Prodrafts - FreeNotes Mind Map 4+

I have been a life long user of Notability and Goodnotes 5, until I stumbled across this app. There are so many features that are useful and I feel like it’s the combination of those two popular options all merged together. There’s the option to have infinite canvas, which is what I need for mind map notes. Then there are traditional linear notes which is really cool as well. You can import your own templates if youd like, but the original one works pretty well too. The tools like lasso, eraser, pens are straight forward and they also have the Apple tool bar as well, just like the notes app. The most important factor for me is I can FINALLY lock the zoom to a certain percent so I could keep my handwriting consistent. After testing out for half an hour, I immediately purchased the unlimited, which is still cheaper than Goodnotes or Notability. There are still phrases that are not completely translated into English from Chinese, but that is very minimal and did not affect the experience at all. Overall, I am so glad to find this app, and I would highly recommend you try it out!

Personally I love the idea of unlimited writing paper, especially for studying biology, medicine related subjects. I appreciate the use of apple’s innate writing system, which somehow shows a prettier writing than the ones on apps like notability/GoodNotes. However, the lack of lasso select function is honestly very annoying, almost discouraging. There’re multiple times I want to move a segments of writing to another location for better idea categorizing, but I can’t. I even purchased the premium upgrade, because I thought this function is included based on the description of “expanded pencil tool”, but it’s not.

Speaking of the upgrade, I haven’t experience a major user improvement with the $7 premium upgrade. The shape function, at least for me, is meh. I don’t mind having an imperfect circle or arrow. I don’t really need that much extra pencil setting space on the side. Maybe there’re more functions available, but I haven’t find them as useful nor necessary (which I understand this is why the upgrade is optional).

Overall, it is a great app even without the upgrade. I can see it having lots of potential becoming a more mainstream productivity app. However, I really hope it can implement some sort of cloud backup option (even one way backup to the third party app like google drive could be helpful), and please please include the selection function I mentioned.

I’m a designer and professor of design. In this capacity I need an application for personal professional practice but also for problem solving with students. This app seems to have just about everything you’d expect or hope an app to have (I say “expect” because my expectations of Apple have been lowered considerably after years of dashed hopes. Stop being conservative and wimpy, Apple. I’d like Apple to make it possible to run all Adobe apps.) And of particular note this app seems stable. It’s full of features. Its UI is clean. It makes use of Apples proprietary pencils which, despite one’s feeling about them, is at least stable and robust. I can stylize type, make my own paper, crop images and delete the background. I say, Well Done!
That all said, I would love to have a Layers feature.
Thank you for work on this app!!!