Penjo – Pencil Journal, available on Apple Vision Pro, offers a compelling experience for users seeking an enhanced form of digital organization and personal reflection. The app transforms your iPad and iPhone into powerful tools designed to manage both professional tasks and personal moments. Whether you’re a professional, student, journal enthusiast, traveler, or entrepreneur, Penjo aims to bridge the gap between work and personal life, achieving a balanced integration that supports active lifestyles.
One of the standout features of Penjo is its emphasis on an agenda-centric approach. This design enables easy daily, weekly, and monthly planning, putting your schedule at the forefront. The interface is well-thought-out, allowing smooth navigation through various views including day, week, month, and list formats. Users can easily switch between these views to manage their schedules effectively.
Penjo encourages creative freedom with flexible input methods. You can jot down your thoughts using text, images, shapes, or even hand-drawn notes using the Apple Pencil. This makes your entries more personal and unique. Additionally, the seamless integration with Apple Calendar ensures that you are always in the loop with upcoming events and tasks, negating the need to manually update multiple calendars.
One of the strongest aspects of Penjo is its iCloud Sync feature, which allows your notes and plans to be accessible across all your Apple devices—whether you’re on an iPad, iPhone, or Mac, and now even on Vision Pro. This ensures that you can access your information anytime and anywhere, adding a layer of convenience to your planning needs.
Penjo also prioritizes privacy with FaceID and TouchID, ensuring that your journals remain secure. The app also features adaptable page and space control, allowing users to dynamically adjust pages and customize layouts. Whether you want to keep it minimal or go for a detailed layout, Penjo gives you total control over your notetaking experience.
For those who appreciate visual planning, Penjo offers a Drawable Month Canvas. This feature allows you to visualize the month ahead and creatively track habits. Additionally, tools like customizable PDF exports, reminder alerts, quick navigation, copy & paste, and bookmarks make managing your daily life simpler and more efficient.
A recent update introduced Enhanced Map Cards, granting users the ability to add precise location information to their entries. This is particularly useful for travelers and real estate enthusiasts who want to document specific locations in their journals. Widgets for Quick Access have also been added, allowing for faster access to your most recent and favorite journals and habit trackers directly from your home screen.
Looking to the future, Penjo has several upcoming features in development, including handwriting recognition, search and tags, and decorative stickers. These additions aim to further enrich the user experience and provide even more functionality.
Penjo offers both Free and Paid versions. The Free version provides limited access, whereas the Paid version unlocks limitless capabilities, including unlimited journals, day sheets, Apple Calendar integration, iCloud sync, protective journals, and access to new features as they are rolled out. For those who are serious about digital planning and journaling, the Paid version seems like a valuable investment.
Customer reviews for Penjo have been generally positive, highlighting its unique features and integration capabilities. One user praised its ability to sync seamlessly with Google Calendar and incorporate images via drag-and-drop, finding it particularly useful for creating visual reminders and notes. Another user appreciated its focus on handwritten notes and simple, straightforward design. However, some users pointed out areas for improvement, such as the need for handwriting-to-text conversion and better selection tools for written text.
Penjo appears to deliver a robust and flexible platform for digital journaling and planning. The app is relatively young but shows significant promise, making it a worthwhile tool for anyone looking to enhance their organizational habits through a blend of technology and personal creativity.