Xournal++
Open-source handwriting app for annotating PDFs with a stylus on desktop.
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
A desktop note-taking application built around stylus and tablet input, storing notes as layered journals. For PDF work it loads the PDF as the background of a journal, then lets you handwrite, highlight, type text, insert LaTeX, images and shapes on top, and export the result as a flattened PDF, PNG or SVG. It also searches the background PDF text, shows its outline, and can append new pages.
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: Annotations live in a separate journal file that stores an absolute path to the PDF unless attach mode is used, and exporting flattens them so they can no longer be edited in the PDF. It also does not preserve PDF-native annotations or forms on export.
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
- Redaction
- No redaction feature
- Programmatic access
- Command line
- Last availability check
- Responded in 87 ms 16 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.
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
- 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.
-
“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
- 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.
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.
Related reading
- Which PDF tools keep your file on your machine — what we count as processing on your own device.
- Open source PDF tools, and what their licences require — what open source does and does not tell you.