Text-heavy social networks have been focusing on making their platforms more visually friendly, likely taking cues from the intense success of Instagram. Still, words persist, but what if we could somehow combine our desire to express ourselves in copy, but make it look … you know, beautiful? Enter Notegraphy, a new typography app that hopes to creatively enhance your written communications.
How Notegraphy works is simple: It allows users to type as much text as they want and then apply a style template to it. It’s supposed to format any type of text; be it a tweet, a lengthy status update, an inspirational quote, a short story, an essay, a novel – as long as you can type it into the app, it works. Then Notegraphy styles it using the many available templates, and you can share it to your choice of social network.
Notegraphy is the brainchild of HerraizSoto&Co, a Barcelona-based agency. Currently the app has over 25 design collections crafted and shared by a group of carefully chosen international graphic artists, and users can automatically format their text entries according to the template of their choice. Aside from being able to save your beautified notes locally on your iOS device, you can also instantly share them across all your social media platforms, namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. Additionally, you can also send them to your friends via email or instant messaging service WhatsApp.
Much like Instagram, you can create and collate your Notegraphy creations into a customizable gallery by creating an account within the app using either your Facebook, Twitter, or email credentials. Every note you make has corresponding details you can review, such as its page views. You can also browse through other people’s notes if you need to get your creative juices flowing.
There are some limitations to using Notegraphy that depends on which platform you are using. Cross-posting to Instagram seems to only be possible through the mobile app, while the ability to preview your note before publishing as a post that will appear on your social media outlet of choice seems to only be possible through the Web platform. Either way, it’s a pretty simple tool to use: If you’re not satisfied with the outcome, you can easily change the design template.
Here’s what Notegraphy looks like on the desktop:
And here’s what it looks like on the mobile app:
While the app is only available through Apple’s App Store, you can also access your account and use the service through your computer by visiting the Notegraphy site on your browser, making it ideal for longer text formats.
The artfully decorated quote image is a popular social media trope. Pinterest and Tumblr are brimming with them, and even Instagram is home to many. Apps like Over are designed to help you merge the two as well, proving that the pretty-looking text trend is probably more than just a reaction to “image-only” apps like Instagram. But before you go on a dressed up-quote-posting spree, just remember: Most people aren’t using Instagram or Hipstamatic to see words.
Testing this Notegraphy app using one…two of my favorite inspirational quotes. https://t.co/72ETrLr85E
— Jam Kotenko (@MrazGal) November 6, 2013