Software Alternatives & Reviews

Org mode VS xournal

Compare Org mode VS xournal and see what are their differences

Org mode logo Org mode

Org: an Emacs Mode for Notes, Planning, and Authoring

xournal logo xournal

Lightweight notetaking and sketching app.
  • Org mode Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-15
  • xournal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-25

Org mode videos

org mode is awesome

More videos:

  • Review - 2018-11-14: Building a Second Brain in Org Mode - Tasshin Michael Fogleman

xournal videos

Xournal: Annotate, Edit, Handwrite, Comment & Highlight on PDF

More videos:

  • Review - Xournal and OneNote - An Overview
  • Review - Xournal on Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 12.04

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Org mode and xournal)
Task Management
84 84%
16% 16
Note Taking
69 69%
31% 31
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Todos
68 68%
32% 32

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Org mode and xournal

Org mode Reviews

Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?
Before going full Org Mode, I used MS OneNote, and liked it very much. My notes from that period has tons of images and annotated screenshots dumped into them. I miss that in my Emacs workflow nowadays. My dream software would be pieces of Org Mode on a OneNote-like canvas, with support for easily pasting images and drawing on them (especially using a graphics tablet, or at...

xournal Reviews

We have no reviews of xournal yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Org mode seems to be a lot more popular than xournal. While we know about 174 links to Org mode, we've tracked only 7 mentions of xournal. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Org mode mentions (174)

  • Ask HN: Has Anyone Trained a personal LLM using their personal notes?
    - or to visualize and use it as a personal partner. There's already a ton of open-source UIs such as Chatbot-ui[3] and Reor[4]. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Personally, I haven't been consistent enough through the years in note-taking. So, I'm really curious to learn more about those of you who were and implemented such pipelines. I'm sure there's a ton of really fascinating experiences. [1]... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file
    Obligatory reference to Emacs Org-Mode [1]. Author's approach is basically Org-Mode with fewer helpers. Org-mode's power is that, at core, it's just a text file, with gradual augmentation. Then again, Org-Mode is a tool you must install, accessible through a limited list of clients (Emacs obviously, but also VSCode), and the power of OP's approach is that it requires no external tools. [1] https://orgmode.org. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Show HN: Heynote – A Dedicated Scratchpad for Developers
    This reminds me a lot of [Org Mode](https://orgmode.org/). Do you have plans to add other org-like features, like evaluating code blocks? I don't personally see myself moving away from org-mode, but it would be nice to have something to recommend to people who are reluctant to use emacs, even if it's only for a single application. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • How to combine daily journal with general database of people, places, things, etc.
    If you want to spare a couple of detours, you probably could start with Emacs Org-mode according to Greenspun's eleventh rule: "Any sufficiently complicated PIM or note-taking program contains an ad hoc, informally specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Org mode.". Source: 5 months ago
  • Ask HN: Local Wysiwyg HTML Editor for Mac
    Wow, no one has recommended Org mode (https://orgmode.org). I started using Emacs nearly 20 years ago specifically because of Org. I use Org for all my static sites, note taking, to-do lists and calendar. Org has a lightweight markup language that has far more features than Markdown (e.g., plain text spreadsheets!), but the markup isn't visible to the extent that Markdown is in most editors. Emacs with Org files... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
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xournal mentions (7)

  • Rnote – An open-source vector-based drawing app
    Please note that the original app was Xournal [1]. The one you link is a rewrite of the orignal (in C++) and is called Xournal++. [1] https://xournal.sourceforge.net/. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: When did you stop using printers and why?
    I do the using Xournal [1] which is tailor-made for creating annotations. It leaves the PDF as is, saving your edits to a sidecar file (*.xoj) which when loaded pulls in the original PDF. It exports edited documents to 'real' PDFs with selectable text etc. [1] https://xournal.sourceforge.net/ (packaged by most distributions). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Is there good way to apply a hand written signature to a pdf in linux?
    If you don't mind the signature being raster (not vector), I've used Xournal for this in the past. It's extremely lightweight and easy. Just open the PDF file with Xournal, draw the signature, and then export it to PDF (Control + E). This will not rasterise the PDF itself (to the best of my knowledge), but rather just superimposes a layer containing your signature on top of the original PDF. Source: about 2 years ago
  • The Xournal ++ app
    Xournal++ exists since 2013. Maybe you typoed and by your comment about abandoning you were referring to Xournal without the ++? The Xournal website even suggests to try Xournal++. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Adobe Acrobat not provided by the university, how do you read/edit PDFs?
    Xournal works pretty well for me on GNU/Linux. You just have to turn on the "Legacy PDF Export" option. Source: almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Org mode and xournal, you can also consider the following products

Todoist - Todoist is a to-do list that helps you get organized, at work and in life.

Xournal++ - Xournal++ is a handwriting notetaking software with PDF annotation support. Written in C++ with GTK3, supporting Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, SUSE), macOS and Windows 10. Supports pen input fr...

Workflowy - A better way to organize your mind.

OneNote - Get the OneNote app for free on your tablet, phone, and computer, so you can capture your ideas and to-do lists in one place wherever you are. Or try OneNote with Office for free.

Trello - Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It's free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.

GoodNotes - GoodNotes lets you take notes and annotate PDF documents.