[Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Hi!

I would like to share my N900 application to you. It's name is Pen Pen SketchBook , which is designed to be a replacement of the built-in Sketch application on N900. It is a handwriting memo/sketch book for quick note taking / drawing with unlimited size of paper.

Name : PenPen Sketch Book

Description:

PenPen is a handwriting memo/sketch book for quick note taking / drawing with unlimited size of paper. It is designed to be the replacement of the built-in app "Sketch" in N900 , but more focus on quick note taking.

It is vector graphics drawing tool. A single click and drag could erase the whole stroke of drawing. Word removal is much easier than bitmap drawing tool.


Features:
- Vector graphics
-- Unlimited size of sketch area
-- Support to erase stroke by single click and drag. Word removal is easier
- Support auto-saving. No. of clicks are minimized.
- Multiple sketch viewer
- Support auto-orientation
- Export PNG
- Custom image background
- Zooming
- May use preloaded template or any image on the device as background


If you have any problem in using the software or would like to suggest for a feature, please feel free to let me know.

Enjoy it.

Download
http://maemo.org/packages/view/penpen/

If you like PenPen , and think that it have fullfilled the QA requirements. Please vote for it ! So that it will appear in extras.

Source code (GPL v2):
https://launchpad.net/penpen

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

This looks awesome - will try it out today !

Thanks ! :D

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

it should have a "Play All" button, to flip across your pages at a given speed and animate the sketches :P that would be awesome to make your own cartoon on phone

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Looks promising. You should find a way to soften the lines with some kind of antialiasing, for a better look of the sketches. Xournal appears to do something in this direction, or maybe it averages the points to avoid pixelated lines.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

That was my initial thought too... Like the multiple sketch viewer idea, though. I hadn't thought of that in context of a program like this.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Loving this so far.

Wishes - yes, antialiased lines.

Backdrop of notebook / graph lines if possible.

If you're taking donations to take this app further, I'm more than happy to chip in for this.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

looks pretty neat. Have you thought about svg export since it does vector graphics?

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

The colour selector sometimes appears as just a thin column. Repeatedly flipping between the main drawing screen and the colour selector tab allows more of the colour box to render until it's completely visible after three or four taps.

*edit*

It would be nice if the app remembers pen size and colour when closed.

Still, as it is it's eminently usable :D

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Thanks for all of your reply. :)

Let me summarize the current bug report and feature requests

Features that will be in next release

1) Line soften / antialiasing
Yes , I will do it.

2) Remembers pen size and colour when closed.
ok , no problem~

Features that will be in later release

1) Backdrop of notebook / graph lines.

Good idea! I have made similar stuff in other software.

But just want to clarify , do you mean to have graph lines like this one?
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...hp%3Ft%3D67714

2) Export svg
yes, I am also interested with a svg export feature, but I need study about the format first. (e.g How to specific antialiasing in svg?)

3) The colour selector sometimes appears as just a thin column.

hmm... It seems to be the bug of Qt. As its design is quite confusing, I will rewrite a new dialog for it. By the way, there have several kind of color selector in Maemo. Do you like the design of the one used in Sketch?

Anybody may suggest a design they like before I start coding.

4) Set background color

ok , but it won't have a tool bar item, it need to set in menu.

Considering

1) "Play All" button, to flip across your pages at a given speed and animate the sketches

It is interesting, but take longer time to implement in compare with other features. It could make a slide mode like "photos" app , but you could set at given speed. Do anybody else think that it is worth and you would like to play on your N900?



SallyJane,

Great to hear that! But now I don't really need donation to take this app further. Most of the feature requests are that I also want. But I use this application to join the first Maemo Competition. Will be great if you can vote for it when the polling is started :)

Thx!

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

wow, small app... d/ling now thx

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Nice app. great work. my daughter will love this as she like to do free drawing.
A full screen would be nice, if not auto full screen, then probably a button at bottom left to switch (like for xterm).

To much to ask for, but if a black and white drawing can be downloaded to this and we can fill colors to it.

Great app btw.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Just want to clarify. The full screen you mean is to hide the title bar , not include the tool bar , right?

Thx!

I would consider this feature request is similar to the request of "set background color" & "set graph lines". When I implement those features , I may add an option to choose background image from the storage. What you need is to load a black & white image to the phone first, then create a sketch that use the image as background.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

benlau

Link gives error 404 every time.

