Type text on the full page

If movable text boxes don't suit you well as an intensive typist, you can now enter text on the full page to create typed documents, quickly and conveniently! This is especially handy if you want to quickly type up some notes in a long paragraph, create bullet points, or paste textual content from the Internet.

Full-page Typing Quick Start

(Recommended) Add a new page and change to a typing-optimized template (see the next section).
Tap the Full-page Typing icon on the toolbar and type away!

Style a block of text

Position the text cursor anywhere within the block.
Tap the Style & Formatting icon, on either the toolbar or the virtual keyboard, and choose a style:

Create a list as you type

You can turn some lines into a list by selecting them and choosing a list style from the Style & Formatting popover. Alternatively, you can create a list on the fly:

To create a numbered list, type a number, a period and a space, then the first list item, e.g. "1. List item". Next, type each remaining list item on a new line.
To create a bulleted list, type a hyphen, a space, then the first list item, e.g. "- List item". Next, type each remaining list item on a new line.

Justify a block of text

Position the text cursor anywhere within the block.
Tap the Paragraph icon and choose a justification style:

Format some text

Select that text. (Tip: Triple-tap to select an entire block.)
Do one or more of the following:
- Change its color: Tap the Text Color icon and choose a color from either the Presets or Custom tab:
- Change its font weight or style (bold, italic, etc.): Choose one or more of the buttons on the virtual keyboard, or tap the B I U menu item and choose one or more of Bold, Italic, Underline:

Pro Tip: You can select multiple blocks of text to style, justify, or format them all.

Questions & Answers

Why Full-page Typing?

Though GoodNotes is widely known the world over as a handwriting app, we also want to provide a good typing experience for those who prefer to type instead of writing notes.

With some of our predefined presets such as headings and paragraphs, you can instantly switch between different styles and create page-long content without disrupting your flow.

What are typing-optimized templates?

These templates are specially designed to ensure proper line spacing between lines of text. If such a template contains visible lines, typed text will sit neatly on them. Look for those templates marked with a green keyboard icon:

Can I type properly spaced lines of text on my own PDF template?

Unfortunately, that's not guaranteed as the line spacing will be set to default and any lines on the template are ignored. For this reason, you're recommended to use one of our typing-optimized templates.

How do I change the font or font size?

At the moment, we do not support those. Helvetica is the only font available, for cross-platform compatibility. If you wish to be creative with your content, you can still use the Text tool.

Can I export typed notes to Microsoft Word or Plain Text (.txt) format?

Unfortunately not. Please export them as PDF, GoodNotes or JPG format. Alternatively, you can copy the text from the app and paste it in another.

Can a document with pages of typed notes be shared for collaboration?

Absolutely. Changes to those pages will be visible to every participant. See also: Share a document for collaboration

What are some other limitations of this feature?

When the current page is full, you'll be asked to manually add a new page and continue typing on it:
Pages aren't linked to one another as in a word processor, which means if you add or remove text on one page, the text on other pages won't be reflowed to accommodate the change.
Nested lists aren't supported.

We hope to make this feature more capable as we continue to improve it.