Anyone who has used Notion to put together lecture notes or a report has probably run into the same problem: the content is done, but the moment you try to export it to PDF, you realize the font, page layout, and document format are barely adjustable. The exported PDF might be readable, but it rarely turns into something you’d actually want to print, submit, or share.
LaTeX and Typst, on the other hand, can produce beautiful, fully-realized typesetting — but for someone who just wants to focus on writing, they still take real time to deal with syntax, packages, and templates.
That’s why I started building AnvilNote.
AnvilNote keeps the intuitive feel of a block-based editor while aiming for document output close to what a dedicated typesetting tool can produce.
Not just notes — a finished document
AnvilNote is a cross-platform writing and note-taking tool built for:
- Long-form notes
- Lecture handouts and worksheets
- Reports and assignments
- Academic documents
- Technical content with formulas, code, or charts
The editing experience is Notion-like — no need to write Typst or LaTeX syntax directly. Once a document is done, you pick a template, font, and layout, then export to PDF or DOCX.
To me, the biggest difference between AnvilNote and a typical note-taking app is that it doesn’t just care about what you write — it also cares about what the final document looks like.
PDF, straight from the editor
AnvilNote’s PDF typesetting is handled by Typst.
You still add headings, paragraphs, images, tables, formulas, and code through an ordinary editor, with no need to touch the underlying markup. On export, AnvilNote converts the content into a full Typst document and renders it to PDF.
That means fonts, heading levels, page margins, footnotes, and figure/table captions are all governed consistently by whichever template is active.
Templates currently come mainly from Typst’s open-source ecosystem, adapted and wired in for direct use inside AnvilNote. Different templates produce very different document styles — a plain handout, an academic report, or a Tufte-style layout with margin notes.