Penara 1 for as long as it is supported; the next major version will be a discounted upgrade.
US prices shown; the App Store shows the price in your currency. Nothing you write is ever locked away.
Try Penara on your iPad, iPhone or iPhone Duo before it reaches the App Store. Join the free TestFlight beta and tell us what you think.
No. Penara has no accounts. Sync uses your own iCloud if you're signed in.
iPad, iPhone and iPhone Duo, running iOS 18 or later.
Yes. Import them and write on every page with Apple Pencil. Export back as a PDF.
You pay once for a major version of Penara and keep it. When the next major version arrives, owners of Penara 1 can upgrade at a discount. There is no subscription.
Everything you've written stays yours: you can still read, edit, export and delete every page. To add more pages or notebooks, unlock Penara once.
Penara 1 keeps working for as long as it is supported. When the next major version arrives it will be a discounted upgrade for people who own Penara 1; you choose whether to upgrade. Paper, template and cover packs will come later as separate add-ons you can buy if you want them.
Yes. Notes stay on your device and in your private iCloud. We don't collect your data and there are no ads or trackers.
Yes. Write with Apple Pencil and it becomes text in your chosen font, with bullets, numbering, indents, colour and formatting. Or keep it as plain ink. You choose a default in Settings, and can switch for any entry.
Opened flat, the journal splits: month calendar, day details and the log on the left, your writing page on the right. The Duo layouts are built for the device and tested in the simulator; we haven't yet tested on real Duo hardware.
Yes. Pick the calendars you want in the Journal. Notes for a meeting link back to the event in the Calendar app. You can edit, move, duplicate or delete any entry.
Yes. Write with a finger, type, or use the shape and text tools. A Pencil makes handwriting better.