A small app for your everyday thoughts

A little notepad.
Room for everything.

A native Mac notepad for quick thoughts, text files, and everything
you’re reading. Open a tab and make yourself at home.

Download for macOS View source

brew install --cask manfad/nota/nota

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://nota-app.xyz/install.sh | sh

For macOS 14 and later· No account needed

Nota with a Markdown file open beside its preview, showing a rendered table and two Mermaid diagrams.

Small app. Thoughtful details.

A little more than a notepad.

It starts as a notepad.

Open Nota and a fresh Untitled tab is waiting. Line numbers run down the left, and the status bar counts your words as you type.

An Untitled tab in Nota with “This is Nota App” typed on the first line. — There’s nothing to set up before you start typing.

.showcase-shell { display: none; }

Notes

Open Nota and a fresh Untitled tab is waiting. Line numbers run down the left, and the status bar counts your words as you type.

Markdown

Nota renders your Markdown in a pane beside the editor. Headings, checklists, and tables all show up there. Mermaid diagrams are drawn too, so a flowchart in your notes appears as a flowchart.

HTML

Open an .html file and Nota draws the real page beside the editor. Styles apply, buttons click, and scripts run, the same way they would in a browser.

LaTeX

Open a .tex file and Nota typesets it beside the source. The abstract, the numbered sections, and the numbered equations all appear the way they will in the finished paper.

JSON

A .json file opens with a collapsible tree next to the text. It shows every key with its value, colored by type, and highlights the row you’re on. Fold away the parts you don’t need.

XML

An .xml file opens with the same collapsible tree, and it shows attributes and CDATA text in place. Deeply nested tags unfold one level at a time, so you can go as deep as you need.

CSV

A .csv or .tsv file opens as a sortable table beside the editor. Sort by a column, page through the rows, or export a copy. The file itself stays plain text.

SQL

Nota runs a .sql file into a SQLite database in memory, never the file on disk. Pick a table to browse, or write your own query with the column names suggested as you type. The results export as CSV.

Images

Paste a screenshot or drag a picture into a note and it becomes a small chip in your text. The gallery beside the editor keeps every picture you add, so your writing stays readable and nothing gets lost.

PDF

A PDF opens read-only in its own tab, with a thumbnail of every page in the sidebar. Click a thumbnail to go straight to that page, and the status bar shows which page you’re on.

EPUB

An EPUB opens read-only with its table of contents in the sidebar: parts, chapters, and sections. Click any chapter to go straight to it, and the status bar shows which one you’re on.

Pictures

A PNG, JPEG, GIF, or HEIC opens centered in its own read-only tab. The status bar shows its size in pixels. There’s nothing to click through first.

Bookmarks

Bookmark the tab you’re on and it joins the list in the bookmarks panel. Open the panel later, type a few letters of the name, and go straight back to the file.

Zen mode

Zen mode takes away the tabs, the controls, the line numbers, and the status bar. What’s left is the window, your words, and nothing else.

Text, pages, and pictures

Drop almost anything in.

Nota opens each file in the way that suits it best. Here are the types it knows.

Edit

These open as text you can edit and save.

.txt
.yaml
.toml
.js
.py
.swift
.css
README

Preview

These open read-only, just to be read.

.pdf
.epub
.png
.jpg
.gif
.webp
.heic
.bmp
.rtf

Split

These open with a preview beside the editor.

.md
.html
.tex
.json
.xml
.csv
.tsv
.sql
.svg

Feels like your Mac. Because it is.

Yours to use.
Open to everyone.

Nota is built natively for macOS, so it works the way your other Mac apps do. There’s no account to create and nothing to sign in to. The whole source is on GitHub if you want to look.

Take a look on GitHub

Native to the MacWritten in Swift and AppKit, so it feels like the rest of your Mac.

Open sourceRead the code, suggest an idea, or make it your own.

Ready when you areNothing to sign up for. Open Nota and start typing.

Make room for
your next thought.

It doesn’t have to be a big idea. Just open a tab and write it down.

Download for macOSFor macOS 14 and later

A little notepad.
Room for everything.