News

Evernote Acquires Penultimate

Evernote Acquires Penultimate

Posted by Phil Libin on 07 May 2012

Posted by Phil Libin on 07 May 2012

Cocoa Box’s Penultimate, the beautifully simple handwriting app for iPad, has been one of our favorites pretty much since it came out two years ago, so we’re very thrilled to announce that we’ve acquired the company and that Penultimate is now part of the Evernote family!

Penultimate is hugely popular. In fact, according to Apple, it’s the #4 best-selling paid iPad app of all time. When you have such a great product, the last thing you want to do is mess with it. That’s why Penultimate creator, Ben Zotto, is joining Evernote to head up future app development. Penultimate will stay a separate, elegant application and will get many much-requested Evernote-y improvements including full search and synchronization. Ben will also lead the effort to put handwriting and digital ink functionality into other Evernote products and platforms, so you’ll see handwriting cross-pollination popping up everywhere.

We couldn’t be more excited that Penultimate is joining Evernote. Our team has been working on handwriting recognition and digital ink forever and it feels like for the very first time, the experience of writing on a tablet is actually great. That’s what Penultimate has done. Now that we can add Evernote’s technology and expertise, it’s about to get a lot more powerful. Just wait till you see what we’ve got in store.

Penultimate is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

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77 Comments RSS

  • Josh —

    Major request: PDF import for markup. This is the one feature that made me switch to Notability. With this welcome news, I would love to switch back to Penultimate, but the PDF import would really help.

    • Jen Peters —

      Yes, yes, yes. Me too, and I’d come back in a heartbeat if those features were added.

    • Ben —

      Yes please!

    • Shirlene —

      This is also the reason i switched to notability, would really appreciate this feature added, then my evernote workflow would be perfect!

    • Mark —

      Yes, please add PDF markup! This is the only reason I’ve switched to UPad.

    • physio —

      That’s exactly the reason I chose Notability over Penultimate. Notability is ingrained in my workflow now. It will be interesting to see what Evernote can add to Penultimate to get users like us to switch.

    • Stuart Thompson —

      Yes please! PDF import and mark-up was one of the biggest reasons I switched from Penultimate to Notability.

      We signed large parts of our mortgage paperwork using the PDF markup functionality and I use it for resume review, forms, paperwork, practically every day.
      — Stu

    • Jordan —

      I also want this feature integrated with my evernote. I currently use notability for this reason, but am a hardcore evernote lover. I’m even planning on having the students at my school get evernote accounts and having a handwriting element will be awesome, but so will PDF markup for assigned readings. Paperless school aspirations….

    • Len —

      PDF markup–count me as another vote.

    • Anthony —

      I agree. PDF imports are a must have if you strive for a paperless world. I currently use Ghostwriter and would not swop to Penultimate eventhough I’ve just bought it.

  • Phil Sheard —

    Great news, Phil. Excited to see the handwriting features making their way into Evernote over the coming months.

  • Neil Bunn —

    Awesome acquisition, with hwr search on the back end, why don’t you integrate the 7knowledge on-the-fly conversion or do post-process conversion where people get not only their handwriting but also the character version — this would be *the* killer iPad app. I’ve been clamoring for either NotesPlus to add Evernote, or Penultimate to add HWR! 🙂

  • Nate —

    Sounds awesome!! Been looking for a good way to do handwriting in Evernote on Android for a while. Hopefully, as with other Evernote acquisitions, this means an Android version will be in the near future!

    • Peter —

      Second the Android version in the near future request!! Love the growth and vision of Evernote while keeping your eyes on the ball and delivering on the core products and development at such a high level.

      Congrats all round…

      • Jeff Camp —

        Ditto!! Android version especially with the Galaxy Note phablet.

      • Bethany —

        Android! Android! I have really wanted a handwriting app for my Android Tablet. With all the high praise for penultimate, I hope this is in the works.

    • Kalpesh Rathod —

      I just thought around for handwriting in Evernote, and it is here. Great work Phil and go on. Will stay forever with Evernote.

  • Dan Roach —

    Does an app exist that allows an editor, using a stylus and an iPad, to revise wording and punctuation, drag and drop phrases, correct spelling and do similar editing to MS Word documents and have the editing immediately convert to text? I prepare documents for a living and would like to get away from having to mark up dozens of pages of printed documents to be sent back to my assistant for a second draft. The manually marking up step is more efficient for me than my going into the document on my screen and editing with a keyboard and mouse. Still, with the right iPad tools, my assistant and I could save hundreds of hours a year, and save a whole lot of paper. Thanks.

