I’m a jotter. I’m a sketcher. I’m a midnight noter.
Even if I wasn’t making a poor attempt to channel Steve Miller, those three statements are true. Most of the notes and lists in my life are of the pen-and-paper variety because I like the act of scribbling. I prefer handwriting to typing. An organizational structure is certainly lacking from my notes, but I like the efficiency of jotting down a note or writing out a list by hand as opposed to furiously tapping on my phone.
With the updated Evernote app for iOS, I can get the best of both worlds. That is, the option to handwrite notes with all of the organizational power of Evernote behind them, which has to be superior to my method that leaves scraps of paper littering my kitchen counter, desk and pants pockets.
With the updated Evernote app for iPhone and iPad, you’ll see a new pen icon when creating a note. Tapping it brings up a blank canvas with four pen types: pen, highlighter, eraser and selection tool. With the pen or highlighter selected, tap again on the tool to select from five line thicknesses and ten colors. Tapping again on the eraser tool brings up the option to Clear All. The selection tool lets you lasso your scribbles — or a portion of them — to move them around on the page.
![evernote-sketch-tool.jpg](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/8df1c7e9090b91b673966e37de78c8e43198626f/hub/2015/11/05/9ab5f8fc-1188-40c9-aac0-cceae05b114b/evernote-sketch-tool.jpg?auto=webp&width=1200)
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
When saved, your sketches or handwritten notes are resized to fit inside the note of which they are a part. A note can include both sketches and typed text. You can tap on a sketch embedded in a note to open it back up to make changes to it.
One thing you can’t do is zoom in and out when sketching, which is a useful tool on many other drawing apps. It can be hard to write with the tip of your finger without the resulting text looking like a toddler wrote it. On an iPad, the Adonit Jot Script 2 stylus aids handwriting with Evernote’s Penultimate app.
Also in the Evernote iOS update is support for split screen on the iPad. Evernote can be used in split screen mode on the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4.
(Via the Evernote Blog)