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Built on Apple’s newest technologies

Penjo is a handwritten journal and planner for Apple Pencil. It is built on the frameworks Apple ships with iPadOS, iOS and visionOS, and it adopts new ones early. This page lists what Penjo uses and what that gives you.

Apple features Penjo in the App Store’s “Make the Most of Apple Pencil” collection, in over 170 countries. For the iPadOS 27 launch in September 2026, Penjo was also in the Today story “See What’s New in iPadOS 27” and the collection “Read Between the Strokes With Apple Pencil”.

Penjo on iPad with several custom tool pickers fanned out in front of the page

PencilKit

The Apple Pencil tool picker, made yours

Penjo draws with Apple’s own PencilKit tool picker, the one you know from Notes. Most apps either use it as it comes or replace it with a toolbar of their own. Penjo keeps the system picker and lets you change what is in it.

Add the pens you use, give each one a color, width and opacity, duplicate a pen for a second color, reorder them, and switch between the default picker and your own set with one tap. Every PencilKit ink is available, including the reed pen introduced with iPadOS 26. Your set is saved on the device.

As far as we know, no other journal app offers a customizable system tool picker. Customization requires iPadOS 18 or iOS 18.

Journaling Suggestions

Apple’s Journaling Suggestions on the day page

Journaling Suggestions is the framework behind Apple’s Journal app. Penjo adopts it: on iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later, the suggestions button on a day page shows the moments Apple has gathered for you: photos and Live Photos, places you visited, workouts, and reflection prompts. Pick one and Penjo places it on the page, ready to write around.

The suggestions are assembled on your device by Apple’s framework. Penjo receives only the items you choose to add, nothing else.

Included in the free plan. Not available on Apple Vision Pro or Mac, where Apple does not offer the framework.

Image Playground open over a Penjo day page, generating a gift box image from a sketch

Image Playground

Image Playground, inside the journal

On devices with Apple Intelligence, Penjo opens Apple’s Image Playground from the image menu. Start from a description, a photo, or a drawing selected on your page, and the result lands in your entry as an image you can move, resize, clip into a shape or frame like a photo.

Generation runs through Apple’s system feature, not a Penjo server. Available on supported devices and regions.

A person wearing Apple Vision Pro with Penjo journal windows reflected in the glass

visionOS

A native app for Apple Vision Pro

Penjo for Apple Vision Pro is a native visionOS app, not an iPad app running in compatibility mode. Journals open as windows in your space, with the same day pages, calendar events and search as on iPad.

iCloud sync keeps the devices together: an entry written on iPad is on Vision Pro the next time you put it on.

The rest of the stack

Less visible, and the reason the app feels like it belongs on the device.

  • PencilKit canvas

    Every page is a PencilKit canvas, so strokes look and feel like Notes. Text boxes accept Scribble, and the lasso tool selects handwriting.

  • Handwriting recognition with native Apple tools

    Handwriting is recognized on the device with Apple’s own recognition, in the language you set for each journal (a second language is optional) or detected automatically. That is what makes search and Copy as Text work, offline.

  • EventKit

    Apple Calendar events and Reminders appear on the day page through EventKit. Google and Exchange calendars come along because they are already in Apple Calendar. Part of Penjo Unlimited.

  • CloudKit

    Sync runs on CloudKit in your private iCloud database. There is no Penjo server and no Penjo account. Part of Penjo Unlimited.

  • WidgetKit and App Intents

    Four configurable Home Screen widgets. The journal is chosen in the widget itself, through App Intents, so two widgets can show two journals side by side.

  • Local Authentication

    Protected journals use Face ID and Touch ID through Apple’s Local Authentication framework. Part of Penjo Unlimited.

  • Quick Look

    .penjo backup files show a thumbnail of their first page in the Files app, through a Quick Look extension.

  • MapKit

    Map cards are MapKit snapshots you pin on a page and write around.

  • PDFKit

    Export renders a day, a range or a whole journal to PDF with PDFKit.

Try it on your own pages

The free plan includes the tool picker, Journaling Suggestions, Image Playground, handwriting search and 3 journals with 14 daily entries each.

Try Penjo Free

Press and App Store editors: the contact form reaches the developer directly. Screenshots on request.