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An EBook reader that allows you to draw on the page

GreenTruck

iPF Noob
I like to solve my workbook's on the page itself. I bought an apple pencil for that reason, Which books allow you to annotate on the page itself with a pen?
 
It appears that you need nothing more than the iBooks app. This app only allows annotation of .epub files though.

How to highlight with Apple Pencil in iBooks

Looks like Notability is the best option for annotating PDFs

The best apps for handwriting with the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro


Thanks Kevin, unfortunately notability isn't what i'm looking for , i'm looking for a reader that lets me write onto it . Bookari offers that in android, but not on ios.

Does IBook allow you to annotate using a pencil? Or is it just with the keyboard? Thanks/
 
Thanks Kevin, unfortunately notability isn't what i'm looking for , i'm looking for a reader that lets me write onto it . Bookari offers that in android, but not on ios.

Does IBook allow you to annotate using a pencil? Or is it just with the keyboard? Thanks/

I'm back in the dark ages with an iPad 2, so I can't answer that question directly.

It seems that if your books are in .epub format that you can annotate them with the Apple Pencil, according to the iMore article. If iBooks is not already on your iPad, it can be downloaded free from the App Store.

Stick around because there are members who have the Pro and Pencil, so you should get a better answer than I can supply.
 
Both iBooks and the Kindle app will let you annotate a book you are reading by highlighting, underlining, and adding notes. You don't need an Apple Pencile to do these things. Your finger works fine.

However, it sounds like what you want is the ability to freehand draw on top of an epub. I don't know of any app that lets you do that. Lots of them for PDF files, but none for epubs or other (non-fixed-format) ebooks.

And that is the kicker. Epubs are designed to reformat for your device's screen, allow font size changes, etc. That makes it difficult (though probably not impossible) to treat them as if they are a piece of paper that you can draw on. You almost have to convert them to some fixed format first.

Here is a screenshot of the basic kinds of annotation you can do in iBooks. The Kindle apps offeres similar features. Also, there are search/review/lookup/expert features taht can be used with the annotation in both apps.

IMG_1911-2.webp
 
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Both iBooks and the Kindle app will let you annotate a book you are reading by highlighting, underlining, and adding notes. You don't need an Apple Pencile to do these things. Your finger works fine.

However, it sounds like what you want is the ability to freehand draw on top of an epub. I don't know of any app that lets you do that. Lots of them for PDF files, but none for epubs or other (non-fixed-format) ebooks.

And that is the kicker. Epubs are designed to reformat for your device's screen, allow font size changes, etc. That makes it difficult (though probably not impossible) to treat them as if they are a piece of paper that you can draw on. You almost have to convert them to some fixed format first.

Here is a screenshot of the basic kinds of annotation you can do in iBooks. The Kindle apps offeres similar features. Also, there are search/review/lookup/expert features taht can be used with the annotation in both apps.


Thanks Twerp for the very nice explanation, i have a follow up question in that case. Can you tell me an ebook reader(PDF is ok) that allows you to "Freehand" on the pages but also has a book shelf? And not something like the regular adobe pdf reader?
 
Or it doesn't even have to be on the same page, i don't mind annotating to a popup note on the side, but i want to be able to write that note with the pencil.
Epub or PDF either is accepted, on the actual page or on the side of the page via popup note ( As ibooks ) as long as it accepts pencil handwriting and not typing.

And a bookshelf.​
 
Thanks Twerp for the very nice explanation, i have a follow up question in that case. Can you tell me an ebook reader(PDF is ok) that allows you to "Freehand" on the pages but also has a book shelf? And not something like the regular adobe pdf reader?

The PDF annotation tool I use the most is PDF Reader, but it has a typical file/folder structure. The same is true of Documents by the same developer. It has fewer annotation tools, but handles more file formats (unless you also own PDF Expert, then it has all the tools).

Notability has the ability to load a PDF and take some serious notes and annotations. Its file layout is similar to the Notes app, with a list of catagories on the left with individual notes on the right. It can pull some other interesting tricks like recording audio (with time stamps for each note entry). It's more of a classroom note taking app than a book/research app.

LiquidText (PDF) lets you pull text quotes out of the body to make a kind of outline on the right, but lacks any other serious tools.

The best handwriting tool I have is Nebo. Awsome handwriting recognition, automatic conversion to type, drawing and other tools. But it does not have any kind of import for a PDF background or other file. It does support side-by-side apps, so you could use it next to a book you are reading (as long as the reading app support multitasking), but the notes would not be linked to the passages in the text.

And that's all I have. Nothing that looks and acts like a book reader with a bookshelf.

There probably is an app that does what you want. There are dozens of PDF reader/annotation apps but I've settle on the two or three that fit my needs (or whim). None of those do what you're asking for.
 

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