Handwritten daily journal · Apple Pencil on iPad · iPhone · iOS 18+

Handwritten notes usually die on the page. Yours won't.

Write your day by hand. Penlog reads your notation, so the task you write stays a task. It carries forward day to day until you cross it off, and everything on the page is searchable by what you wrote. And when you want it to, your Notion and your AI assistants can read the page and write back to it.

For people who think in ink.

Download on the App Store See how it works

Pro is free to try for 14 days. No charge until your trial ends.

Free to write in. Pro is $8.99/month with a 14-day free trial. Made in Indianapolis.

iPad Pro showing Penlog with handwritten journal entries, typed tasks, and yellow marker highlights

20 seconds

Cross it off on paper. It's done in Notion.

Watch

See it work, start to finish.

How it works

One page. Every tool.

01

Write by hand

Pick up your Apple Pencil. Your daily page is waiting — blank, dotted, grid, or lined. Every page is a day, so there's nothing to name and nothing to file.

02

It comes out structured

Penlog OCRs your notation, not just your words. A bullet is a task, a dash is a note, an X is done. No tagging, no cleanup.

03

Cross it off. It's done everywhere.

The task you wrote by hand becomes a real task in Notion. Cross it off with the Pencil and it completes there too. It works in reverse as well: ask Claude to put something on tomorrow's page, and your calendar arrives the same way, as the day's events already on the page.

Use case

For meeting notes that actually follow through.

Take meeting notes by hand. Penlog turns your bullets into tasks that carry forward day to day, so your action items don't disappear into a notebook you never reopen. Cross one off and it's done in Notion too, so the follow-up is already in your task database without you retyping it.

No more action items scattered across a notebook, a doc, and a chat thread. They stay on your page until they're done.

See how it works with Notion →

Integrations

And also, not instead of.

Penlog doesn't replace your planning stack. It gives everything in it a window into your handwritten day.

Official Notion Marketplace connection Listed in the ChatGPT plugin directory
Notion
Tasks & databases
Claude
via MCP
ChatGPT
Plugin directory
Apple Calendar
Your day's events
Your agents
Any MCP-compatible tool

Reviews

In their words.

“I loved notion but really struggle to refer to it on a daily basis, let alone throughout the day. Written systems worked better but didn't allow me to plan long term. Penlog has been the perfect solution to my workflow issues. Allowing me to organize handwritten tasks into my long term project tracking seamlessly!”
sleepypeachApp Store review, 5 stars, Canada, July 2026

API & MCP

Agents read the page. And write back to it.

Every journal page is a REST resource, and it arrives already sorted into tasks and notes rather than as a wall of transcribed text. Any MCP-compatible agent can read it and add typed text alongside your ink.

GET /api/v1/pages/today 
{
  "date": "2026-04-25",
  "paper": "lined",
  "tasks": [
    { "text": "Follow up on API spec", "age_days": 3 },
    { "text": "Team sync notes", "age_days": 0 }
  ],
  "seeded_blocks": [
    { "origin": "claude", "content": "Briefing for today…" }
  ]
}

MCP server at mcp.penlog.app — connect any compatible agent in one step.

Agent and MCP access are part of Penlog Pro, $8.99/month with a 14-day free trial.

See it live

Watch an agent read your handwriting.

Available now

Because the writing is the thinking.

Write by hand. Work with everything. Penlog is on the App Store — install it and start writing.

Download on the App Store

Free to download. Pro unlocks Notion sync and AI agents, $8.99/month or $89.99/year, 14 days free. Cancel anytime in your Apple ID settings. Write on iPad (iPadOS 18+). iPhone (iOS 18+) reads your pages and adds tasks.

Made in Indianapolis.

FAQ

Questions people ask before they download.

How is Penlog different from Goodnotes or Notability?
Goodnotes and Notability are excellent notebooks for handwriting, PDFs, and annotation. Penlog is a daily journal that reads your notation. A bullet is a task, a dash is a note, and an X means done. Open tasks carry forward onto the next day's page until you cross them off, and with Pro your Notion and your AI agents can read the page and write back to it. Side-by-side: Penlog vs Goodnotes, Penlog vs Notability, and Penlog vs Penjo.
Does the OCR actually work on my handwriting?
Penlog reads notation, not just words, so it can tell a task from a note, and it transcribes the rest of the page too. A vision model does the reading, so it is good but not perfect. It holds up on the founder's handwriting, which is bad, but the honest answer is to try it on yours. Writing and reading your pages are free, so you can see what it does with your own handwriting before you pay for anything.
I already use Notability or Goodnotes. Do I have to switch?
No. Penlog doesn't replace your notebooks, class notes, or PDF markup, so keep those where they are. Use Penlog for the day itself: the tasks, meeting notes, and plans you want to carry forward and get into Notion or your AI assistant without retyping them.
Is the MCP server stable enough to build on?
It is the production server that Penlog's Claude and ChatGPT connections run on, at mcp.penlog.app. You connect with one-click OAuth or a plg_live bearer token. The tools, error codes, and rate limits are documented in the developer docs. Agents can read your pages and add tasks alongside your ink, but they can never write or erase your handwriting.
Will Penlog work with my iPad or iPhone?
Writing in Penlog needs an iPad running iPadOS 18 or later, and it is built for Apple Pencil. Penlog also runs on iPhone with iOS 18 or later: it shows today, lets you add tasks by typing or by voice and check them off, and reads back every page you have written. iPhone does not write. Penlog is not available for Mac or Android. It is also not for you if you would rather type your notes. It is for people who think better with a pen in hand.
Why pay when Apple Journal is free?
You might not need to. Apple Journal is free on iPad, takes Apple Pencil handwriting, and is a lovely place to log your day. Penlog is free to write in too. The difference is what happens after you write: Penlog reads your notation, so a bullet becomes a task that carries forward until you cross it off, and with Pro those tasks reach Notion and your AI agents. If you just want to log your day, Apple Journal is great. If you want your handwriting to carry forward as tasks and reach your digital system, that is what Penlog does. See what Pro costs.
What happens to my data?
Your journal lives in your own iCloud account and syncs between your iPads. When you are signed in, Penlog sends your pages to its servers so a vision model can read them. Notion and your AI agents only see your pages after you connect them, and you can delete your account and its data from Settings in the app. The privacy policy explains what is stored and why, and the sub-processors page lists every third party involved.