The Best S Pen Apps for Your Samsung Galaxy Note

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 25 Aug 2016

That S-Pen to work and Play

The S Pen has been a powerful key for the Galaxy Note line, letting you scribble away on that giant phablet screen. In contrast, others are left to rely on their fumbled fingers.
It’s not for everyone, but Galaxy Note owners tend to be a devoted group, swearing they’ll never give up their beloved stylus.
While Samsung has built some software to support the S-Pen in the Galaxy Note 5, several apps in the Play Store will have you wield your stylus even more frequently. Our collection looks at some good options for photo editing, note-taking, illustration, and even a game. Do you have a favorite S Pen-friendly app? If so, be sure to give it a shout-out in the comments.
Colorfy: Coloring Book Games

Adult coloring books are the new, hot trend. Take the concept that helps grown-ups disengage from their stressful lives to their Galaxy Note and take time out with colorful games.
It’s not an actual coloring app in a sense you don’t actually scribble in colors. Instead, you choose which color goes on the painting. Just tap the spot to add it in. Nonetheless, it’s pretty fun.
There are many drawings, ranging from Rom dots to classic works of art. As always, you can upgrade with additional color tools through an in-app purchase.

     Colorfy: Coloring Book Games (free)

Evernote – Note Organizer

You probably know about Evernote, but if you have a Galaxy Note, you may want to throw down one of the app’s widgets. That’s because you’ll have one-touch access from the home screen to the pen input. You can then start scribbling away with your S-pen on a new note. Evernote is an excellent tool for S Pen users, as the app will recognize your text and has a lot of different color highlighting options.

   Evernote – Note Organizer

HandWrite Pro Note & Draw

This is a good solution if you’re looking for a vector-based drawing app. It has a lot of tools for manipulating images, along with the standard pen input that puts the stylus to work.
While the app is free, a premium package allows you to export files in SVG format for later editing on the desktop. Another option is a calligraphic pen. If you want to turn your Galaxy Note into a showcase for your calligraphy skills.

   HandWrite Pro Note & Draw

Squid: Take Notes, Markup PDFs

squid

Squid because squids make ink, get it? Lets you jot down notes as you would in a notebook. Okay, there are plenty of apps that do that. But Squid goes a step further. You can mark up PDFs and export them as PDFs, too. You can import images and draw shapes. Perhaps best, you can broadcast your device like a whiteboard using Miracast or Chromecast. Everything is vector-based, so notes remain small and zoom perfectly to any device.

   Squid: Take Notes, Markup PDFs

Scribble Racer – S Pen

scribble racer

The manufacturer says that S-Pen has to be only about productivity? Scribble Racer shows that it can be a pretty solid gaming controller. This game was built specifically for the S Pen, which you use to stay inside the lines of an obstacle course that scrolls along the screen. There are three difficulty modes, with the most demanding level serving as the challenge, given its rapid acceleration.
Scribble Racer works with any other stylus or your finger, but don’t expect as good of an experience with the latter. The tiny tip of the S pen gives you the best accuracy.
It’s free to download, but I found it so much fun that it was worth the $1 to nix the ads that take up part of the screen. The upgrade also speeds up moving to a new round, as you don’t have to pause between sessions for advertising.

  Scribble Racer – S Pen

Handwriting Input

The promise of the S-Pen is that you can do more handwriting on your phone. The recently-launched Handwriting Input keyboard is a perfect companion if you like popping out the stylus frequently. It’s a full-blown Android keyboard that translates your handwriting into text. It even recognizes cursive, though you’ll have to take a user’s word for it since technology killed that skill for me long ago. This could be great for kids still learning their way around the keyboard or for those who still prefer to write things out. It also switches back to the main keyboard with one press of the globe icon.

     Handwriting Input (free)

How to Draw – Easy Lessons

One of the best things about a stylus is being able to quickly doodle on your phone. You have all the drawing equipment you need with you at all times!
But what if you don’t know how to draw? There’s nothing like using your stylus-equipped phone to build a new skill, right? The How to Draw app takes you through some basic skills needed to turn your awful doodles into recognizable objects.

