How to make digital stickers for goodnotes

Digital planners offer so many possibilities and one of my favorites is using digital stickers to decorate and personalize my planners.

At first, adding stickers may seem difficult, but once you understand the concept it is absolutely simple and fun. I would even say it can be addictive for some, as it allows you to unleash your creativity.

How to import and use digital stickers with a digital planner

The magic of digital stickers (as opposed to physical stickers) is that you can reuse them over and over! No need to be afraid to use your favorite sticker and then regret it. You can re-use your digital stickers every time you use a new digital planner or even on every page if you like.

What are digital stickers?

First of all, if you are new to digital planning you may need to understand the concept. Like physical stickers for paper planners, digital stickers are used to decorate and personalize planners.

A digital sticker is simply a PNG image with a transparent background. When you import an image with a transparent background on your digital planner, you get the same effect as a traditional sticker on a paper agenda.

Importing individual PNG stickers

Before you start using digital stickers with your digital planner, you need to understand how to import them into the note taking application. Importing individual PNG files can be quite similar in different apps, you can either drag and drop or copy and paste.

I’ll show you step by step with the GoodNotes app that’s the one I use on a daily basis. I explain the 3 methods below, the 3rd one is exclusive to GoodNotes 5 application.

Drag and drop

The first method to import individual digital or PNG stickers into GoodNotes 5 is “drag and drop”.

Important detail: this method is available only if you have installed IOS 11 on your iPad.

IMPORTING WITH THE “DRAG AND DROP” METHOD

• Open GoodNotes on the desired page.
• Open the “Files” app in “Slip View” (split view) with the GoodNotes app.
• Locate the folder that contains your PNG files.
• Long press on the desired image and drag it to your GoodNotes page.
• Move or change the size of the image.

Copy and paste

Alternatively, you can copy and paste individual PNG files from the source directly into your planner.

IMPORT WITH THE “COPY AND PASTE” METHOD:

• Open the “Files” app on your iPad and locate your PNG files.
• Hold down the desired sticker and select the “copy” option.
• Then open GoodNotes and navigate to the page you want to place your sticker.
• Press and hold anywhere on that page and select the “paste” option from the pop-up menu.
• Move or change the size of the image.

Good to know: With these methods, you import your stickers with the “Photos” tool located next to the “Items” tool on the edit bar. However, I recommend using primarily the “Elements” function, the third method I explain below.

If you have imported your stickers using the first two methods and then want to turn them into elements:

• Click on the “Photo” tool
• Select the image
• Press a second time, a pop-up menu appears.
• Select “add an item”.
• A window with your collections appears. Choose an existing collection or create a new one.

TIP:

If you have made a design that you would like to have as your own sticker, use the same method above. First, circle your design with the lasso tool, press to see the context menu and select “add item”.

Follow the steps and you will have created an item to use and easily access elsewhere in your notes.

The “Items” feature on GoodNotes 5

GoodNotes recently added a new feature on the main bar to help easily add digital stickers. This is the best way to do it, as you create your own library of organized and easily accessible images in your app.

Some stickers are already available with the app, so this already gives you an idea of how digital stickers work. The great thing is that you can create your own collections. Creating sticker collections allows you to always have material to personalize and decorate your GoodNotes documents.

HOW TO CREATE DIGITAL STICKER COLLECTIONS:

• Double tap the “Items” star icon to open the collection box.
• Then select the plus (+) option, a button located at the bottom right of the collection box.
• A “New Collection” window will appear.
• Give a title to the new collection you are creating.
• Add items (PNG images) from your photo albums or folders.
• To add images stored in your “Photos” application, press the “Add from Photos” option.
• To add images stored in your folders, press the “Import from…” option.
• Once you are done, press the “Create” button on the top right.
• Your new collection will now be available in the “stickers” tab.

You can create as many collections as you like to organize all your digital stickers into various categories.

Creating different collections helps you stay organized and easily find your images without wasting time.

TIP:

Often you have many digital stickers to import. For example, when you buy the Everyday Stickers, this is a collection that has over 800 images.

To be able to import multiple PNG images at the same time and save yourself time, you have two ways to do it:

Save PNG images from your folders to your iPad photo app. So, when you choose the “Add Photos” option you will be able to select several images together to compose your collection.

If you have an Apple computer, I highly recommend that you install the GoodNotes application. Once you have the app on your computer, you have access to all of your synchronized calendars and notebooks.

The bonus is that it’s even faster to add your digital stickers. Just follow steps 1-4. Then, to add the images, you select them from the folder on your computer and drag them into the box in the collection you are creating.

EDIT AN EXISTING COLLECTION

To edit an existing collection, you need to open the collection and then click on the title of the collection and the “Edit Collection” box appears. You can move the images, add more images or delete them.

How to use digital stickers

Once you have all your collections created, you can use your digital stickers. You have many options for digital stickers, from labels to themed designs. The idea here is to add color, information, labels to organize, and more.

You can unleash your creativity. Adding digital stickers is as fun as it is productive. You can use notepad-style digital stickers to mark something important to remember on your calendar, just as you would on paper.

Resize, rotate and move digital stickers

Select the one you want to place in your agenda from the collection, it appears on the page.

With the selection you have the option to move it, rotate it or even resize it.

To move the items, place your finger or stylus on the image and move.

On the bottom right corner, you have an icon with arrows. This indicates that if you press it and move the stylus (or finger) you will rotate or resize it.

• Rotate: make circular movements.
• Resize: move in a diagonal direction.
• Once you have found the location, size and position, click elsewhere on the page to remove the selection.

IMPORTANT DETAIL:

If you imported your images with the first two methods that link to the “Photo” function, you also have the option to crop the image. You will see arrows at the top and on the right side of the image.

You can click once on the selection and in the contextual menu you will find the option “Crop”. With this option you can transform the dimensions of the image. This is the function for customizing JPG images.

This function is less relevant when you have individual PNG files, as these are files with a transparent background. That said, these images are already ready to be embedded without the need to crop them. You can simply resize them with the little arrows on the bottom right corner.

Planner’s Daily Stickers

Are you ready to use digital stickers? If you want to get started customizing your digital planners and notebooks with digital stickers, we have a great option for you!

Everyday Digital Stickers is a collection of  PNG’s images to help you plan and organize your daily life, whether you use a planner or a digital notebook.