Paper & Ink Editorial

Note Taking App Design Template

Margin is a note-taking app design with a Paper & Ink Editorial look, built for founders and designers shipping a calm, typography-led writing app.

Use this template

Note taking app notes list screen with pinned and recent entries

Note taking app editor screen with inline checklist and formatting toolbar

Note taking app folders and tags screen with notebooks and tag chips

Explore the screens

Preview the note taking mobile app design, fully editable in Sleek.

SearchScreen 4

Note detail with backlinksScreen 5

SettingsScreen 6

About the Note Taking App

Margin is a note taking app design template built around a "Paper & Ink Editorial" aesthetic: a warm paper off-white canvas, near-black ink for text, soft graphite grey for metadata, and a single saffron accent reserved for highlights, active tags, and the new-note button. There are no cards and no shadows here, just hairline rules and a refined high-contrast serif paired with a clean humanist sans, so every screen reads like a beautifully typeset notebook.

The template ships six connected screens that form a complete note-taking flow: an All Notes home with pinned and recent entries, a borderless Editor with an inline checklist and a saffron-highlighted passage, a Folders & Tags index of notebooks with counts and tag chips, a live Search grouped by notebook with matched terms underlined, a Note detail with linked notes, and a Settings screen for typeface, paper tone, and sync. The signature notebook margin rail runs down the left edge of every note, holding highlights, checkboxes, and backlink dots.

Use it in Sleek and make it yours: restyle the palette, edit any screen with AI by describing the change, and add the flows your product needs. Then export it to code, copy it into Figma, or hand a prompt to an AI agent to build it for real, all far faster than starting from a blank canvas.

Screens included

All Notes

A search bar sits above a pinned note and a hairline-ruled list of recent entries, each showing a serif title, a two-line graphite preview, and a relative date. A saffron pencil button starts a new note.

Editor

A borderless writing surface on bare paper with a left margin rule, inline checkboxes, and a saffron-highlighted passage. A floating formatting toolbar with bold, italic, highlight, list, and link fades in on selection.

Folders & Tags

A tonal index of notebooks like Work, Journal, Reading, and Ideas with note counts, plus a grid of saffron and graphite tag chips below. The organizing hub of the app.

Search

Live results grouped by notebook with All, Titles, Content, and Tags filters, and matched terms underlined in saffron. Quick retrieval across every note.

Note detail with backlinks

A long-form note set in the editorial serif and sans, with margin bullet dots and a "Linked notes" section connecting related entries. Shows how ideas stay threaded together.

Settings

A clean ruled list for primary typeface, text size, paper tone swatches, rule style, and iCloud sync with a last-synced status and a "Sync Now" action.

Key features

Paper & Ink Editorial aesthetic: warm paper, near-black ink, one saffron accent
High-contrast serif titles paired with a humanist sans for body and UI
Hairline-ruled list structure instead of cards or shadows
Signature notebook margin rail for highlights, checkboxes, and backlinks
Borderless editor with a fade-in formatting toolbar
Folders and saffron tag chips for organizing notebooks
Live search grouped by notebook with matched terms underlined
Linked-notes backlinks and adjustable paper tone in settings

Who it's for

Founders validating a note-taking or writing-app MVP

Product designers needing a typography-led note app starting point

Indie developers building a personal knowledge or journaling app

Productivity teams prototyping a notes experience

What you can build

Launch an MVP for a note-taking or journaling product
Mock up screens for an investor or stakeholder pitch
Hand a consistent, editorial UI off to developers
Explore a redesign of an existing notes app

How to use this template

1
Open the template
Browse the screens and preview the full design to see if it fits your idea.
2
Use this template
Open your own fully editable copy in Sleek with one click.
3
Edit with AI
Restyle the palette, change layouts, and add or remove screens just by describing what you want.
4
Export and ship
Export your design or hand it to developers, and keep building toward launch.

Questions, answered. Everything to know before you start.

How do I build a note taking app from this template?

Click "Use this template" to open it in Sleek as your own editable project, then shape it by describing the changes you want: restyle the palette, edit any screen, and add the flows your product needs. You start from six complete screens instead of a blank canvas, so you reach a working note-taking app design far faster.

What screens are included in this note taking app design template?

Six connected screens: All Notes, Editor, Folders & Tags, Search, Note detail with backlinks, and Settings. Together they cover the core flow of a real note-taking app, from browsing and writing notes to organizing, searching, and linking them.

Can I customize the note-taking app UI?

Yes. Use the template in Sleek and edit any screen by chatting with the AI: change the typeface pairing, swap the saffron accent, adjust the margin rail, and add or remove flows. There's no manual redraw; you describe the change and it's applied.

Is this note taking app design template free to use?

You can open and explore the design for free, then use it in your own Sleek project to build on it. Editing and exporting follow Sleek's standard plans.

Can I export the design to code or Figma?

Yes. Sleek exports your design as code, copies straight into Figma with no plugin, or hands you a ready-made prompt that an AI agent like Claude Code or Cursor can use to build it into a real, working app.

Is this template suitable for a journaling or knowledge-base app?

Absolutely. The editor, folders, search, and linked-notes screens map cleanly onto journaling, personal wikis, or knowledge-base apps. Adjust the notebooks, tags, and content to fit your niche.

Something else? Write to support@sleek.design.