Today I tried to create a blank page in apMemo and share to Evernote. Then from Evernote I use Skitch to add content. Every so often I do a save back to Evernote replacing the image. I do that every time I have written enough stuff that loosing it would not be good.

That worked great until Evernote said something like Image can not be opened. Everything was gone, again. I uninstalled Skitch so I won’t even be tempted to use it.

But good news, I found Quill ($1.00). It is similar to Skitch, but it saves your drawings. You can work on one drawing, open another, then go back and continue. It does not flatten the vector drawings…ever! When you share your files to Evernote you can share as a vector drawn PDF so you don’t loose detail! What more could you ask for? I’ll tell you: It does an automatic back up of your drawings every 15 minutes!

Now I know what your thinking: But Don aren’t you afraid you will loose your tablet and all your vector drawings too? Yes, so here is what I did. I also got Dropsync. The free version will sync one folder on Android with one folder in Dropbox…in both directions. So I set it to sync the Quill back up file. If my tablet gets lost or submerged in water I can recover my drawings from the back up.

*** So here is my paperless technique ***

I use Quill to replace pen and paper. I share either png flattened files or vector drawn PDFs into Evernote so that they become searchable and available everywhere. If I need to make changes I go back the the original drawing on my tablet change it and then share again and delete the old version in Evernote. My original drawings are safe in Dropbox.

Today i was using Skitch to write some stuff down. I then pushed the wrong button and lost an entire days work. I was hesitant to save it because it could become illegible. I was going to scan it with my phone instead.

I like Skitch because while drawing you can actually move individual or groups of pen strokes around. You can erase entire pen strokes. You can draw perfect circles, squares, and straight lines. In short it is the greatest thing to draw and write on.

But it does not save what you are currently working on in a file. If you do save then you save as a flat png file that is of low resolution compared to the original.

So my work around is apMemo. This app is nice because it never looses anything you have created so far. You can work on multiple pages at the same time. But it does not do the vector drawing, and individual gesture tracking that Skitch does.

What I have discovered is that if you start a document in apMemo, even blank, save it to Evernote, then edit with Skitch you can save it with the much higher apMemo resolution. I know that Skitch isn’t really advertised as an app to create stuff, rather just annotate existing photos. But I think the usefulness of this app as part of a paperless solution is way under valued.

I would like to request 2 Skitch Android features. One – be able to save the working vector drawing in a file somehow. Wouldn’t it be great if you could go back and work on a half finished drawing? Two – be able to select the resolution and quality of a saved png file so that details are not lost.