SpeedyNote

June 3, 2026 · View on GitHub

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

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

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

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

Screenshots

PDF Annotation	Layer Panel	Page Thumbnails

Edgeless Canvas	Action Bar	Subtoolbar

Link Objects	Markdown Support	Android

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.

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

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

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.

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