SpeedyNote

A blazing-fast, cross-platform note-taking app for stylus users

Built for students who need iPad-quality annotation on budget hardware

English • 中文

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Why SpeedyNote?

The Problem	SpeedyNote's Solution
OneNote doesn't support PDF annotation	Full PDF support with fast rendering
Xournal++ is painfully slow on large PDFs	360Hz input on a Celeron N4000 (1.1GHz)
GoodNotes/Notability cost $10+ and require iPad	Free & open source, runs on $50 tablets
Most note apps are mobile-only or desktop-only	Same experience on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android & iPadOS

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Features

Performance First

• 360Hz stylus polling on low-end hardware (tested: Celeron N4000 @ 1.1GHz)
• Instant PDF loading - large documents open in seconds, not minutes
• Small memory footprint - native C++ with no Electron bloat
• ARM64 native builds - optimized for Snapdragon laptops and Rockchip Chromebooks

Professional Drawing Tools

• Pressure-sensitive inking with Pen, Marker, and Highlighter tools
• Vector-based strokes - always sharp at non-extreme zoom levels
• Multi-layer editing (SAI2-style) - add, delete, reorder, merge layers
• Stroke eraser with full undo/redo support
• Touch gestures - two-finger pan, pinch-to-zoom, palm rejection

Document Modes

• Paged Notebooks - traditional page-by-page notes (`.snb)
• Edgeless Canvas - infinite whiteboard with lazy-loading tiles (`.snb)
• PDF Backgrounds - annotate PDFs with clickable internal links
• Sharing - .snbx note bundles allows easy cross-platform note sharing.

Tablet-First UX

• Action bars - context-sensitive buttons appear when you need them
• Subtoolbars - quick access to tool settings without menu diving
• Page panel - thumbnail navigation with drag-to-reorder
• PDF outline - click TOC entries to jump to sections

Advanced Features

• Handwriting OCR - recognize handwritten notes on-device for text search and selection (macOS & Linux); supports Latin scripts, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
• Link objects - create clickable links to markdown notes, URLs, or positions
• Markdown notes - attach rich text notes to any page or position
• Multi-tab editing - work on multiple documents simultaneously

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Screenshots

PDF Annotation	Layer Panel	Page Thumbnails

Edgeless Canvas	Action Bar	Subtoolbar

Link Objects	Markdown Support	Android

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Getting Started

System Requirements

Platform	Minimum	Recommended
Windows	Windows 10 1809	Windows 11
macOS	macOS 13	macOS 15+
Linux	Ubuntu 22.04 / Fedora 38	Any with Qt 6.4+
Android	Android 9 (API 28)	Android 13+
iPadOS	iPadOS 16.0	iPadOS 17+

Hardware: Any x86_64 or ARM64 CPU. Tested on Intel Core i5 470UM (2010), Celeron N4000, Snapdragon 7c Gen 2, Rockchip RK3399, Apple M4

Installation

Windows / macOS / Linux

Download the latest release from GitHub Releases or the official website.

Platform	Package
Windows	.exe installer
macOS	.dmg disk image
Debian/Ubuntu	.deb package
Fedora/RHEL	.rpm package
Arch Linux	yay -S speedynote

Android

Option 1: Google Play Store (coming soon), supports development
Option 2: Build from source - Free, see Android Build Guide

The Play Store version is a convenience fee. The source code is always free under GPL v3.

iPadOS

Option 1: Sileo (jailbroken iPads) - Add the SpeedyNote APT repository and install via Sileo
Option 2: TrollStore - Download the .ipa from GitHub Releases and install via TrollStore
Option 3: Build from source - See iPadOS Build Guide

iPadOS builds require a jailbroken device or TrollStore. App Store distribution is not available at this time.

Linux APT Repository (Debian/Ubuntu)

# Add repository and install
wget -O- https://apt.speedynote.org/speedynote-release-key.gpg | \
  sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/speedynote.gpg

echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/speedynote.gpg] \
  https://apt.speedynote.org stable main" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/speedynote.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt install speedynote

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Building From Source

Prerequisites

Platform	Requirements
All	CMake 3.16+, C++17 compiler
Windows	MSYS2 with clang64/clangarm64 toolchain
macOS	Xcode Command Line Tools, Homebrew
Linux	Qt 6.4+ dev packages, MuPDF (handwriting OCR optional, see Linux guide)
Android	Docker (see Android Build Guide)
iPadOS	macOS, Xcode 15+, Qt 6.9.3 for iOS (see iPadOS Build Guide)

Quick Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/alpha-liu-01/SpeedyNote.git
cd SpeedyNote

# Windows (MSYS2 clang64 shell)
./compile.ps1

# macOS
./compile-mac.sh

# Linux
./compile.sh
# Or build packages: ./build-package.sh

Detailed Build Guides

• Windows Build Guide
• macOS Build Guide
• Android Build Guide
• iPadOS Build Guide

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File Formats

Format	Description	Use Case
.snb	Bundle folder with tiles	Edgeless canvas, large projects
.snbx	Compressed bundle (ZIP)	Sharing, backup

Note: The legacy .spn format from v0.x is not supported.

