Goodnotes has a lot of awesome covers and papers (collectively called templates for the purposes of this guide) that you can use for different kinds of notes. What’s more, our new Dynamic Templates feature offers a new way to customize the built-in templates in terms of size and color. And if you need something more specific or personal, don’t worry, you can add your own too.

Add custom templates to a group

1. Open Goodnotes Menu.

   • How?

2. Choose Manage Notebook Templates.

3. Choose the template type to be added:

   • To add a cover, make sure “Cover” is enabled, then tap the COVER thumbnail:

     

   • To add a paper, tap the PAPER thumbnail.

4. Narrow down the templates you’re interested in:

   1. To show template groups in a specific size and orientation, tap Size, choose a size from the list, and then the orientation at the top. You can choose Custom to define a new size:

      

   2. To narrow down template groups further to a specific color, tap Color, then choose a color.

      • Here you can also customize the currently selected template with Customize Template.

5. You will see several templates listed in groups in the lower section. To add your templates to a specific group, scroll to the end of the list under that group and tap Import:

   

   <aside> 💡 You can create your own group by tapping Edit in the top-right corner of the template section, choose + Create new group at the very bottom:

   

   

   </aside>

6. Choose an import method:

   • To import files as templates, tap From Files, then select one or more files and tap Open.

     <aside> 💡 For best results, add a PDF instead of an image. For example, add an A3-sized PDF instead of an image having the same dimensions in pixels of the A3 size.

     </aside>

     <aside> ℹ️ If you add a multi-page PDF as a template, only its first page is added. If you want to use the PDF as a template document (e.g. a multi-page contract), import it to your library instead and duplicate it.

     </aside>

   • To import a photo as a template, tap From Photos, then tap a photo.

Edit templates and template groups

1. Choose the template type to be edited:
   • To edit a cover, make sure “Cover” is enabled, then tap the COVER thumbnail:
   • To edit a paper, tap the PAPER thumbnail.
2. You will see several templates listed in groups in the lower section. Tap Edit in the upper right.
3. Do any of the following:
   • To rename a template or template group, tap the Pencil icon next to the name.
   • To reorder a template group, move it up/down by dragging the handle to the right.
   • To delete one or more templates, select the template(s) and tap Delete in the upper right.
   • To create a new template group, tap + Create new group at the very bottom.

<aside> ⚠️ Once deleted, custom templates can’t be restored; you’ll need to add them back. Built-in templates can be restored from Goodnotes Settings. See Troubleshooting.

</aside>

Create a template from an existing page

To use the page you're working on as a custom template: