Guide to Goodnotes Standard Paper Sizes

With the world shifting toward a paperless future, an increasing number of people have scrapped physical notepads and replaced them with digital notebooks on their tablets. One app that you can get to jot down notes and design beautiful works of art on your iPad is GoodNotes.

The standard paper size in GoodNotes is 6.32 × 8.17 inches with a screen resolution of 455.04 × 588.45 pixels with a 1:1.29 aspect ratio.

That said, what other sizes are available on the GoodNotes app, and what size should you use? I’ll answer these questions and more in the following sections.

GoodNotes Paper Sizes

The GoodNotes app for the iPad comes with several sheet templates to choose from. That way, you can use the app for anything, from jotting down notes at school to doodling and perfecting your artwork.

So, what are the sizes available? The following chart will describe the dimensions, pixel resolution, and aspect ratio for all of the available template sizes in GoodNotes 5.

Custom GoodNotes Templates

If you browse through the app, you’ll come across an option that lets you access preinstalled custom templates and covers. The default custom-made templates include grid paper, dark paper, music paper, all of the custom-made templates from GoodNotes 4, and different all kinds of motifs.

However, if you wish to install your own custom templates, you can download them from sites like paperkit and griddzly. Jeffery Abbott from The Sweet Setup has an informative guide that you can follow to install custom paper templates to GoodNotes 5.

GoodNotes Paper Sizes for Printing

If you are going to use GoodNotes 5 for printing your notes, then you should use a template size that matches the style of paper you use.

In the United States and Canada, the most widely used paper size is letter-size paper, which measures 8.5 × 11 inches. Thankfully, GoodNotes 5 comes with a preinstalled template for letter-size paper, so printing directly onto letter paper should not be an issue.

For the rest of the world that follows the ISO paper size standards, you can use A4 paper, which measures 210 × 297 centimeters. You’ll also find in the GoodNotes Paper Sizes section that GoodnNotes 5 provides templates for A7 through A3 to cover most of the widely used printing sizes.

Why Paper Size Matters

If you plan on keeping your notes within the GoodNotes environment, then you can choose any paper size you’re comfortable with and use it. However, if you want to print your documents from GoodNotes, you will have to pay close attention to the paper size.

The problem has more to do with your printer than the GoodNotes app or your iPad. While printers have become increasingly more intelligent over the years, they do not come with built-in sensors that detect what paper size is in its tray.

So, if your GoodNotes sheets are letter-sized but only have sheets of A4 printing paper, your text could end up in the margins or be printed completely off the page.

GoodNotes File Sizes

One common issue people have with GoodNotes is that the file sizes are unnecessarily large. Some users found that a single notebook consumes as much as 600 MB of space. However, others haven’t had the same complaint as their files are limited to around 10 MB each.

When using GoodNotes, you should be aware of how much space each template uses up and how many pages you have in a single notebook. In addition, embedding images, GIF files, and videos in a GoodNotes notebook can increase the amount of your iPad’s memory it will take up.

Can You Use GoodNotes to Edit Images?

It’s important to note that GoodNotes is primarily a notepad app. Its main task is to allow users to record notes, which are saved onto iCloud for easy access and sharing. In a notebook, you can add and touch up images.

However, in no way is GoodNotes considered an image-editing app like Photoshop or Inkscape. If you wish to modify images or create vectors, you will have to use an appropriate app on your iPad, such as Adobe Lightroom, Pixelmator, and SKRWT.

How Much Does GoodNotes Cost?

All of the pricing details about GoodNotes can be found in the App Store.

However, you should know that GoodNotes is a universal app, meaning that when you purchase it once, it’s yours for life. It does not offer a subscription-based plan, so you can continue to use the version you own after purchase until you’ve deleted it or updated it.

Also, you should know that GoodNotes 5 is no longer available for free for GoodNotes 4 users. In the past, GoodNotes offered a bundle package that let users buy GoodNotes 4 and receive GoodNotes 5. However, the company has since stopped the promotion, so past customers will have to purchase the latest version of GoodNotes if they want to enjoy the most recent updates.

Finally, GoodNotes offers a Family Sharing feature, which lets members of a “family” download and use GoodNotes 5 after a single purchase. You can find out how to make use of the Family Sharing feature here.

Is GoodNotes Worth It?

Will J. Murphy of UXDesign did a pretty comprehensive review of GoodNotes 5 and compared it against Apple Notes and Notability.

If you don’t have time to check out the review, Will says that GoodNotes is the clear winner of the three, but Apple Notes can do things that GoodNotes (and Notability) cannot, including scanning and indexing images and file attachments. While you can scan for attachments in GoodNotes, it doesn’t recognize individual files that are embedded in the notes.