What’s in a note?

Standard Notes allows you the freedom of choice. The freedom to write notes using not one opinionated mega editor that does it all, but specialized software-inside-software for every type of note you might write. Markdown, rich text, spreadsheets, checklists—we have it covered.

Would one super editor be better than a set of editors that each do things slightly differently?

We believe writing is a vibe. It’s an experience. It’s a mood. What works well today may tomorrow be wanting. Why should you feel trapped? Take markdown for example. There are likely a hundred different ways to compose a markdown document. Do you want the syntax to be visible while you type, or do you want it hidden? Do you want the markdown to render in the same view you're typing in, or do you want a split-pane between raw and preview? Do you want a toolbar, or are you a pro who knows all the tricks? There can’t be a single markdown editor to rule them all.

Concretely speaking, there are some technical constraints that make a super editor unideal:

1. It's largely impossible. It would be like trying to combine Excel, Powerpoint, and Word into one app. The experience just wouldn’t be as good.

2. You decrease overall stability. If we built one editor that did everything, from rich text, to spreadsheets, to markdown, tasks, and code rendering, this editor would be eternally restless and bombarded with updates. A fix made to code rendering would somehow break spreadsheet functionality.

3. Building a mega-editor means producing a super proprietary format that you will never be able to escape from. Portability is imperative for us.

Can mobile devices handle the complexity of desktop editing software?

Editors today are biased towards a desktop experience. If mobile power user is your primary use case, we recommend trying out the editors you’re interested in there to see if their mobile performance falls in line with your requirements.

What does the future of editors look like?

More editors. We really want to take this concept to the max. There’s a tremendous amount of utility and productivity we can still unlock for our users. And we can’t wait to show you what we have in store.