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Command Line Interface (Desktop)

SpeedyNote includes a powerful CLI for batch operations on Windows and Linux. Perfect for scripting, automation, and syncing notes between devices.

Quick Start

# Export all notebooks to PDF
speedynote export-pdf ~/Notes/ -o ~/PDFs/

# Backup notebooks to .snbx packages
speedynote export-snbx ~/Notes/ -o ~/Backup/

# Import .snbx packages
speedynote import ~/Downloads/*.snbx -d ~/Notes/

Commands

Command	Description
export-pdf	Export notebooks to PDF format
export-snbx	Export notebooks to .snbx packages
import	Import .snbx packages as notebooks

Export to PDF

speedynote export-pdf [OPTIONS] <input>... -o <output>

Option	Description
-o, --output	Output file (single) or directory (batch)
--dpi <N>	Export resolution (default: 150)
--pages <RANGE>	Page range, e.g., "1-10,15,20-25"
--no-metadata	Don't preserve PDF metadata
--no-outline	Don't preserve PDF bookmarks
--annotations-only	Export strokes only (blank background)
--overwrite	Overwrite existing files
--recursive	Search directories recursively
--dry-run	Preview without creating files

Examples:

# Single notebook to PDF
speedynote export-pdf ~/Notes/Lecture.snb -o ~/Desktop/lecture.pdf

# All notebooks at 300 DPI
speedynote export-pdf ~/Notes/ -o ~/PDFs/ --dpi 300

# Export only annotations (no background)
speedynote export-pdf ~/Notes/*.snb -o ~/PDFs/ --annotations-only

# Preview what would be exported
speedynote export-pdf ~/Notes/ -o ~/PDFs/ --dry-run

Export to SNBX

speedynote export-snbx [OPTIONS] <input>... -o <output>

Option	Description
-o, --output	Output file (single) or directory (batch)
--no-pdf	Don't embed source PDF (smaller files)
--overwrite	Overwrite existing files
--recursive	Search directories recursively
--dry-run	Preview without creating files

Examples:

# Backup with embedded PDFs
speedynote export-snbx ~/Notes/ -o ~/Backup/

# Backup without PDFs (smaller)
speedynote export-snbx ~/Notes/ -o ~/Backup/ --no-pdf

# Single notebook
speedynote export-snbx ~/Notes/Project.snb -o ~/Desktop/project.snbx

Import SNBX Packages

speedynote import [OPTIONS] <input>... -d <dest>

Option	Description
-d, --dest	Destination directory for notebooks
--add-to-library	Add imported notebooks to the launcher timeline
--overwrite	Overwrite existing notebooks
--recursive	Search directories recursively
--dry-run	Preview without importing

Examples:

# Import packages
speedynote import ~/Downloads/*.snbx -d ~/Notes/

# Import and add to library (shows in launcher)
speedynote import ~/Downloads/*.snbx -d ~/Notes/ --add-to-library

# Import from a directory
speedynote import ~/Backup/ -d ~/Notes/ --recursive --add-to-library

Note: On Android, imported notebooks are automatically added to the library. On desktop, use --add-to-library to make them appear in the launcher timeline.

Common Options

These options work with all commands:

Option	Description
--verbose	Show detailed progress
--json	Output results as JSON (for scripting)
--fail-fast	Stop on first error
-h, --help	Show help for command
-v, --version	Show version

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	All operations succeeded
1	Some files failed or were skipped
2	All files failed
3	Invalid arguments
5	Cancelled (Ctrl+C)

Scripting Example

#!/bin/bash
# Sync notes from tablet to PC via SSH

TABLET="user@tablet:/storage/emulated/0/Notes"
LOCAL="$HOME/Notes"
BACKUP="$HOME/Backup"

# Pull new .snbx files from tablet
rsync -av "$TABLET/*.snbx" "$BACKUP/incoming/"

# Import to local library
speedynote import "$BACKUP/incoming/" -d "$LOCAL" --json | \
  jq '.status == "success"' && rm "$BACKUP/incoming/"*.snbx

# Export updated notes as PDF for reference
speedynote export-pdf "$LOCAL" -o "$HOME/PDFs/" --dpi 150

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Supported Languages

SpeedyNote supports multiple languages:

• English
• 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
• Español (Spanish) (Ma