InkNotez – Take Notes With Your Fingertip

Here is one you are going to want to take a look at. And priced right at FREE. I have tried a few drawing note apps but this one combines the best features of the others, and adds a few new tricks.

InkNotez lets you draw or take notes using your finger tip, or a capacitive stylus I suppose. When you open the app you are presented with a blank writing surface, or the last image you were working on, which is automatically retained for you. To clear or save the last image, open the popup menu and select the appropriate option. The “brush” tool is selected by default, but tapping it brings up an option screen to select 6 different colors or brush diameters. Any changes to the defaults are saved till you exit the app. You can draw anywhere on the screen. Tapping the “eraser” tool allows you tap or erase any part of the screen. It erases any stroke you touch so you don’t need to be very thorough. There is also an “undo” tool, that will either remove recently drawn strokes in brush mode or add recently removed strokes in eraser mode. The help icon brings up some basic, but helpful instructions.

Bet you thought we were done. Not even close. The popup menu includes options to; Load, Save or Clear Page. Tapping load brings up a dialog box with six different style drawing surfaces; three different lined sheets, a grid sheet, a blank sheet and a To Do sheet. Tap any style sheet, then Done and your background will change, with any existing brush strokes remaining on the screen. If you want to save your note or drawing, tap Save and your image gets placed in your Saved Pictures folder. Clear Page will do what it says and display the default yellow lined background. But there’s more. Lets say you saved an image, like a To Do shopping list, but want to go back and add something to it. Well, tap Load, then Browse and the app takes you to your Pictures Hub, where you can import any image into the app. That’s right, you can annotate any image on your phone and then save it as a new image. Import a photo, draw a heart on it, save it,  and email it off to that special someone. Brilliant. So back to the To Do list. Tap the image, tap Done and you are back in the app. Add those eggs and then check off each item when you get to the store. You can’t edit any of the existing ink, but you can add new items, check them off, draw, whatever.

The app is ad supported, but the developer has done a nice job with that as well. Ads only appear; on the Load screen, on the brush selector screen, on the Help screen and a double dose on the About screen. So basically never really in your way. Another little feature that I appreciate is the top WP7 info bar is visible, so I can see my clock, check battery, etc. while in the app. Overall, really well thought out. The developer, SimzzDev, has offered to build a paid version if he get’s requests, but I really can’t think of a reason why. There are a few things I would like to see. Like a way to save preferences for; brush thickness, color and background image. And maybe a way to delete the current image. But otherwise, this little app has everything you might want. You can find it under Productivity in Zune here. Or search for inknotez app with your phone.