It's July 7th, and we were thinking: what could be a more auspicious date for Penbook 7 to arrive?
It all started during the cold winter months. We were visiting Apple in Cupertino, California (well, it wasn't that cold). Our team was part of an intensive workshop with Apple designers to understand how we can make this app better for all of you. It took a lot of work from those design insights to get us here: Penbook 7 is rolling out today, and it’s the biggest update we’ve ever done.
We rebuilt Penbook’s heart with new, modern underpinnings. It now flows beautifully across iPhone and iPad, with a snappier feel and sleek new screens.
📚 The new Create tab Explore and browse Penbook’s rich collection of notebook designs.
🗒️ Even more powerful Book Press Get your own book designs going, with fun ways to create repeating sections and planners.
🎨 A redesigned writing space Our goal has always been to deliver a superior writing and note-taking experience, and the new version is better than ever.
🔖 Pin your favorite notebooks Your important books are always a tap away inside the navigation bar.
🌊 A faster, more fluid way to use your books The new navigation will be instantly familiar to iPad users, making it easier to manager and organize books.
This update is just the start! Our September release is already in beta testing, and it will marry this sumptuous new UI with Liquid Glass of iOS 26. If you already have Penbook, it should automatically update today, or hit the button below to visit the website. Your next great notebook is waiting.
A few months back, I asked you all out for coffee. It was a long shot – there are a lot of you, but not enough (yet!) for there to be Penbookers in every city. Probably not to your surprise, I wasn’t able to meet any of you in person. Sorry! I was a bit too optimistic.
But I still wanted to see Penbook in the hands of users. I put up some local ads – in retrospect, I should have started here, before bothering you – and met with ten iPad + Pencil users. None of them were familiar with Penbook, and the experience of watching them try to work the app was something I can only describe as ‘enlightening’. Some highlights:
Do you know what a tortillon is? I did not. I learned from my testers that it is a tool artists use to smudge and blend illustrations. I also learned it looks EXACTLY like Penbook’s (and Apple Notes’) Lasso icon. The result: those most able to create beautiful notes (artists) were unable to do so (couldn’t find the lasso; did not wish to smudge and blend their notes).
None of my new iPad friends had “Only Draw with Apple Pencil” enabled. Since all of them were using 3rd-party drawing/notes apps that didn’t respect this setting anyway, they never even noticed – until they tried Penbook, which goes far, far out of its way in this scenario to make your Apple Pencil behave like a bargain-bin passive stylus.
You know Penbook’s Tweezer button? It’s fine if you don’t, because not a single one of my test subjects recognized it as a tweezer. I’ve inflicted an illegible icon on millions of users, and thereby made a significant contribution to the field of Programmer Art.
I have my work cut out for me, but where to start?
My test users showed me: they suffered the most when using the writing tool drawer. Creating, editing, and selecting writing tools was confusing to 100% of them. So, like tidying up before a renovation, I’ve released an update (v6.8.7) that fixes some of the tool drawer’s most egregious inconsistencies.
Editing a writing tool
If you have an Apple Pencil (and have “Only Write with Apple Pencil” enabled; this is important, see above), you can open the edit pane by tapping the active writing tool. The pane now appears next to the writing tool drawer, not over top it, and writing tools and their thicknesses have labels to help you remember which are your favourites.
If you actually don’t have an Apple Pencil (or other active stylus), a little button will appear above the tool drawer for you that does the same thing. And if you miss the old black/white colour switcher from this pane, you can unhide it in Penbook’s ⚙️Settings screen.
The new Edit Writing Tool pane
Tweezers: unrecognized, unwanted
A few updates ago, I made it so you can edit your photos, Text Notes, stickers, etc. just by tapping them with your finger. It obviated the need for a dedicated ‘edit mode’ button, and that, combined with the confusion around the tweezer button in my test group, lead me to remove the tweezer button altogether.
