Digital paper for GoodNotes, Notability, reMarkable and Kindle Scribe

Paper made for screens

Handwritten notes on a tablet still need paper underneath them. Note-taking apps include a few templates, but if you want a particular dot spacing, a narrow college ruling, a graph grid for maths or a planner layout, the easiest route is to make your own and import it.

Most free paper is made for printing on Letter or A4, which leaves grey bands on a tablet screen. These templates are generated at the aspect ratio of common tablets so the page fills the display edge to edge. Choose a paper type, a tablet size and light or dark mode, then download a multi-page PDF notebook or a PNG background.

A4 and Letter also work in apps that show the whole page, and every template prints correctly on paper if you want matching paper and digital notebooks.

Digital graph paper for GoodNotes and Notability

Square grids make handwritten maths neat: digits line up in columns, fractions stay level, and graphs and diagrams can be drawn to scale. On a tablet a grid also helps keep handwriting level and diagrams square as you zoom in and out, and you get unlimited pages and an eraser that never wears a hole.

Both the GoodNotes graph paper and the Notability graph paper use 5 mm squares with a bold line every 5 squares, the metric grid most students know from school. The bold centimetres make the page read like a ruler, so squares are quick to count and points quick to plot without zooming out; turn the bold lines off if you prefer an even grid. On the Tablet 3:4 page the grid is 26 × 36 squares. Good uses:

• Column arithmetic and algebra, with one digit per square.
• Graphs and long division; for graphing equations, turn on X/Y axes through the centre, or use a coordinate plane with numbered axes.
• Physics diagrams and free-body sketches, tables and timetables.
• Pixel art and cross-stitch sketches before charting them properly.

For an engineering-style grid, set the spacing to 5.08 mm for 1/5 inch squares with bold inches. Every other square size, from 1 mm to 1 inch, is on the graph paper page and can be exported at a tablet size.

Digital dot grid for GoodNotes and reMarkable

Dot grid is the favourite paper of bullet journalers because it guides without getting in the way: dots line up headings, boxes and trackers, then disappear behind handwriting. On a tablet the same grid works for daily logs, sketch notes, wireframes and meeting notes.

The GoodNotes dot grid uses 5 mm spacing with 0.5 mm dots for an iPad screen; choose 7 mm spacing if the dots feel tight on a small screen. The reMarkable dot grid is tuned for e-ink, whose greyscale screens have lower contrast than ink on paper: a 6 mm grid with 0.7 mm dots in a darker grey keeps the guides clear in every lighting. For small handwriting on e-ink, try 5 mm spacing with 0.6 mm dots. The same reMarkable PDF works on most other e-ink note tablets, whose screens are close to 3:4.

Digital lined paper for GoodNotes and Kindle Scribe

The GoodNotes lined paper uses college ruling, 7.1 mm apart, which suits most Apple Pencil handwriting once the page is zoomed to fit the width: 23 lines on Tablet 3:4 and 27 on Tablet 7:10, with space at the top for a title. If your writing is large, or you like to zoom out and see the whole page, choose wide ruling (8.7 mm). A margin line 25 mm from the left is useful for school notes, where question numbers and dates sit in the margin.

The Kindle Scribe lined paper starts from wide ruling, because writing on e-ink with a stylus tends to be larger than pen on paper, and draws the lines in a darker grey that e-ink shows clearly. Choose 7.1 mm if you write small. A plain lined notebook is the most versatile document to keep on an e-ink reader: meeting notes, journalling, lists and drafts. Add a title and date in the header for a journal, make separate PDFs for different subjects, and turn on page numbers for long notebooks. For study notes with a cue column and summary box, see digital Cornell notes.

How to import into each app

Every template downloads as a standard PDF or PNG, so any app that imports PDFs or images can use it.

Importing into GoodNotes

1. Set the number of pages in the advanced options and download the PDF.
2. Save it to the Files app, then open it with GoodNotes from the share menu. It becomes a new notebook.
3. For a reusable page, download a 264 dpi PNG instead and import it as a custom template from GoodNotes’ template settings. Any notebook can then add pages in that style.

You can use both: start a notebook from the PDF and add extra pages from the template. Add page numbers in the advanced options if you want to build an index. With the shape tool, lines snap neatly onto a grid for graphs and diagrams.

Importing into Notability

Download the PDF and open it in Notability from the Files app or the share menu to start a note on the template. For a reusable background, import the PNG as a page background.

Importing into reMarkable

Upload the PDF with the reMarkable desktop or mobile app, or drag it into the app; it opens as a document you can write on. Adding your own templates to the device’s built-in template list depends on the model and software version, so the simplest route that always works is a PDF notebook with as many pages as you need, up to 200. Because each page is the same vector grid, a 100-page notebook is still a small file.

Importing into Kindle Scribe

Send the PDF with Amazon’s Send to Kindle service, from the app, the website or by email. PDFs sent this way can be written on with the pen on the Kindle Scribe.

Noteshelf, Samsung Notes, OneNote and others

The same files work in Noteshelf, Samsung Notes, OneNote and other apps that import PDF or images. Use the PDF for a notebook and the PNG wherever the app accepts an image as a page background.

PDF notebook or PNG template

A PDF notebook is a fixed set of pages, up to 200, good for a subject notebook or a journal. A PNG template at 264 dpi can be added to an app’s template list and used for any new page in any notebook. Keep a copy of the permalink so you can make the same template again later with different spacing.

Light, dark or e-ink

A white page looks like paper and suits dark pen colours. Dark mode, with a near-black background and soft grey lines, is calmer in low light and makes pastel and neon pens and highlighters glow; turn on Dark mode for tablets in the advanced options, or start from dark mode paper in lined, dot grid or graph ruling. E-ink tablets such as the reMarkable and Kindle Scribe show grey well, so keep light mode and slightly darker lines on those, as the e-ink templates above already do.

Spacing matters more on a screen than on paper, because you can zoom. Many people prefer slightly wider spacing than on paper, such as 6 or 7 mm dots or wide ruling, especially on smaller tablets.

More digital templates

Planners and other layouts are sized for tablets too: the digital weekly planner, daily planner, habit tracker, 2027 calendar, staff paper and storyboard. Our guide to using printable paper in note apps compares page shapes with real tablet screens in more detail.