    • Lydia —

      Good question.

    • Scott —

      Indeed. I’d love to see something like this! With all the apps out there, you never know . . .

  • Harry Fuller —

    Excellent! I love Penultimate’s simple design. I have tried others but have always comeback to Penultimate, it just works. Looking forward to the added Evernote goodness.

  • barbara —

    That’s great…however, I want something I can use with android on my kindle fire. Is there any hope?

    • jason —

      my thoughts exactly
      a good handwriting app is lacking for the fire and would go far to boost the fire

  • David —

    Its about time Evernote for iPad got handwriting support.

  • Barb U. —

    Will this be available for Android systems also?

  • Greg Martin —

    Excited to hear this! Although I prefer Notability over Penultimate, this is still a great acquisition by the Evernote team.

    • Ben —

      Agreed I hope that EN can Implement some of gh great features that are missing from penultimate. PDF importing would be great.

  • Paul Abke —

    Great news. Looking for native PDF tools in Evernote like what I can do with GoodReader. Now that would be a good company to buy.

  • Wil C —

    Yes! Oh my gosh yes! My two favorite everyday apps under one roof (so to speak).

  • Avid Anderson —

    I hope we will get to see Penultimate on Windows 8.

  • policarpo —

    Awesome news! Now maybe we can get that ZOOM writing box feature we’ve all been wanting so we can do some detailed writing and drawing in the app.

    Congrats on the acquisition!

    • Richardo —

      Most definitely…I will not switch from Notability until this feature is added…even if it means that I will not be syncing my documents within the evernote environment.

      I have to be able to READ my notes and that means zoom.

  • Dave Johnson —

    Love it! I would love to see support for the iPen from Cregle in either Penultimate or Evernote. That would really be amazing!

  • AllanP —

    Great news! I’d really like to see PenUltimate in a version for Android tablets. That would realy boost things. dRemember iPads aren’t the only tablets. Lots of Android users are looking for agood handwriting app, and coupled with Evernote… it would be awesome

  • Kiwiinoz —

    Great news, I love both Evernote & penultimate, now hopefully penultimate can hit the iPhone as well as iPad?

  • Sam —

    What are the odds it goes free right after I buy it?

  • Sungmoon Cho —

    Phil, I remember that you said “Let’s not talk about who’s going to buy us, and let’s talk what we will buy.” during your speech at Stanford’s ETL class. Then you bought Skitch, one of my favoriate apps on desktop, and now you bought Penultimate, one of my favoriate apps on iPad. Very smart move!

  • Jürgen M —

    Great – even greater if symmetrical syncing between both clients would be made possible (PU EN). Both manually, as well as automatically.

    Any plans about that?

  • Larry —

    Nice to see the Evernote push to more handwriting integration. Penultimate is definitely a clean handwriting app. But Noteshelf integration with Evernote is so much better than Penultimate integration right now. I wouldn’t think of switching from Noteshelf to Penultimate without some big changes.

  • JOHN —

    Awesome!! Looking forward to this coming out on Android tablets hopefully! That’s the only place I use Evernote!

  • chadm —

    bring it to android please… Android needs more note worthy tablet apps.

  • Keith —

    Fantastic news, love Evernote, love penultimate, love the thought of then working more closely together.

  • justame —

    Looking forward to it. Been using Noteshelf and the integration just isn’t quite there. Need better organization and omnipresence. Hoping this finally makes paper obsolete for me at work.

  • John Faulhaber —

    I love both Evernote and Penultimate.

    I use both every day!

    I can’t wait to see them work together so well and so much more!

    Bravo!

  • Alejandro Rodriguez —

    Great! I had not used penultimate before, I used notability… I downloaded the app and liked it… But i still think that notability has much more features. To me, it is very important to add pictures, audio, hyperlinks and more… stuff that penultimate cant do and that notability can. I try to use penultimate more now that a I have an evernote premier account but for some reason i keep going back to notability…

  • Wo King —

    Use both products. I am well happy.

  • Karl Puder —

    Hey, Ben! Glad to see you found something cool to make after you escaped from sharing my cubicle. Now I have to get an iPad so I can stop reminiscing for my Newton MessagePad. That HWR actually worked for me and two-thumb typing on the iPhone just can’t keep up with that speed.

  • Robb —

    Let’s get working on an android version immediately!

