Note-taking with one of these systems is almost
like writing, but better: You can store and share your
scrawlings digitally. —Michael Calore
Write Stuff
MOLESKINE SMART WRITING
SET ELLIPSE
You’ll recognize this notebook as one
of Moleskine’s iconic hardcover jour-
nals, but look closely at the ivory-
colored pages and you’ll see they’re
covered with a fine pattern of minus-
cule gray dots. Alongside the ball-
point tip of the included Moleskine
Pen+ is a sensor that discerns those
dots and records every stroke of
your handwriting. Sync the pen to
Moleskine’s well-designed mobile
app and see all of your words and
drawings on your phone’s screen,
where they can be shared as images
or translated (pretty accurately for
cursive, even better if you print) to
machine-readable text. The ink-on-
paper writing experience is as real as
it gets. And if you’re not a fan of the
traditional hardcover Moleskine, the
company has other options that work
with the Pen+: larger notebooks,
softcover journals, and planners.
$499
$199
HEAD
TO HEAD
REMARKABLE
A thin design and spacious 10-inch
EInk screen make reMarkable’s
tablet look like a giant Kindle (you
can use it to read ebooks), but it’s
actually a powerful note-taking tool.
The screen is sensitive to the tilt and
pressure of the plastic stylus, which
is comfortable to write with and has
no electronics that need charging.
The writing experience is nearly
flawless, with the pleasing friction—
and even the scritch-scritch sound—
of pencil on paper that easily bests
Apple’s stylus on a glass iPad screen.
A tap on the menu bar converts
handwriting to copyable, shareable
text, as long as you’re connected to
Wi-Fi. When reMarkable’s
cloud-based AI finds your scribbles
inscrutable, the translation can be
a bit sloppy, but you can always
share your notes as a PDF.
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