Software Alternatives & Reviews

Skim VS xournal

Compare Skim VS xournal and see what are their differences

Skim logo Skim

Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X.

xournal logo xournal

Lightweight notetaking and sketching app.
  • Skim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-05-03
  • xournal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-25

Skim videos

SKIMS REVIEW: SO MANY DISAPPOINTMENTS...

More videos:

  • Review - SOOO... I tried SKIMS SHAPEWEAR & WE NEED TO CHAT
  • Review - Is SKIMS Worth It? | SKIMS Review + Try-On Haul | Curvy Girl Edition

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 Skim and xournal)
PDF Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Note Taking
0 0%
100% 100
PDF Editor
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

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

Skim Reviews

13 of the Best Free PDF Readers
Skim is another lightweight PDF viewer that comes with many basic functions. Users can highlight text, take pictures and add notes with ease. Skim was primarily developed for academics but has since expanded its functionality. Still, this tool remains great for academics, as it can connect with third-party apps such as Bid Desk.
Source: www.indeed.com

xournal Reviews

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

Based on our record, Skim should be more popular than xournal. It has been mentiond 29 times since March 2021. 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.

Skim mentions (29)

  • iCloud Drive silently deletes your content
    I've had my fair share of highlighting/annotating shenanigans with macOS built-in software and I've found Skim (free, BSD licensed) to be a very competent replacement, with the only caveat that you have to remember to export the annotated PDFs if you want to be able to see your changes from any other application. https://skim-app.sourceforge.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Electronic text book reader
    I actually am going to say a Macbook air. The reason is because the pdf reader Skim is Mac OSX only. I've tried many, and I haven't found another PDF reader I like. The only thing you lose is the ability to write directly on the screen. If that's something you really want to do, then you should get an iPad and load your pdfs in GoodNotes. The added benefit of that is that you can add blank pages right in the PDF... Source: 11 months ago
  • Question about transcript proofreading
    Well. I have a 55 pages with three remaining parts of a transcript I should probably be working on ... But I haven't proofed in a while, so I had to remember how to use the (Mac only) program I use to mark up PDFs worked, only to find there was a new version waiting to be downloaded and installed ... and, of course, re-learned. Source: 11 months ago
  • Create link from bibliographic reference/quote in an Obsidian document to the page of the book/article PDF in my Zotero library?
    If you’re on Mac you can use the free app Skim, which has ‘deep links’ that take you to a specific PDF page. If you want a link to take you to a specific sentence, then you can use Hookmark and Skim to get links that take you to a specific part of a PDF page. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Adobe now requires you to purchase a subscription to rotate PDF pages
    Preview is great. I can also recommend Skim (free and open source) for macOS for some additional functionality [1]. [1]: https://skim-app.sourceforge.io/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

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 / about 1 month 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: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

PDF Expert - Download a free trial of PDF Expert - the best PDF software for your Mac. Enjoy advanced reading layouts, powerful PDF editing and classical annotation tools.

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...

Foxit Reader - Foxit Reader is a free and light-weight multi-platform PDF document viewer.

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.

Xodo - Try easy-to-use PDF tools that keep your documents safe. Work with your important files across all platforms and devices with the ultimate all-in-one document solution. Your productivity lives at Xodo!

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