Technology

Business Apps to Make the Most of Your Digital Pen

Move over the keyboard; the Digital Pen lets you do much more than the usual keyboard and standard computer, giving your productivity an extra boost. Of course, you will need business apps to make the maximum use of your Digital Pen. You can choose from the scores of apps out there based on your requirements. We have put together a list of the best business apps to help you get started.

What are the Benefits of Using Digital Pens?

Some of the benefits of using a digital pen are listed below:

Allows you to visualise your thoughts and ideas digitally
Provides an unlimited workspace to work with
Allows you to draw and write on multimedia content
Reduces the usage of paper
You can skip the trouble of ink refilling
Enables you to keep things organised
Allows you to back up, which prevents losing the notes in future
Next generation flipcharts and whiteboards
Easy to add notes and highlight texts than using keyboard and mouse
Digital drawings can help you to be more creative and communicative during remote meetings
Everything is stored digitally, allowing you to access it anywhere at any time.

Best Business Apps for Digital Pen

Now let’s see some of the popular business apps that can help you make use of your digital pen to improve your productivity.

1. Xodo PDF Reader and Editor

Xodo PDF Reader and Editor-Computing Australia Group

If you use PDFs often, then this is just the app for you. It lets you merge multiple PDFs, has a large selection of tools for highlighting and making written notes, and putting down your signature. It allows for easy navigation for PDFs with large no of pages and also has many grids and line templates.

2. Drawboard PDF

3. Notability

Business Apps to Make the Most of Your Digital Pen-Computing Australia Group

Notability can basically do it all, from simple note-taking to calculating sums, it even offers sketching tools and audio notes. New to the app is the ability to download open two notes simultaneously and move between the two, comparing notes for accuracy. You can import a mix of file formats, including PDFs, DOCs, PPTs, images and GIFs to create detailed note pages.

4. OneNote

OneNote is like a digital notebook and is a perfect app for those who like to keep things organized. You can draw, highlight texts, take notes on white, grid or ruled line backgrounds. The notes are saved and synced in the cloud so you can access your notes across devices.

5. Bamboo Paper

Bamboo paper gives a very true paper feel while using the Pen. You can make notes and journals using the writing tools, draw and sketch with the custom color palettes and even add pictures to your page. It also allows for sharing your notes on other platforms.

6. Sketchable

Sketchable is another wonderful app for your drawing, sketching and painting needs. It’s a part journal, part canvas app which allows you to scribble a note, work on an existing image or artwork, or create a new artwork with its wide range of tools.

7. Scrble

This is a notepad for writing and illustrations with just the basic tools. You can choose from the blackboard, whiteboard, lined paper, music sheets or maths sheet background and various paper options. The pen input response is quite impressive.

8. Collaboard

Collaboard is aimed at people who work on team projects. Multiple users can contribute notes, videos and images in real-time to what is essentially a digital whiteboard. It is compatible with Skype and PDF.

9. Index Cards

With Index Cards, you can take notes and arrange them in stacks. It’s an ideal app for taking notes, making drawings and storing information in brainstorming sessions, business meetings, storyboard writing, project meetings, etc. You can create an unlimited number of cards and type or draw on both sides of the card. The zoom function lets you make detailed drawings or put in a large amount of information on the card. You can also export stacks.

10. Plumbago

Plumbago is a note-taking app for the Surface aimed at capturing your ideas and organizing them into notebooks. Notes are displayed in a grid allowing for easy navigation between notebooks, and also within the notebooks. The radial menu is a movable dial, allowing you to select the color and pen and even an eraser. You can also choose from paper types and customize notebooks too.

11. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is one of the best apps in the market when it comes to vector designing. Moreover, AutoCAD 360 is the perfect touch-screen version suitable for working with your digital pen. It allows you to open and view your DWG files. You can effortlessly add measurements and dimensions to your drawings with the pinch and zoom ability and using your digital pen.

12. Journalist

Journalist is the ideal app for you if you love to journal or scribble down your ideas. It allows you to draw using different pens, pencils, unique brushes, colour palettes and effects. You can also create 3D drawings using the Isometric drawing tool. It lets you share many different content formats from other apps, including .png, .mp4, HTML, and .gif. Enjoy the freedom of a free-form canvas that includes several paper choices, rulers, and two-dimensional shapes to keep a digital journal.

13. Evernote

When it comes to note-taking apps, Evernote easily achieves one of the top spots. It syncs your notes and notebooks across any computer, phone, or tablet. Evernote lets you write and capture ideas as notebooks, searchable notes, checklists, and to-do lists. You can also highlight passages in saved articles and also record important notes during meetings

14. Nebo

Want an app that allows you to edit and format your notes quickly? Then Nebo will be your perfect choice. It lets you delete a note by just scratching it out and join two sentences together by swipe up.

