Taking notes and drawing something down, is the impetus for many people to buy an iPad and Apple Pencil. After trying various solutions on the market, I still haven't found the software I want. Not satisfied with this, I developed an app called "Blankbook".

Why bother creating another note app?

I found too many apps that try to do everything, yet when they do that, they lose focus. Blankbook's goal is to reduce the clutter and reproduce the essence of a modern handwriting experience. I want to focus on the advancement of digital technology and the intuitiveness of pen and paper. The combination is Blankbook.

Design Thoughts

The original design of the Blankbook is not simply a pile of functions, but a thoughtful simplification. Intuitive interaction, easy-to-use tools, and endless drawing paper are the core experience of the Blankbook.

I love paper and pen, or am very picky about paper and pen. For the past few years, 28 grams of presentation paper with excellent texture, paired with a red ring 800+ drawing pencil has been my only choice. I like electronic devices too. I think the electronic device, as a brand new carrier, brings infinite possibilities that traditional paper and pencil do not.

At the time of the rise of the web media, people demanded web pages with the design ideas of traditional newspapers. They inadvertently overlooked the web as a new medium, with its infinitely expandable nature, often resulting in fixed-sized text and buttons.

At the time of the iPad's rise, software makers designed iPad software in the same way they designed desktop software, and the result was a big, bloated, all-purpose software that was as close to Photoshop as possible.

Open the software and you're overwhelmed by the variety of features that come with it. For me, what's lost is the impulse to create as soon as I grab the pen.

What Blankbook wants to do is really focus on what you feel on paper and pen, the urge to create with a pen. I wanted to make the most of the electronic storage capabilities, not deliberately stitching together every page, but providing a canvas that can be infinitely extended and scaled, with the canvas size automatically expanding with the content. I want the core functionality of the software to non-intrusively serving the users, and opening the software is like spreading out the paper, a blank canvas encouraging you to create.

What is Blankbook?

The core of Blankbook are paper and tools. For paper, it means an infinite canvas that automatically expand as you write; and for tools, it offers three customized tools, saved per note.

An infinitely expanding piece of paper: the essence of a Blankbook is a piece of paper, but this piece of paper should not have a clear size boundary. In many of the whiteboard or paper-like software I use, what is provided to the user is indeed a clear size paper, such as letter size. The problem is that when you write for a while, you quickly find that you have encountered the boundaries of the paper. Yet such boundaries are artificial limits, not the limits of the electronic device itself.

The paper roll in the picture above shows the limit of the paper as medium, which can be extended in one direction, but is missing in width. The Blankbook eliminates the final flaw of the paper medium. In Blankbook, your content determines the size of the canvas. The anchor point is at the top left corner, allowing you to expand the content of your notes infinitely down or to the right.

Of course, people use it for different things and have different requirements for canvas feedback. When taking notes you may want the canvas to slide only vertically and not zoom so much that you lose control of its position; when making a thought guide you may want the canvas to be very small so that you can see the big picture; when whiteboarding you may want the canvas to zoom within reason; when making a draft you may not care how the canvas zooms as long as you can write all the time, and you need space to make space.

To meet your needs in different scenarios, Blankbook provides three settings for the canvas, namely: canvas direction, canvas logic and zoom factor. Below are some recommended settings that you can refer to to make adjustments to your usage situation.

Three tools that belong to each note: When we wanted to paint as children, we usually opened the watercolor pen box and selected a few pens to put next to it. The tools in the Blankbook use the same logic. Each note stores three separate tool slots, where you can place any tool you choose.

For example, in the picture below, you can use the toolbar on the right as your toolbox, and the three custom toolbars are your selected tools. Any tool in the toolbox can be added into the custom toolbar. The custom toolbar saves all the settings of the adding tool, including the color transparency of the pen, and does not mind the number of adding tools of the same type. For example, you can add three colors of highlighters, pixels or a standard eraser, depending on your actual needs.

Considering that some of the tool settings are not obvious, I'll go through the differences between standard and pixel erasers, the use of lassoes, and pen thickness and color changes in the following article.

Gestures and Functions

The Blankbook, the gestures are at the heart of the experience. It's not helpful to talk too much, here are a few common gestures and tools, so please follow along with me.

Naming: Tap to name a note.

Rearrange: Long press to rearrange.

Undo: Two fingers tap to undo.

Zoom: two fingers pinch to zoom, one finger long press to return to the default zoom, zoom to enter the focus mode.

Eraser: There are two types of erasers, clicking twice on the eraser in the toolbox will bring up the toggle option. The default eraser erases the entire stroke, while the pixel eraser erases the point under the pen. Lean the pencil closer to screen will increase erase area.

Lasso Tool: The Lasso Tool in the Bookbook supports moving, deleting, cutting, copying and duplicating. When you need to delete in bulk, just lasso the entire area to delete; tap to move the selected content. Cutting, copying and reproduction are worth mentioning as well. Cutting refers to moving the current object somewhere else; copying refers to keeping the current content and pasting the selection elsewhere; and copying refers to copying a selection in place with the same content. The lasso tool's selection can be colored as a whole.

