You've got an iPad in your bag, a Surface Pro on your desk, and you're still writing your notes on loose-leaf paper? Don't be an animal. It's 2018, and it's high time for you to ditch the paper and embrace the future of note-taking, a future that lets you do so much more with every jot and scribble.

Every now and then, you have to write something longhand for someone else to read: A note, a notice, a birthday card. If you're like the many people we've gotten notes or notices or birthday cards from, it sometimes comes out illegible. We've presented many methods for improving your handwriting, but before you try them, just try slowing the hell down.

Writing with a Blackwing is like swabbing a pad of butter across warm toast. It glides. The Palomino Blackwing 602 is my favourite pencil.

Most of us go days without writing anything by hand, and when we finally need to jot something down, it looks like the writing of a third grader. Writing by hand in the digital age feels almost antiquated, but there are plenty of reasons to maintain the quality of your penmanship, or (gasp) even improve it.

Taking the time to write someone a letter -- without requesting anything or asking for favours -- can actually be a great way of making professional connections. It's a surprising and charming way of putting yourself on the radar, if only to say hello.

Hi Lifehacker, Do you have any suggestions for learning how to write more neatly? As an adult it seems difficult to find tutors or classes that specialise in neatness for handwriting -- there are plenty for children though. Is it just a matter of getting a blank exercise book and writing every day?

With the world's obsession with apps and smartphones, it's easy to forget how a simple handwritten note is sometimes the easiest way to jot down your thoughts. Luckily, you can still get the benefits of a searchable, fully-synced database using handwritten notes and get the best of both worlds.

Typing is certainly a lot more efficient, but discarding handwriting entirely might not be such a great idea. Picking up a pencil and a pad of paper to write out your ideas could aid your thought process and learning ability.

PilotHandwriting is a free web service that turns your handwriting into a font that you can install and use on any computer.

Gesture Search, Google's umpteenth attempt to give you input options other than a tiny virtual keyboard, has made the leap down to Android 1.6, meaning those with non-Droid, non-Nexus phones can give it a go.

Android (2.0 and up): Do you desperately miss the handwriting recognition of Palms and Newtons gone by? Google's created a Gesture Search app that pulls up apps, contacts, bookmarks and other phone data using your finger-point chicken scratch.

If you've got a few minutes, stylish script, and a scanner, FontCapture can turn your handwriting into a font. That keeps all your mad-scientist notes on the computer, yet still gives them that essential lab bench grit.

I've always found handwriting recognition on tablet PCs to be about as effective as throwing bricks at the screen, but Microsoft remains convinced that we're just months away from ditching our keyboards altogether. A new post on the engineering Windows 7 blog goes into exhaustive detail on how Microsoft develops and improves its handwriting models, and makes for interesting reading even if (like me) you remain convinced that the keyboard is king. Recognizing Improvements in Windows 7 Handwriting

YourFonts is a web-based service that turns your handwriting into a TrueType font for free. If you have a printer and scanner, nothing can stand between you and the awesomeness of your own script. We've covered a similar service before, but the handwriting-to-font process at Fontifier costs $US9 per font you create. YourFonts has a software package for making personalised fonts that runs $US49, but the web-based tool is entirely free. The process is straightforward: download the provided PDF template, print it out, and fill in each number and letter blank with your own hand writing. When you're done you upload the template back to YourFonts, preview it to make sure it looks like your own calligraphic gift to the world, and then download it as a monitor-friendly font. Additionally you can use the service without actually printing the PDF out and using a scanner—if you've ever wanted to create your own set of crazy wingdings, you can load up the PDF in an editing application like Adobe Illustrator and fill in the font-grid with anything you wish—hand writing or otherwise.

MyFonts