jscribble
| License (Code): | GPLv2 |
|---|---|
| License (Text): | CC-BY |
| Tags: | Java, paperless |
Note
After jscribble was working pretty well, I discovered Xournal, which offers a lot more features than this program. On a small screen however, the problem is that Xournal is paper and not screen page oriented. Also, you cannot hide the toolbar which might become a problem if somebody clicks onto it accidentally.
It runs on GNU/Linux very well. There is a Windows Installer, but I have not tried that.
Warning
This project is not under active development any more.
The jscribble logo.
When doing a derivation in math or just organizing my thoughts, I usually just use pen and paper since it seems to be the fastest way to persist my thoughts. Typing on a computer is great for great amounts of text, but making diagrams is not that easy I think.
Since most of the paper that I write is not read after a day or so, I tried to come up with a better way. Text on the computer can be easily deleted if you do not need it any more, but you cannot erase pen from paper too easily.
My idea is that your computer can easily serve as an almost infinite notebook. If you save pictures with the resolution of your screen, you can store millions of pages. And they do not weigh anything. Ideally, you do not need to bring paper to do your math homework, following a lecture or sketch something.
Since you cannot seriously draw with a mouse, you need to have something like a pen tablet or a touch screen to make this work well.
You might say that using a graphics tablet is nothing new. Sure, there is plenty of drawing software out there. But I just did not find one where you cannot click on anything that makes your page disappear and can create a reasonable number of images (i.e. pages) with little effort.
So my software goes full screen on small screens and into a window on large screens. You can set the standard resolution in a configuration file. You can only control it with your keyboard. That way, you can draw freely with your pen without worrying about accidentally clicking something.
jscribble in a window with some Math
If you have filled the whole screen, just press the arrow keys (or space bar or enter) to advance in your virtual sheet. If you are at the end of it, at new page is instantly created. That way, you will never run out of (virtual) paper.
You can organize your notesheets in notebooks that can individually hold as many pages as you like. On startup you can choose the notebook that you want to work in:
the notebook selection window at startup
The notebooks are saved “in the program”, so to speak. You can still get to the individual images, though, as described in the manual.
If you just need paper for scribbling, you can just enter the scribble mode. You can go back and forth in this, but when you close it, it disposes all the sheets.
Project Pages at:
download
You will probably want the regular .jar which will run if you have Java installed on your computer. Just launch the jscribble-X.jar with a double click or with java -jar jscribble-X.jar in the command line.
If you use Debian or Arch Linux, you can use the package.
download the source
Latest release: jscribble_1.7.tar.gz
Other releases: jscribble download folder
You can also download (clone) the git repository from: