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Xournal++

Open-source handwriting app for annotating PDFs with a stylus on desktop.

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Operated by Xournal++ contributors

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Opens the vendor's own site.

Jobs covered

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viewing and navigating a PDF inside Xournal++ as a journal background, where the current README and PDF guide document loading the PDF as a background, viewing/rendering its pages, navigating pages, following links, searching the background PDF text, selecting and copying text, and using the PDF outline/structure. The scope records PDF background viewing, navigation, text selection/copy and links/outline inspection inside the desktop app, and makes no general PDF-editing, OCR, semantic text-extraction, redaction, signing or PDF-native annotation-preservation claim; the separate annotation layer and export flattening are handled by the edit and convert jobs

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annotate a background, flattened on export

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exporting a Xournal++ journal and its annotations to another file format, where the current README documents export to PDF, PNG and SVG from the GUI and command line (the current source documents command-line --create-pdf and --create-img with PNG sizing options). The export is a flattening/rendering operation: exported annotations are not editable in the PDF, PDF-native annotations and forms are not preserved, and paper style/background settings can change the result.

The scope records GUI/CLI export to these documented formats, and makes no Office/DOCX conversion, PDF-to-text, OCR, general format-conversion or PDF-native annotation-preservation claim

Where your files are processed

No server involved

A local desktop application with no server or account. PDFs are used as a journal background and the result is exported locally.

Architectural: a local desktop application with no server or account, and the documentation describes all PDF handling as local - the PDF as a journal background, and local export.

What it does

Xournal++ is an open-source C++/GTK3 desktop handwriting and note-taking application for stylus and tablet input. The current release is v1.3.8, published 26 September 2026; the changelog also lists 1.3.7 and 1.3.6.

It loads a PDF as a journal background so the user can view and navigate the pages, search the background text, select and copy text, follow links and work with the PDF outline, then handwrite, highlight, type, insert LaTeX, images and shapes on a separate annotation layer, and export/convert the journal with annotations to flattened PDF, PNG or SVG from the GUI and, for PDF/image output, the command line. Notes are stored in .xopp journals, which reference the background PDF by absolute path unless attach mode is used.

The application is GPL-2.0, local and cross-platform; Xournal++ Mobile is a separate project and is not this desktop product.

Best for

Students, teachers and stylus users on Windows, macOS or Linux who want to handwrite over lecture slides, drafts or forms while keeping editable layered notes.

Worth knowing

The current release is v1.3.8, published 26 September 2026; the changelog also lists 1.3.7 and 1.3.6. The project does not currently ship a checked-in man page for 1.3.8; the current README and source document command-line PDF and image export (--create-pdf and --create-img, plus PNG sizing options), while the older generated 1.3.7 man page is stale.

Annotations live in a separate .xopp journal that stores an absolute path to the background PDF unless attach mode is used; if the PDF is moved or deleted, the background is lost. Exports are flattened/rendered output: annotations are no longer editable in the exported PDF, PDF-native annotations such as pop-up notes and forms are not preserved, and paper style/background settings can change the output.

Xournal++ does not edit the original PDF pages, does not preserve PDF-native annotations or forms, and has no OCR, semantic text extraction, redaction, signing or general Office/DOCX/PDF-to-text conversion. Pen/highlighter strokes are an annotation layer above the PDF and are not redaction.

The PDF viewing surface is an annotation background, not a general PDF editor. Xournal++ Mobile is a separate project and is not part of the desktop application; this record covers the Windows/macOS/Linux desktop product only.

Details, and where each comes from

Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.

Versions covered
Windows · macOS · Linux
Website
xournalpp.github.io
Requires an account
No
Watermark on the free tier
Not verified
Maximum file size
Not verified
Batch processing
No
Data residency
Self-hosted
Open source
Yes
Self-hostable
Not verified
Licence
GPL-2.0.

GPL-2.0. The repository LICENSE is the GNU General Public License version 2, and GitHub metadata identifies GPL-2.0; the AUTHORS file credits the Xournal++ developer team and community contributors.

This is a community project, not an operating company. No paid tier, account or hosted service is offered for the desktop application.

Redaction
No redaction feature
Programmatic access
Command line
Last availability check
Responded in 231 ms 21 October 2026

Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.

What the redaction verdict rests on

From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.

What that does not establish

The vendor’s own site was read on 22 September 2026 and contains no mention of redaction, sanitisation, blackout or whiteout. Absence from a vendor’s own material is not proof that a feature does not exist - it may be undocumented, or on a page the reading did not reach - but for a NEGATIVE claim it is the strongest evidence available, and it is weaker than a positive quote.

Recorded as such rather than presented as certainty.

https://xournalpp.github.io/

What the vendor says

Claims are labelled rather than repeated as fact. Where we have checked something ourselves, it says so and shows when. Checked means we read the vendor's own page and it says what we recorded - not that we tested the behaviour, unless the note says we did.

  • “an open-source and cross-platform note-taking software that is fast, flexible, and functional”

    Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026

    Confirmed verbatim: the sentence is the site's opening description, unaltered, and it continues by describing Xournal++ as "a modern rewrite and a more feature-rich version of the wonderful Xournal program", which is where its relationship to the earlier project is stated. "Fast, flexible and functional" is the vendor's own characterisation rather than a measured property; the checkable parts are "open-source" and "cross-platform", both established by the project's own pages.

    Recorded as the project's description; no control was run.

    Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte

    Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
    Read
    https://xournalpp.github.io/
    From
    the text a browser renders
    SHA-256
    ca0261af79fc7d536a7db7623bf39bb49a36b97ea6db5adf2b8426d58d390826

    How we checked

    Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://xournalpp.github.io/ re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-xournalpp-github-io-fd428708.txt.

    What this hash proves, and what it does not

  • “Xournal++ is a note-taking tool focused on handwritten notes and digital tablet/stylus input.”

    Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026

    Confirmed verbatim: the sentence appears unaltered in the guide's tour, and the sentences after it explain the storage model - notes are kept in files called Journals in the project's own `.xopp` format, which is a fact a reader choosing a note-taking tool should have and the claim does not imply. A proprietary format is the thing that decides whether notes are portable, and it is stated in a guide page rather than on the homepage.

    This is the second Xournal++ claim in the index, after the open-source strapline, and the two come from different pages of the same site.

    Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte

    Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
    Read
    https://xournalpp.github.io/guide/whirlwind-tour/
    From
    the text a browser renders
    SHA-256
    8335b653db733546dff4905c54b086ae9b70fb11a8f210a3d03687447f85b7b7

    How we checked

    Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://xournalpp.github.io/guide/whirlwind-tour/ re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-xournalpp-github-io-guide-whirlwind-tour-c9990e38.txt.

    What this hash proves, and what it does not

Each claim is quoted from the vendor's own pages. This section describes what we have and have not checked - it is not a judgement about anyone.

Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.

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Related reading

How this record was put together

Editorial review.
No editor has signed this record off. That is not the same as nothing having been checked, and the lines below say what has.
Source reading.
2 claims taken from the vendor's own pages, read between 22 September 2026 and 22 September 2026.
Website availability.
The vendor's site was last checked on 21 October 2026.
Behaviour testing.
We ran this ourselves. The file handling was watched directly.

Sources: https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp releases (v1.3.8, 26 September 2026), README, CHANGELOG, LICENSE and AUTHORS; https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp/wiki/User-Manual; https://xournalpp.github.io/guide/pdfs/ (PDF background, attach mode, navigation, text search, export caveats); current src/core/control/XournalMain.cpp CLI export options; read 2026-10-16.