  • Joe Fegan —

    I hope you can make Penultimate available for Amazon Kindle Fire. if so, i will definitely purchase it. Thank you

  • Grace —

    CONGRATULATIONS! But, chose NotetakerHD over Penultimate ages ago because of the ability to annotate and output PDFs. Emailing them to my Evernote account is a breeze; 2 clicks and they’re there!

  • mirnalys —

    Hi! I need this app for my bb playbook. Please.

  • songfah —

    can write on andiord phone? .

    • Stefanie Fazzio —

      Penultimate is currently available for iPad only

  • RobStevo —

    Great news! Really like Penultimate and Evernote is an everyday basic for lots of stuff! Would be brilliant if you could add text recognition (like MyScript Web Services as on Memo) for a more powerful option to live note taking in mtgs, lectures, conferences, etc

  • Irene —

    Please, please have it for android. The handwriting apps for Android really need an upgrade.

  • Emilie Miller —

    Will some one please explain to a grandmother what
    penultimate, HWR, etc are and how I can use
    Them? I actually use cursive and this could be fun. Is it mostly for grafic art?
    Think about it I actually spent my adolescence without TV.

  • Yvette Sanborn —

    I have an iPad 2. Can this product be integrated or is it just with tablets that you can write on?
    Love Evernote. It’s helped me in all organization levels !

    • Stefanie Fazzio —

      You can create handwritten notes on the iPad, then sync them to your Evernote account where you can search for and share them.

  • Deb —

    Another vote for an Android version.

  • salman —

    Great news….

  • Asad —

    Hi. I have Evernote on my I phone and thik pad. My think pad has tablet HWR. Can I get any benefit more more from penultimate? I am a novice at these things. Thanks.

    • Stefanie Fazzio —

      Penultimate is currently available for iPad

  • dennis —

    All i have to say is Android!!!!!

  • Andrew —

    Now this sounds snappy! Oh my goodness!

  • JB —

    Great Job and Congrats! I am thrilled like millions of other users. I have been a user of both for years and have really wanted to write in my Evernote notebooks for a long time.

    I can’t wait to see where the new unified team takes both products.

    You have such a winner on your hands, all due to the passion and fantastic work of your team.

  • Dale Otero —

    i’d like to second the possible availability of PU for android. i use evernote on android/desktop 7 days a week to run my ENTIRE business and would love the possibility of taking clean notes on PDF docs. keep up the good work EN!!

    • Andrew Sinkov —

      Dale, we plan on bringing Penultimate to many platforms.

  • Richard —

    Great decision. Handwriting is the one feature you have been missing.

    Looking forward to a clean integration.

  • Sam Avella —

    Would be great if the functionality of “convert tt text” could be added.

  • Shane —

    Great acquisition. The 2 primary reasons I am not a penultimate user are no import features for PDF’s and there is no handwriting to text functionality. If both of those come in, along with the integration into Evernote, I will be an immediate user.

  • Rogerio Barlotti —

    Please, as a lefty who suffers I beg you to move the tools (specially the new notebook) from the top… My hand keeps touching this all the times and breaks the writing by including a new notebook.

    Create a full screen feature with no tools and it will solve lefty problems and will change me definitely from Notetake HD with Zoom to Penultimate. Indeed, your writing algorithym id the best on market.

    • Stefanie Fazzio —

      You can actually move the tools to the bottom in the settings. Tap the gear in the top right corner, then turn “tools on top” to the off position

  • David Marshall —

    I love the Evernote and ability to store notes using penultimate and sketches using skitch. I am, however, hoping that Evernote will bring together the abilities of both applications into one. This app should include:

    A variable intelligent pen size – I love how the line thickness in sketches changes in penultimate by swiping across the page, but there are only 3 pen sizes. skitch has multiple pen sizes.

    A typed text input to the Penultimate app – similar to skitch. One font type is fine.

    The ability to set paper sizes to A4.

    Skitch ability to export to Evernote and email as a PDF.

    The more I use Evernote the more I find uses for it. Keep up the great work.

  • Russ —

    I LOVE Evernote!! I actually prefer it on the iPad platform to my desktop. Skitch was a great addition to your repertoire. But I wish you had acquired Notability; it consistently outperforms Penultimate.

  • wzw —

    I really really want Penultimate for android pad. How long do I have to wait?

  • Michael —

    Android version please 😀 I haven’t any news on updates or new releases. Please can you give us an update THANKS

  • Mark Wang —

    When it comes to smart phones, we will always have different platforms available, using different standards.