Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?
Section titled “Is it really free?”Yes. Not a single feature is paywalled.
Is it really free? (as in freedom)
Section titled “Is it really free? (as in freedom)”Yes, Darkwrite is licensed under GNU AGPL-3.0. All source code is open, feel free to hack it to your liking :)
How can I contribute?
Section titled “How can I contribute?”See CONTRIBUTING.md
Don’t hesitate to create issues on the repository if you have any questions❤️
How do I migrate from other apps?
Section titled “How do I migrate from other apps?”You can import anything that is HTML or Markdown. Your existing apps likely have these options already, export a Markdown file and import it to Darkwrite.
Dedicated import guides will be added soon.
How do I sync?
Section titled “How do I sync?”There’s no sync yet, unfortunately.
For now you can export a note from one device and import it back to the other. Don’t try to sync with Google Drive or similar as it may corrupt the database.
Sync is on the roadmap, so stay tuned for updates!
Will you add AI buttons?
Section titled “Will you add AI buttons?”I won’t unless the community wants it. Many apps are annoying to use now because of AI features.
If you want to share your opinions, you are encouraged to do so under this issue. If there’s an AI feature that genuinely provides value and doesn’t ruin the app for everyone, it might be added :)
In general I believe features should not beg to be used or distract the user.
Is my data encrypted?
Section titled “Is my data encrypted?”Your notes are stored unencrypted on your device, just like every other document or image. That’s because your notes never leave your device. Darkwrite operates fully offline.
If you want to protect your data against physical theft, a better option might be to encrypt your disk instead. Windows and macOS have been doing this by default for quite some time, and Linux users can turn it on during installation of most distributions.
Do not use Darkwrite or any other notes app to store your passwords. Use an open-source password manager like KeePassXC instead. It will also save you the trouble of memorizing passwords, or worse, using the same password on every website.
Windows thinks this app could be malware.
Section titled “Windows thinks this app could be malware.”I’m running this project with a student budget, and code signing certificates for Windows are really expensive (hundreds of dollars). SmartScreen is flagging the installer because I can’t sign it. This is common in many projects.
Every single line of code we ship to your device is available in our GitHub repository, open for audit by anyone.
Always download your apps from official sources, like our downloads page.
Why do I have to create a workspace?
Section titled “Why do I have to create a workspace?”Darkwrite can’t store your notes without a workspace. You never have to create a 2nd workspace if you don’t want to: keep using the app like that feature doesn’t exist.
Some content is lost when exporting notes
Section titled “Some content is lost when exporting notes”It’s because we can’t reliably embed everything into the supported export formats.
- Darkwrite JSON will lose images, as we can’t store it without encoding binary data.
- HTML exports will encode images as data URLs
- PDF exports are just HTML exports under the hood, but we use “Print to PDF” to generate a PDF
- Markdown export will lose images, linked files, and links to pages
A bundle format for exports is planned, but it’s not our immediate priority.
When are databases coming?
Section titled “When are databases coming?”Very soon! We are currently working on custom properties, and databases will build directly on top of it.
Electron is using too much RAM
Section titled “Electron is using too much RAM”I’m not a huge fan of it either, but it’s the pragmatic solution for now. I’m the only maintainer and it probably saved months to years of work. Cross platform UI is a difficult problem.
Why are updates manual?
Section titled “Why are updates manual?”Auto-update will be added soon.