MarginNote 4: AI Notes·MindMap

MarginNote is the PDF study tool for deep readers. One excerpt is a PDF highlight, a mind map node, and a flashcard — one capture, three places. This is the Card Axis architecture, so you stop ferrying content between a PDF reader, a notes app, and a flashcard tool. A decade of iteration. 188K+ App Store ratings.

【Four Featured Mechanics】

▸ Card Axis — One excerpt, three renders. Document highlight, mind map node, and flashcard are the same card seen from three angles.

▸ Title Link — Old notes auto-surface in new documents. When a familiar concept appears in what you're reading, your past annotation lights up on the page.

▸ Extended Note — Long-press anywhere on a PDF to open writing space. No anchored text required; three display modes (inline / margin / collapsed).

▸ Immersive Mode (4.4) — Three-state toggle: Read / Write / Recall. UI folds away. Recall blurs excerpts with Gaussian blur — tap to reveal only after you've actually recalled.

【AI Capabilities (introduced in 4.2)】

AI book breakdown · AI OCR templates · AI translation · AI Q&A · AI flashcard generation

Our stance is AI as assistant, not replacement — every suggestion can be saved as your own thinking node, never thinking for you.

【Apple Intelligence (iOS 26+)】

Recall Mode hints can run on-device via Apple Intelligence — pick "Apple AI" or "cloud LLM" in Settings. With Apple AI selected, three tiers of help — Neighbor Coordinate · Reasoning Prompt · Key Distinction — are generated by Apple Foundation Models right on your device: no network calls, no AI credits used, your notes never leave your device. Even if you've selected cloud LLM, going offline auto-falls back to Apple Intelligence (provided your device supports it) — so libraries, planes, and exam-day silent rooms never break your hint loop.

【Full Workflow】

Fast OCR · Study Sets (PDF / EPUB / video / audio) · direct read from Zotero / cloud drives / USB · 10 mind map styles · book recomposition · dual-document compare · concept maps · handwriting layers

【FSRS Spaced Repetition】

Built on the open-spaced-repetition project's algorithm (paper accepted by ACM SIGKDD; Anki has used FSRS as its default scheduler since v23.10). Push short-term memory into long-term.

【Built For】

Anyone re-reading a single document until it sticks — med school (USMLE / MCAT) · law school (LSAT / bar exam) · grad prep (GRE / GMAT / CFA) · researchers · language learners (IELTS / TOEFL) · serious readers.

【All Apple Platforms】

iPhone + iPad + Mac under one Apple ID. iCloud syncs Study Sets, notes, and review progress. Native Apple Pencil support on iPad.

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Questions? Email service@marginnote.com

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