If you look at the background options available in Maepad, by 'graph' paper I mean the blocked / quad squares Maepad has.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Hi all,

I am glad to announce that PenPen Sketchbook 0.2 is released!

Changes:

* Features
- Supported Line antialiasing
- Remembers pen size(brush type) and colour when closed.

* Bug Fix
- The color selector sometimes appears as just a thin column
QColorDialog is replaced by customized color dialog

Antialias comparison:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2152786/penp...617-225456.png
Old version

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2152786/penp...620-135238.png
New version

The package is now available in extras-testing. Or you may download from the link directly:
http://maemo.org/packages/package_in.../penpen/0.2-1/

Enjoy it.

p.s If you like the software and think that it is fullfilled the QA requirements . Please help to vote on package page , so that it could be available on extras. Thanks!

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

It's looking good ! Remember settings is very useful....just voted it up.

Thanks

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Mmm, it's great. Only one minor hiccup though, switching from the main page to the sketch area resets rotation. You're in portrait and selecting a sketch (or vice versa) returns you to landscape and you have to turn the N900 around all over again.

Fix that and you have my vote for extras admission, though I know rotation implementation in PR1.2 is still sorta buggy. Maybe the Pen Pen sketch area can read the rotation status of the main window when it is launched and set it's own rotation accordingly - or something.

I also vote yes for lines and boxes (and also remembering settings for them for every new sketch). I usually use it as a note taking app, and the lightweight size, speed and simplicity of Pen Pen has already made me ditch Xournal.

With sort options (by date/name or even priority) it would be a killer note taking app, though I'm aware its meant to be a sketch app.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

yes , it is buggy. I have tried to set orientation before the editor launch. It doesn't work. After tried several kind of combination, my phone become strange in orientation detection. The editor is in portrait mode by default while the I hold the phone horizontally! And then I switch back to 0.2-1 release, the problem is still the same. I need to reset the phone in order to restore the behaviour.

It will take more time to study the problem. Hope that I could get solution from Qt community.

ah yes , I also usually use it for note taking ;)

The sort options suggestion is good. What if I make a sort option based on "Creation date"(the one using now) and "Last modified time"?

By the way , any user find that PenPen is a lot less responsive then sketch in drawing?

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

PenPen draws polygonal lines, while Sketch draws curves. No other noticeable difference (in my humble opinion).

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

I find no difference in responsiveness

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

I would love that,it would be awsome! maybe also save it as a .gif orso! so you can play it on the pc! I love to play with that when you have it!

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

The stuck in portrait thing IMHO is a known Maemo bug, I played around with the transitions.ini file and now it doesn't happen anymore (or at least not as frequently).

Nice.

Sorting by creation/modified date with date saperator labels - similar to the N900's default photo program's month/year labels - would also be great.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

can we have some thing like ' grouping ' and ' changing sketch place ' ? I am using penpen as a notes taking and simple mind mapping tool now .

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

@benlau 'play all' button would be so awesome and would make this an app i would use if this was implementet ;) I have Mypaint installed so the sketch thing for me is covered there :)
Good job so far from you... keep it up ;)

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Zooming and Undo would be useful.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Sorry for keeping silent. Recently I am busy on another N900 application , FrontView . (More function should be added , but I gave up finally)

In fact, in my original plan , what I want to implement is a handwriting task list management and a brainstorming tool (not exactly a mindmap , but have similar function) . After a full day of work, I changed the mind , make a sketch book first. As the interface is more simple , and the developed module can be reused later.

Therefore , I prefer to keep the interface of PenPen Sketch Book as simple as possible. Optimized for note taking , and then create another software (e.g PenPen Brainstormer? PenPen Tasks?) for task and mindmap.

well, 3 ppl voted for this feature.. any more?

noted

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Well, animation will be fun, but it drags several other features with it - to be able to duplicate the last note and to edit the lines (deleting and then painting anew will be probably cumbersome). But if you decide to give it a go, you have my vote too.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Then I will be waiting for PenPen Brainstormer then .

Is it possible to add a tiny function of moving "sketches" around to re-arrange the order in current penpen ? I am using penepn for brainstorm also , but it takes me awhile to find the right sketch for right project I am working on , so , re-arrange sketch order can be much helpful if possible .

I can say penpen is the best note taking tool I have been using on a mobile device , which has unlimited space with easier UI .

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

I agree with the preference to keep things as simple as possible.

