Ink, shapes, and notes — over anything
A plain markdown editor gives you text and nothing else. Noesis adds an annotation layer: freehand ink with a pen, highlighter, and arrow tool; hand-drawn-style markers that circle, box, underline, or point at any passage; and draggable sticky notes, icon markers, and numbered callouts. The same toolkit works on your notes, on images and PDF pages, and on the answers Claude gives you in chat.
Plain markdown vs Noesis
strong· partial / depends· not built in
Where a dedicated tablet app still wins
Honest concessions: Noesis is a notes app with an ink layer, not a pro illustration tool. If you need pressure- and tilt-sensitive Apple Pencil strokes, an infinite freeform canvas, full vector editing, or handwriting-to-text recognition, a dedicated tablet app like GoodNotes or Procreate will serve you better. Noesis earns its keep when you want to mark up the notes, PDFs, and AI conversations you already keep — and have those annotations follow you to every device — without leaving plain markdown behind.
How the ink layer works
Pick a tool from the drawing toolbar — pen, highlighter, or arrow — choose a color and stroke width, and draw. Undo, redo, and an eraser are one tap away. To call out specific text, select it and apply a hand-drawn circle, box, underline, or arrow; to leave a remark, drop a sticky text note, an icon, or a numbered marker exactly where it belongs. Every annotation is stored as structured data anchored to its target, so your underlying .md file never changes and your marks re-flow correctly when the text does.
- Pen, highlighter, and arrow tools with adjustable color and stroke.
- Hand-drawn circle, rectangle, underline, and arrow markers on any selection.
- Sticky text notes, icon markers, and numbered callouts you can drag into place.
- Works the same on notes, image & PDF regions, and AI chat answers.
Your files stay plain markdown
Annotations are a layer, not a format. Your .md files import and export exactly as they are — no proprietary ink container baked into the text. Turn the annotation layer off and you're left with the same clean markdown you started with.