This made room for the eraser, lasso, and ruler to move up to their natural home: next to the writing tools they support
Even though I removed the drag bars on the writing tool drawer, you can still move the drawer up and down by dragging in the eraser/lasso/ruler section.
The simplified writing tool drawer
Non-writing tools
The eraser and lasso aren’t writing tools and aren’t very configurable, so a big edit pane for them doesn’t make sense. But they do have some options. These options used to appear in the tool drawer itself, covering up important buttons and making tool switching difficult. Now, they float alongside the writing tool drawer.
The new presentation of Penbook’s eraser and lasso optoins
One more thing
I snuck a chore tracker template into the Habits stationery section. My kids and I use it for their after-school chores. It’s not very Penbooky – it’s not Live Paper – but it’s perfect for printing out and putting on your fridge. If you set your page’s orientatoin to Portrait and paper size to 8.5”×11”, each day’s square will be roughly 0.5” across, which is exactly the size of the Trodat Printy 4921 self-inking stamp. Just an idea. (Don’t stamp your iPad.)
This is the first step on the long road to Penbook version 7. I hope it makes Penbook more pleasant for you. Thanks for reading!
As calendaring features grew inside Penbook, we had an idea that wasn’t really suitable for iPad, but that we desperately wanted: fully automated morning briefings of your day, summarizing your calendar obligations, tasks due in your Reminders and the weather forecast for the day.
With all this AI, we figured it was time for something like this to exist – and ideally it should be narrated, so we don't stare at the phone just as the day begins.
And that's what Daybrief is: an iPhone app that creates a simple podcast made just for you, narrating what's coming up. It uses your device to privately access your information, so no need to connect third-party services to it.
You tell it which calendars you'd like to monitor, which Reminders lists, and when you'd like to get your personalized podcast. Generated by advanced AI, encrypted, and delivered directly to you, making sure only your phone can listen to it.
Who has time to look at the screen and juggle different apps as you manage your morning routine of kids, dogs, cats or whatever else you have to deal with in the mornings?
Are you a Penbook user in Victoria or Vancouver, BC? If so, I’d like to meet you in person so I can watch how you use Penbook. The format will be casual:
we’ll meet at a coffee shop you choose (I’m buying)
I’ll ask you some questions about Penbook while I watch you use it on your iPad
I’ll record audio of our conversation and take notes
it’ll take 30-45 minutes
I’ll pay you $50 ($CAD, of course)
Does that sound a bit weird and awkward? Yes. But lately, I’ve spent more time coding Penbook than using it, and that means I have to imagine how you wonderful people actually use it, which is taxing. I’d rather just ask you face-to-face.
If you’d like to participate, please contact me from your iPad through the 💬Get Support link in the app, under 👤Account. (You’ll get an automated reply, but don’t worry, I’ll still see your message.)
Hope to see you soon! And if you’re nowhere near Victoria or Vancouver, sorry for bothering you.
Penbook introduces the new Idea Feed: a sleek, interactive sidebar designed to keep your creativity flowing.
Some of you may remember the old Sidebar, meant to help you make quick pencil notes outside the page itself. It wasn't very popular but it sparked a lot of conversations.
The new Idea Feed lives in the same space, but now each page gets space for notes. This time, these are text notes, not handwritten. These work great on iPhones to quickly add context to your pages, but also with Pencil and Scribble writing recognition on iPads. 📝
Each page can also be titled, a boon for organization and navigation with our new Jump Bar. Combined with page bookmarks, the navigation is faster than ever.
Whether you’re planning, journaling, or sketching, the Idea Feed ensures you stay organized and inspired.
🤯 Turn Your Handwritten Words Into Images
If you update your device to iOS 18.2, you will also see a new option when adding images to your page: Image Playground. You can now generate AI images for free with Penbook, completely on-device. Use Apple Intelligence to add some pizzaz to your pages, and it will even pick up handwritten words on your page to help you get the right image. 🎨
Ready to level up your notebook game? Update Penbook now, check it out and please leave a review while you're there 😀
