What Is Xournal++ and What Is It Used For?
Xournal++ is a free, open-source handwritten note-taking application for macOS, Windows, and Linux. You use it when you want to write or draw notes by hand — with a stylus, pen tablet, or mouse — rather than type them. Its official site describes it as a tool for "taking handwritten notes with ease," and lists use cases ranging from solving a physics problem to keeping travel diaries.
What Xournal++ actually does
At its core, Xournal++ is a digital notebook built around handwriting and annotation. According to the project's own documentation, its main capabilities are:
- Handwrite your notes — pen and highlighter tools let you write and mark up pages directly.
- Keep your work organized — notes are kept in a structured, page-based document format.
- Enhance and accelerate your note-taking — extra tools go beyond plain ink.
The site's feature list names several specific tools: pen and highlighter, an eraser, selection and snapping tools, a LaTeX tool, PDF tools, and geometry tools. There is also a plugin system, with a set of "notable plugins" documented alongside instructions for building your own.
Who it is for
Xournal++ fits situations where typing is a poor substitute for writing or drawing:
- Students and researchers working through problems by hand — the site's own example is "solving a physics problem."
- People annotating PDFs — the PDF tools and "Working With PDF Files" documentation point to marking up existing documents rather than starting from blank pages.
- Anyone keeping a handwritten journal — the site cites "making travel diaries" as a use case.
- Users who need mathematical notation — the LaTeX tool is aimed at inserting typeset formulas into handwritten pages.
If your notes are mostly plain text and you never reach for a pen, a conventional text editor or note app will usually be faster. Xournal++ is aimed at the handwriting-and-annotation side of note-taking.
Platform and licensing
Xournal++ is available on macOS, Windows, and Linux. The site presents it as an open-source project (the repository path shown is xournalpp/xournalpp), and the documentation includes a community section covering how to get help, how to report a bug, and how Xournal++ relates to other software.
The site's navigation does not include pricing or purchase pages, and the material provided here contains no pricing signals — so nothing in this source states a price or a paid tier. If cost matters to you, check the official site directly rather than assuming.
How to get started
- Go to the official site and open the Installation section.
- Choose your operating system — Windows, macOS, or Linux — and follow the instructions for that platform.
- Read the Overview and Whirlwind Tour pages in the Guide to see the interface and main workflows before you commit time to it.
- Adjust Preferences, Toolbar, and Colors under Configuration if the defaults don't suit you.
- If you plan to annotate existing documents, read Working With PDF Files first; if you need formulas, look at the LaTeX tool page.
A practical way to test whether it suits you: open a PDF you already need to mark up, annotate one page with the pen and highlighter, and try inserting one LaTeX formula. If those three tasks feel natural, the rest of the toolset will likely be worth learning.
Where to look next
The site's own structure is the best map of what the software covers: Installation, Guide (Overview, Whirlwind Tour), Configuration (Preferences, Toolbar, Colors), Tools and Editing (pen/highlighter, eraser, selection and snapping, LaTeX, PDF, geometry), Working With PDF Files, Plugins (building plugins, notable plugins), File Locations, and Community (getting help, reporting a bug, Xournal++ and other software). Start with the Whirlwind Tour if you want the fastest sense of what the app does before installing anything.