Kartenwerk keeps sketches, coordinates and scribbled notes in one plain-text library on your own disk. It opens in under a second, it never asks you to log in, and it behaves exactly the same when there is no signal for three days.
Four things, carefully. Everything else was left out on purpose.
Every entry is a Markdown file in a folder you choose. Back it up with whatever you already use; read it in ten years with anything that opens text.
Paste a position, drop a pin, or let the entry take the last one you used. Exports to GPX and GeoJSON without a round trip through a web service.
A pressure-aware pen layer sits next to the note instead of inside a separate app. Photos get thumbnailed locally and stay where you put them.
Full-text search over the whole library, including handwriting you have tagged yourself. No index in the cloud, no waiting for a sync to finish.
Version 0.9.4, released 14 October 2026. Still pre-1.0 — see the FAQ before you trust it with a season of field notes.
Builds are signed with the same key since 0.6. Windows is on the list but honestly not close; the pen layer needs rewriting first. If you want a message when it lands, write to the address below — it is a hand-kept list of about ninety people, not a newsletter.
Short notes, written when something actually changed.
If yours is not here, ask it directly — replies take a day or two.
No, and there will not be one. The library is a folder; point your existing backup or file-sync tool at it. That keeps the app small and keeps your notes out of my hands.
The file format has been stable since 0.8 and I have not broken a library since. But I am one person, so keep a backup you did not make with Kartenwerk. 1.0 happens when the Windows build exists and the handwriting tags stop being clumsy.
Yes. Open the folder; every entry is a Markdown file with a small JSON sidecar for pins and strokes. That is the whole format, and it is documented in the app's help.
No. €24 once, including every 0.x and the eventual 1.0. If a 2.0 ever justifies a new licence I will say so long before asking.
Kartenwerk is made by one person in Frankfurt, mostly in the evenings, because the notebook I wanted did not exist and the surveying app I was given at work wanted an account for everything. It has paid for itself and a decent pair of boots, which is about as much as it needs to do.
Write to post@ger.rasssvet.online with bugs, licence trouble, or a photo of your own field notebook — those are genuinely the best mail I get. No tracking on this site, no analytics, nothing to accept.