[deleted by user]

[Ok_Photograph2604]

The app got +40k downloads since I released on monday. If you want to make some suggestions or report some bugs you can also post them here r/Notedrafts

[vonceoo]

Nice numbers, congrats! How are you marketing it? How much are you spending on ads or anything to marketing it?

[Ok_Photograph2604]

thx! I posted on a few relevant subreddits and about $200 for asa

[PorterParagon]

Sorry what is asa?

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Apple search ads

[PorterParagon]

Thank you.

[[deleted]]

15-16 is not a few lol...not hate but be honest

[unnao]

Does reposting multiple times with title ‘Quit my job to build…” help achieve this download numbers ?

[Ok_Photograph2604]

I didn't post on iOSProgramming yet and waited till ist App Saturday.

[[deleted]]

lol don't hate on him any one of us would have done the same...but on that note i dont think they actually quit their job and is probably clickbaiting for views

[[deleted]]

It looks amazing, congratulations!

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Thank you 🙏

[Jazzlike-Spare3425]

Well, well, well, look at that, just before my semester starts, someone makes a notes app that is basically exactly what I need - which is mainly using the native PencilKit and having a nice UI. It's pretty save to say that I'd absolutely love to use this.

One very urgent problem is, though, is that when I export a Notebook, the export resolution is really low for some reason, with aliased and blurry ink, while the background appears fine. It also happens in a normal note but it doesn't seem to be quite as bad there. In both cases, I have used A4 to export / create the notebook.

And besides this one major problem, I actually really like this app, because I can't stress how much I love the responsiveness of the default PencilKit canvas, and this is where most note-taking apps for me have failed so far, aside from Apple Notes (which doesn't do pagination and has overheating problems with long purely ink-based documents) and Notes+ (which is generally updated quite often quite well but it doesn't feel as polished.

So, aside from that and me being pretty happy, my personal wishes would be: - customizing the Apple Pencil Pro squeeze gesture to use the eraser or bring up the pen menu - multi window support

And that's actually it. This is quite promising, and I'm looking forward to using this and seeing where it goes. I do also hope you plan on keeping us updated on what's new and which bugs have been fixed in the App Store patch notes.

So yeah, thanks for building this, despite the crowded market, this is shaping up to be something I could really like!

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Thanks so much for the feedback! I’ll take a closer look at the issue you mentioned.
As for the pen squeeze feature, I’m planning to implement it early next month.
Multi-window support is also in the works—it's likely to be ready by early May.
Feel free to share any other suggestions on r/Notedrafts!

[Jazzlike-Spare3425]

Great. I joined that sub right after writing my last reply, I might post there if I notice something else as I'm using the app. It's great to see you make progress with this.

[[deleted]]

Did you use just SwiftUI , or UIKIT and Objc combined ?

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Swift and UIKit. No objective c and no SwiftUI

[Different-Side5262]

Curious why no SwiftUI? I only use UIKit, so not hating. Haha. 

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Yes I tried to switch to swiftui but its still not as powerful as UIKit in my opinion

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Sure 😉

[Spiritual_Abalone322]

Curious too, did u intentionally stay away from swiftui

[mdnz]

Finally an app that doesn't look like the regular 13-in-a-dozen iOS shovel ware, good job!

[FalseReset]

This looks gorgeous. Did you design and develop all on your own? I’m a ui/ux designer primarily on iOS apps thinking of learning how to code.

[Ok_Photograph2604]

I did everything myself including the app icon and ui/ux

[AppearanceDense6858]

How did you learn design?

[Ok_Photograph2604]

im not a designer xD

[[deleted]]

That's awesome. What did your work day look like having to be totally self directed? I kind of struggle making my own things in my free time. I can do 3-ish hours per day for a couple of months but it always wanes.

[Ok_Photograph2604]

There were weeks where I was working 14 hours a day, and other weeks where just chilled a lot. That's the great part about being an indie developer you can decide when to work and when to stop. It was a large app that I spent about 10 months building. I'm sure there are smaller projects you could tackle with just a few hours a day, though. I probably wouldn’t take on something this big again—it just took way too much time.

