Microsoft Journal

But first, a quick nod to our rich ink history

Microsoft has been pioneering ink solutions for decades – including the first ink-focused application, Journal, back on Tablet PC in 2002. Since then, we’ve advanced ink capabilities across many apps. Whiteboard helps you collaborate in real-time together. OneNote helps you ink and edit text together on a rich canvas. PowerPoint helps you annotate your presentation or use ink to tell your story with Ink Replay. Many of our Windows OEM partners, including Surface, provide some of the best writing experiences in multiple form factors to suit your writing needs.

This time, it’s personal

Today we are releasing a reimagined Journal. Developed by Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group, this new version explores new paradigms centered around a personal, ink-first experience. We focused on this to help unlock new capabilities not possible with physical paper or seen in today in most inking applications. Our goal: explore how we can push new AI and new interaction techniques to make inking more delightful and accessible. To push this technology to stay out of your way while you write, while enabling new capabilities to make using digital ink invaluable.

Key Features

  • An ink-first experience for those who write with a digital pen
  • A page-based canvas for easy scrolling, optimized for tablet and 2-in-1 devices
  • New intuitive Ink Gestures to erase and select ink that don’t require mode switches
  • Use touch to scroll pages, or tap ink to select words, sentences, and more
  • Drag and drop selected content between pages, or to your favorite applications
  • Microsoft 365 integration to access your Calendar for faster meeting notes*
  • Import and markup PDF and images
  • Search and recall using keywords or filter

Microsoft Journal

Microsoft Journal is an app for Windows that invites people who love to journal to pick up their digital pen, express themselves quickly, and evolve their ideas