Serious notetakers, take note! Notability lets you seamlessly switch between typing, writing by hand, and recording audio.

What we love: Annotating PDFs and other documents by circling and underlining text or doodling in the margins—just like the old days! Notability’s Multi-Note feature allows you to look at notes side by side and shift text and images between them.

Quick tip: Find the perfect tool (highlighter, pencil, laser pointer) in the app’s new Toolbox. Nearly every one is customizable—just tap a preset to update colours, sizes, styles, and more. Once you’ve found what you need, slide the Toolbox to the sides to get it out of your note-taking way!

Meet the creator: Ginger Labs launched in 2008 with SoundAMP, which helps those with hearing loss turn an iPhone into a digital hearing aid. Notability’s audio feature sprang from SoundAMP’s technology to assist students with different learning styles.