15. Procreate

Procreate is the king of iPad Pro natural media apps, and the addition of the Apple Pencil offers a wonderfully fluid analogue-like experience. The Apple Pencil’s fine tip, low latency, double-speed sampling rate and almost flawless palm rejection makes it the perfect tool for this wonderful creative app.

16. Inspire Pro

One of the best iPad Pro apps for digital painting, Inspire Pro offers a surprisingly realistic art experience with an impressive feature set that can deliver truly professional results. With mediums such as oil, chalk, pastels and paint, the app offers multiple blending options (including blending paint with the dry brush), which are based on painting using real materials.

17. GoodNotes 6

Now on its fifth iteration, GoodNotes is one of the most popular iPad Pro apps for Apple Pencil for note taking. It turns your iPad into digital paper, offering a lot of freedom to create searchable handwritten notes. This is a note-taking app that goes well beyond a basic pad to scrawl on – it can handle everything from equations to mind maps, and its handwriting-to-text conversion is one of the best we’ve seen.

18. Adobe Fresco

Adobe’s drawing app, Fresco, mimics other fine art drawing apps, bringing a natural painting and drawing experience to the iPad. It has a lot of strong features, including brilliant brush capability, an intuitive interface and super-smooth running, although when we tested it we found it does fall short in other areas and needs some depth to be added to make it truly great.

19. Concepts

Concepts is an award-winning, advanced sketching and design app. With infinite canvas and organic brushes, fluid and responsive vector drawing engine, and intuitive precision tools, it offers a wonderfully natural design experience.

20. LiquidText

Finally, the last in our pick of the best note-taking apps for Apple Pencil is LiquidText, which is a handy tool for annotating while reading. The app allows the annotation of PDFs, Word and PowerPoint documents and even web pages. It’s a great option for active reading, allowing you to highlight sections of what you’re reading to come back to later or collapse parts of the document so you can cross-reference separate sections.

21. Paper

At first glance Paper by WeTransfer (formerly Paper by FiftyThree) might look like a fairly simple drawing and diagramming tool, and it is on one level, but there are a few extra features here that can be difficult to discover but add a lot more possibilities.

You can create headings and lists, add or remove spaces and line breaks, delete and emphasise text easily using your digital pen.

22. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams integrates seamlessly with digital pens, allowing users to annotate documents, presentations, and whiteboards in real-time during meetings. The Whiteboard feature lets you draw, write, and highlight points directly with your digital pen, making brainstorming and collaboration more interactive and visually engaging. You can also use the pen to markup shared documents and collaborate on projects effortlessly.

23. Monday.com

Monday.com is a flexible project management and planning tool that supports digital pen functionality, allowing you to create notes, draw directly on task boards, and annotate documents within the app. With a digital pen, you can quickly add handwritten notes, highlight important tasks, or sketch diagrams on project boards, making it easier to personalise workflows and visualise ideas.

24. Trello

Trello is known for its intuitive Kanban-style boards and integrates well with digital pens. You can use your pen to add handwritten notes, mark tasks, and draw on cards for better visual representation. This functionality is ideal for quickly jotting down ideas, sketching workflows, or annotating project boards, making task management more dynamic and engaging.

25. Asana

Asana - Digital Pen-Computing Australia Group

Asana supports digital pen usage, allowing users to annotate tasks, add handwritten notes, or draw directly on project timelines and boards. This makes it easy to highlight important tasks, sketch workflows, or add personal touches to project planning. The pen functionality enhances collaboration, especially during brainstorming sessions, enabling teams to visualise projects more effectively.

26. Todoist

Todoist offers excellent integration with digital pens, enabling users to write to-do lists, draw reminders, and annotate tasks directly within the app. You can use your pen to tick off completed tasks, add quick handwritten notes, or create sketches for better task organisation. This feature makes it a versatile tool for those who prefer combining digital planning with the feel of handwriting.

27. Google Calendar

Google Calendar - Computing Australia Group

Google Calendar allows digital pen users to annotate events, add handwritten notes, and draw directly on the calendar interface. This functionality is useful for quickly jotting down meeting notes, highlighting important dates, or marking recurring events with personal touches. The digital pen integration provides a more hands-on and interactive approach to managing your schedule

You can create headings and lists, add or remove spaces and line breaks, delete and emphasise text easily using your digital pen.

Need help with business apps for Digital Pen?

Contact us today or email at sales@computingaustralia.group.

PDF– Portable Document Format – a file format created to display documents consistently over various gadgets and platforms.

Digital pen – an input device for capturing handwritten notes or drawings and converts handwritten analog created with pen and paper data into digital format.

App – Application – is a computer program or software created to run on a mobile device like a phone, tablet or smartwatch.