Pen properties: similar to an eraser, click on any pen in the toolbox twice to bring up the properties settings. The top represents thickness and the bottom represents transparency.

iPad split-screen: when you need to take notes while referring to something else, you can use the bookbook's split-screen feature to side the blankbook next to other software. In Safari, for example, when you open the browser, swipe up from the bottom bar, select the Blankbook icon and drag it to the right of the screen.

Dark Mode: Blankbook supports full dark mode, it reflects the system settings of iOS. When you switch to dark mode, the stroke color of the book blank, paper background, and interface elements all switch to dark mode. For example, in the figure below, all elements are reversed in darkmode. (Image from YuanYu Zhou)

Note Encryption: If you want the contents of your notes to remain private, you can turn on Face ID encryption in the security option. To avoid frequent verification affecting your normal use, if you have successfully decrypted, the Blankbook will not be re-encrypted for five minutes after being switched to the background.

Canvas Refinement Settings: the Blankbook canvas offers a variety of detail settings to suit your using habits. For example, the directional lock, which allows notes to slide in only one direction at a time after opening, is good for notes; conversely, turn off the directional lock is good for drafts or drawings, allowing you to slide freely in any direction.

Export: Blankbook supports exporting virtually unlimited length PDF documents, as well as unlimited height poster documents up to 8000 in width and below. The current version of Blankbook does not support exporting super wide documents and will be added in a later version based on feedback. The export file of the Blankbook is a pure vector file without background. This makes it easy to drag and drop into any design software, such as Sketch, to edit backgrounds, add shadows and other effects.

Ownership: Free users can try the first two unlimited notes of the full-featured Blankbook without any additional conditions. Paying users (priced at $6.99 for lifetime) can unlock the notes limit.

Each user's suggestion will be carefully recorded, and the future of Blankbook will be decided by everyone of you. The current planned features are iCloud, macOS notes preview app, folders. I hope to add these functions to the software in a way that is consistent with the original design of the Blankbook.

Blankbook, the blank is left for you to fill!

Users

A user asked me today.

"You are now adding so many customers to a group. If the app get popular and your customers harass you every day wanting various features, will this change your original intention?"

I replied to him as follows.

"I don't think it will change the way Blankbook developed in the future. I have a lot of ideas that I would like to put into practice in the Blankbook application. But I want every new feature to be added in a way that fits the Blankbook's design. The future of Blankbook will remain extremely restrained.

That design thoughts was actually also written for myself. I think that the large and comprehensive software on the market may also be a result of constantly meeting customers needs. Blankbook will encounter same problem as they faced. When the future is hard to decide, I'll read the design thoughts and think about why I started the Blankbook.

I have always believed in the idea that “do not multiply entities beyond necessity”. I want future features to be integrated in a way that quietly helps the users, and don't want features to jump ahead and disturb the user experience."

💡 Special thanks to YuanYuZhou, Minja, LiTengRu for contributing to design ideas, providing valuable comments and feedback during the development of the Blankbook.

Special thanks to all the users and people who shared their ideas, it was your feedback and trust that made it possible.

5.2.0 Version Update

Update for iPad, iPhone, Mac 5.2.0 dedicated to my dad "Wang Chengge".

Today is June 18, 2020, your favorite auspicious number, Dad. You had a brain hemorrhage and all of a sudden you're in heaven. My dad was an ordinary man, extraordinarily kind-hearted, carried stress, but always had a smile for life. You support my dreams and Mom's dreams with all you've got, and support our family. You loved rocks, and when I agreed with you to support your dream and make you a video you just suddenly left. Dad, you left too soon, you probably just wanted to rest and go see Grandma, maybe our turtle Raffles is waiting for you over there too.

Your last waking hours before you left were spent worrying about my schooling, Dad, rest assured that with your support, I have indeed learned all the What I want to learn: development, music theory, linguistics, film history, design, psychology, photography, game design and development, translation, and writing. , economics, leadership, business, etc.... I'm probably one of the few people who has seen all the faculty courses at the university. And I have a clear vision of what I want to study in the future. Learning comes a few days later at WWDC, and don't worry Dad, I'll keep up the lifelong learning, which is already fun.

This app has probably been the most talked about topic you and I have had in recent months, Dad. You don't have the equipment to use it yourself, but you're always there with suggestions and ideas for me to make a good product for users, and when I do, I'm sure you'll be there to help me. Don't go down with me when I say not to rush, encourage me to be patient and take my time. Your support and love is very real to me, and I will also pass on your expectations and support to every user. I will take your support and trust, Dad, and your heart to this application and all future products, and share it with the world! .

This update is dedicated to you, the announcement has been translated into all the languages of the world to bring users around the world, this update announcement will also be in Apple's entire On iPad, iPhone, and Mac, let users around the world know you're the guy behind it all. I have a wonderful father named Wang Chengge. I, Wang Yuxing, am proud to be your son, and I will still be your son in my next life. I hope that everyone who reads this announcement will love those around them, just like the last moment of their lives. Remind your family to take care of your health and develop good habits.

Miss you a lot, Dad, and you take care of yourself over there too. Mom and I love you.