This app as it is achieves the ideal for a quick memo/scribble app - making a note with it is as fast as reaching for a pen and paper.

I'm definitely in favour of :

Zoom

Full screen mode :-)

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Unlimited canvas is very cool feature. But one function that I still feel too clumsy is panning around the sketch. When making a sketch even clicking the pan mode -icon feels too much - .

What information data does the n900 touchscreen provide? Position, pressure and the press-area size? f it provides the area size, it would be possible to do the pannin like this:
1 small size, propably fingernail or stylys -> draw
2 big size, probably fingertip -> pan

ie. panning with finger, drawing with sharp edge (you really cant draw with finger anyways)

The panning could also be done with fake multitouch: when you are pressing with one finger and then press in other place at the same time, the pressing point is interperated in between. So: if the jump of the pressure point is unrealisticly big, start panning mode.
-> panning with two fingers

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Looks good, downloading now!

EDIT: What are the big differences with this and the original sketch on the N900?

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

They have very little in common. This one is vector based on unlmited canvas and supports multiple notes.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch 0.1 - For quick note taking / painting
 

Should be fine, but will not be available in next release.

The pending features for next release :

Select Random color
Sorting
Background color , image , grid lines

Thx!

I am not sure can it return the pressure of touch , but N900 only use traditional pressure type touch screen , I don't expect too much from the touch screen.

As far as I know, no any fake multitouch sensing skill is really work on pressure type touch screen. There have few thesis talk about it , but they have implementation problem which is not sensitive enough or produce fake detection in real world environment.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Hi, new to the thread and app. The application looks really excellent and have already tested that I can get my jottings over to my assistant for inclusion in more formal docs. Thanks!

I would like to add my vote for zooming.

I have two questions:

1) If you long press the color selection box you get the option to close the tool bar which is great. However, I could not find a way without restarting the application to get the tool bar back. I must be missing something.

2) It seems that there are two ways to scroll the screen; using the arrow keys and selecting the 'drag' icon. Is it the best use of the toold bar space to have all those arrows? Just a thought.

thanks for listening,
Fred

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

It is on my plan already :)

oh! You find a bug of the software. I have fixed in version control. The next release will not have the problem.

There have another people think similarly. In fact, I also agree it is wasting of space. However, an animated view to next section / page of sketch could save your time when you are taking multiple line of note. Switch to another tool and drag the view is less convenient.

So I still think it is worth to keep those buttons unless it have a multitouch screen. But I think it could drop the "left" and "right" button when more tools are needed


@all,

Moreover , I am going to release 0.2-2 within few days(Test to make sure it works). But sorry that I can not implement all the features promised. (At least it will have an options to set background color). I have encountered a bug of Qt. Fix the issue (avoid the bug) take longer than expected....

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Glad I could help:p

Fred

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Hi,

I would like to announce that 0.2-2 is released!

New features:

• Supported to set background color of sketch
• Supported to select color randomly

Misc:

• Slightly improved rendering speed
• Will not show context menu for tool bar

However, I am apologize that not all the promised features in this release are implemented as it take too much time in debugging a Qt bug....

Anyway , here is the list of features I have planned to implement in next release:

• Zooming
• Sorting
• Graph line
• Choose image as background

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Enjoying the option to change font / background colour.

It seems as if the anti-aliasing is worse in this release though - all rounded letters / shapes are looking distinctly 'jagged'.

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

ooooooooooooops!

Sorry for the problem. I have just released 0.2-3 with the fix to this issue. Still waiting its to be imported to extra-devel. I will check again on tomorrow morning(Now it is 01:52 in my country)

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Hi all,

The polling of first N900 coding competition is started! PenPen SketchBook is one of the participator , it belong to the section of "Graphics & Multimedia". If you like PenPen , please support PenPen and vote for it!

Your support is my greatest reward in developing PenPen.

Thanks!

Re: [Announce] PenPen Sketch Book - For quick note taking / painting
 

Few suggestions (not sure if someone has already suggested the same)
1. full screen mode
2. background-color dialog. Maybe add a button as well... was not very obvious to me that I had to click on the box to change the color
3. "Export to file"... Maybe export to ???? (file type)... what is the exported file type?
4. update the page thumbnail with the image on the last "view" for the page... I deleted the contents from the first "view" but I had a drawing on its right but now the thumbnail is "empty/blank".

Great Job!