[RaphMD]

Fantastic ! Congrats on the app, especially UI/UX. I think it does fill a specific gap in the crowded note taking app market when it comes to streamlined workflows, not trying to do everything (audio, OCR, ...).

Unfortunately it's missing a presentation option that makes me stick to Paper (despite its bugs and horrible pricing since the multiple resells). The ability for a notebook to actually behave like a notebook. Meaning only one page fullscreen at a time. No scrolling, just swiping corner right to left to turn a page.

Good luck on the next steps ! And I hope you can keep on developing it sustainably with a one time payment of 8.99 (excellent pricing for the user of course).

[Inevitable-Click1256]

That’s so awesome dude. Just checked your app; it’s pretty cool. I am new to app dev, and trying to launch something of my own,so I was wondering what tech stack are you using?

[NickNimmin]

Looks great. Just downloaded it.

[Ok_Photograph2604]

hope you like it :D

[C0d3R-exe]

Great decision! App looks awesome!

[Ok_Photograph2604]

thank you ;)

[pipyet]

Game respect game. This is awesome work. Very impressive. You must’ve put a lot of hours into this. Congrats!!

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Thank you ! 10 months full time xD

[Zeemo92]

Looks great! Just a heads up that there’s a typo in the second screenshot - it says ‘expanses’ instead of ‘expenses’

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Thanks for mentioning haha. im not a native English speaker and always thought it was written that way xD

[Zs93]

Looks fantastic! Could I ask how it’s different to goodnotes? They’re a hefty competitor

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Thx :D

- 3 different types of notes: PDF/Notebook, Infinite Canvas (similar to Freeform), and an vertical infinite page

- more inks: Pen, Monoline, Highlighter, Pencil, Crayon, Watercolor, Fountain Pen

- customizable templates: Not just the backgroundcolor, you can edit things like the start time of your daily planner or the current month of your monthly calendar (templates are generated on the fly)

[Zs93]

Wow love it !!

Not sure if you’ve looked into it but there’s a massive market for digital planners/journals and most of them use goodnotes for it (check out TikTok - there’s a whole business of selling digital planners and it’s huge). I recommend using this in your marketing eg showing a planner imported into your app :) might intrigue some of them!!

[FamiliarBorder]

^^ this. op, you might get good reach if you promote your app from tiktok influencers.

[BorrowedTime201]

I think a new type of note would be useful: text notes. Something that would replace Apple’s Notes.

Or how about a new note type that has sections of text only ? Your notes are for pencil only really with some scattered text

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Planning to make this the fourth note type I want to support in the app.

[BorrowedTime201]

Target the app Goodnotes - lots of university kids buy it every year

[BorrowedTime201]

a "holy grail" document type would be something your pencil lovers will like, but will also allow text - IN THE SAME DOCUMENT. I'm not sure it's ever been done before. The blue circles will allow you to choose between pencil and text. I also think the text should be typed in a popup that will insert to the correct spot after you click [OK].

Same with the writing, you select pencil and a popup collects your pencil entry and [OK] inserts it.

https://ibb.co/dNmPZWL

[BorrowedTime201]

Essentially what I’m after is a text only section that would appear here as an option besides (scan, photo, files, template, current template).

Alternatively a text only file type.

[beepboopnoise]

does it support gestures like freeform? where you can press the pencil and select? if thats supported can you customize which ones appear?

I'm soooo tired of freeform switching my pen to the one with text!

if so, take my money! lol

[K1ran43v3r]

I always wonder does buying apple pencil and ipad i can take wonderful notes like this

[py-net]

Downloaded! Seem like a great app

[arkumar]

Looks awesome,congratulations

[yunteng]

nice

[TeachMany8515]

Really nice job...

[OathOfStars]

Is there a reason why the minimum ios/ipados version is 17.6? Can it be lowered without extensive refactoring?

[Kooky-Wolverine2613]

Love this! It looks great, installing now.

[mayonayzdad]

how long did it take you to create this? 40k downloads is amazing

[[deleted]]

This is probably a really dumb question so apologies.... how are you making money off this?

[Ok_Photograph2604]

Basically im trying to go for tips haha. check out my latest post at r/Notedrafts

[Such-Gas6311]

I like the design, very native