Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

xournal VS nvALT

Compare xournal VS nvALT and see what are their differences

xournal logo xournal

Lightweight notetaking and sketching app.

nvALT logo nvALT

A fork of the original Notational Velocity with some additional features and interface modifications
  • xournal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-25
  • nvALT Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-03

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

nvALT videos

nvALT - Up and Running in 5 Minutes

More videos:

  • Review - nvALT is my favorite Markdown writing app
  • Review - Capturing (GTD) on the Mac with nvALT app

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to xournal and nvALT)
Note Taking
53 53%
47% 47
Task Management
70 70%
30% 30
Todos
54 54%
46% 46
Personal Notes
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using xournal and nvALT. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

nvALT might be a bit more popular than xournal. We know about 10 links to it since March 2021 and only 7 links to 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.

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 / 3 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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nvALT mentions (10)

  • NvAlt: MultiMarkdown Notational Velocity fork with Markdown editing and preview
    Note nvUltra, the successor to this program, has been in development/private beta for several years[1,2]. I've been meaning to make my own web-based version of Notational Velocity that adds a few novel features of my own. (Plus inspiration from apps like TaskPaper and Drafts) There are a lot of Notational Velocity clones; currently my favorite is: https://simplenote.com/ [1]:... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Apple Notes has jumped the shark, what should I replace it with?
    I'm still happy with Apple Notes for its integration with all of Apple Apps, easy sharing with family members, etc. I have tamed it more as an ephemeral and quick Notes App. The notes that starts there are usually transferred to a more permanent and organized Plain-Text setup[1] (currently guardian-ed by Obsidian). If I had to replace Apple Notes, I'd look at either one of these; - https://simplenote.com -... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: How do you save and browse external interesting URLs?
    I used to think like that, stored everything in Pinboard, tagged properly. I also used to use nvalt (https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/) for that as it had good search and I didn't have to switch to other tabs to search Pinboard. It felt good to "catalog" all this knowledge but in reality I never went back to it, just like bookmarks and I realized that if something is important enough I'll always be able to... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • I want to understand YOUR way of taking quick notes into Obsidian
    One mobile and 2 laptop versions: - IOS Shortcuts that write specific style lines to bottom of scratch file that get processed - NVAlt : https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Which discontinued app or tool would you still like to use today?
    NvALT: https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ Ubuntu's Unity Slackware (not technically dead at all, but it was so great, back in the day). Google Reader. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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...

Evernote - Bring your life's work together in one digital workspace. Evernote is the place to collect inspirational ideas, write meaningful words, and move your important projects forward.

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.

Notational Velocity - Notational Velocity: modeless, mouseless Mac OS X note-taking application

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

Standard Notes - A safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work