Free Notes

Free Notes is an iPad-first notebook app focused on permanence and paper-like constraints.

Current Architecture (V2)

The app now uses a layered page engine with explicit input channels:

• Finger channel: PDF text selection/copy and rich-text block editing.
• Pencil channel: active-layer stroke input only.

This removes the previous conflict where PDF selection and Pencil drawing could not reliably work together.

Layer model

Each page has:

• Base layer (original notes)
• Optional revision layers (timestamped, toggleable, lockable)

Persistence

Notebook pages now persist a V2 layered payload (layerData) while keeping compatibility with legacy fields.

Migration

Older .nbk files are opened and migrated automatically:

• legacy strokes -> base layer
• legacy text annotations -> base text blocks
• legacy images -> base image blocks
• PDF page data -> PDF background reference

Key Features

• Fixed-size notebook pages (A4/B5/A5)
• Portrait single-page and landscape spread view
• PDF page import into notebook timeline
• PencilKit writing
• Rich text paste with formatting preservation (RTFD/RTF/HTML/plain fallback)
• Revision layer workflow for reading/revision passes
• Stroke-only undo (no redo), configurable depth 1...5 (default 3)
• Local-first .nbk document storage

Project Layout

• /Users/valipokkann/Developer/free-notes/free_notes – iPad app project
• /Users/valipokkann/Developer/free-notes/cursor_notebook_bootstrap.md – canonical product + architecture spec

Build

cd /Users/valipokkann/Developer/free-notes/free_notes
xcodebuild -project free_notes.xcodeproj -scheme free_notes -destination 'generic/platform=iOS Simulator' build

Roadmap

1. Harden layered text/image lock UX
2. Add explicit reading-mode timeline tools
3. Zone-based manual indexing for memory workflows
4. Optional sync phase (post-local-first maturity)

Notes

• Target today: iPadOS 17+ (optimized for iPad 6 baseline)
• Designed to remain compatible with newer iPad hardware and iPadOS releases