    How to Draw – Easy Lessons (free)

Sketchbook

A sketching app is perfect for the Galaxy Note, and Sketchbook doesn’t disappoint.
If nothing else, it’s a great way to re-introduce doodling into your life, which is always helpful when you’re stuck in a boring meeting. It gives you a blank slate and nearly limitless color choices for your creations. You can zoom in up to 2500 percent, which, combined with the S-pen, can give you some great precision.
If you want to do more than make terrible drawings of golf courses, then consider the pro tools for $3.99. You get 100 preset pencils, pens, markers, and brushes, along with several workflow guides, like rules radical options.
You can back up your creations if you connect the app to Dropbox.

SketchBook (free)

Snapseed
Recently resurrected its Snapseed photo editing app from dormancy, it’s perfect for whipping up some quick edits with your S-Pen. You can add a quick filter for Instagram or use the stylus for more precise editing with a brush, spot repair, tool, or other methods for tinkering. Snapseed is by no means the only capable photo editor, with other great choices like Lightroom and Autodesk Pixlr out there. But if you want an excellent, free solution that plays nice with your photos, then you’ll be delighted with Snapseed. Once everything goes with an app like this, it tends to elevate its feature set pretty quickly, so keep an eye out for new tools.

   Snapseed (free)

Microsoft OneNote: Save Notes

OneNote has been in the linking game for 12 years, first debuting in the days of Windows and X tablets; those were painful days.
OneNote recently added a chat-head style button called a floatie that puts a new note just one touch away. You can also launch a note with a persistent notification from the drop-down menu.
Now you have one-touch access to add a written note with the help of S Pen. Microsoft has seriously stepped up its game on Android, making OneNote part of an excellent Office suite. It may not pull you over if you’re an Evernote die-hard, but it has a lot to offer with deep tie-ins to Microsoft’s robust and cross-platform Office effort.

Microsoft OneNote: Save Notes (free)

MyScript

MyScript offers three clever apps that are perfect for a Galaxy Note. With the MyScript Calculator, you can write out a calculation by the app will, translate it to numbers, then solve the problem. It has a few quirks; you’ll need to use an “x” for multiplication instead of the dot operator. It does support a variety of calculation methods and trigonometry signs.
MyScript Smart Note is another note-taking option if you don’t want to stick with the stock Galaxy app. It will recognize your hand-written words and make them searchable, provided they’re not too sloppy.
The Beta version is for using the stylus to input text anywhere on your device, transforming your writing into readable text. As it’s still in beta, expect a few bugs and hiccups.

    MyScript apps 

Adobe Fill & Sign: Easy PDF Doc & Form Filler

Don’t get annoyed the next time you get an email; it requires an actual signature. Just whip out the S-Pen, and make sure you have this app from Adobe. Once you create a signature, the app will insert it into the right place on any file. You can also create a form-fill profile to quickly insert the information into all those lengthy forms. Adobe Fill & Sign DC (Document Cloud) also lets you take a picture of a paper file to transform it into a digital version. Which you can then sign and send to whomever you need to.

   Adobe Fill & Sign: Easy PDF Doc & Form Filler (free)

INKredible-Handwriting Note

INKredible takes out many of the bells and whistles from other note-taking apps to focus on building a great writing experience.
It’s probably the closest thing to perfect on Android, as it feels very accurate with the S-Pen, and draws you into partaking in the lost art of doodling. It won’t be ideal for meeting notes as it doesn’t scan your words into the text. Instead, it is for someone who truly wants a digital version of a notebook for drawing, doodling, or just random thoughts.
If you enjoy it, you can upgrade the app, which will fix the ads, give you additional pens, and offer different paper templates. There are choices for calligraphy, music, and graphing paper.

    INKredible-Handwriting Note  (free)

VirtualTablet (S-Pen)

If you’re a teacher or do a lot of presentations, an app like Virtual Tablet can free you from being stuck behind the computer. The app can be used with desktop software, and your stylus turns into a mouse. Hover over your screen to move the mouse, and touch your Note to perform a click. It worked great on my Note 4 MacBook, which connected quickly by recognizing the address.There’s a free but ad-supported version if you want to try it out first.

   VirtualTablet (S-Pen) ($3.96)