How to Add Drawings and Hand-Written Notes to Google Keep

While Google Keep is incredibly fast for typing text notes, sometimes you need to quickly map out the floor plan of a room, sketch a wireframe for a website, or write a complex mathematical equation that is difficult to type on a digital keyboard. If you are using a touchscreen device (especially an iPad with an Apple Pencil or an Android tablet with a stylus), Google Keep features a surprisingly robust, vector-based drawing engine that allows you to instantly create freehand sketches and handwritten notes.

How to Create a New Drawing Note

Unlike standard text notes, drawing notes give you a completely blank, infinite digital canvas to work on.

1. Open the Google Keep application on your smartphone or tablet.
2. Look at the bottom toolbar, directly next to the “Take a note…” text box.
3. Tap the Paintbrush icon.

The screen will immediately transition into a blank canvas. If you are using an Apple Pencil or a Samsung S-Pen, you can immediately begin drawing on the screen. If you are using a standard smartphone, you can simply draw using your finger.

Using the Drawing Tools

Google Keep provides three distinct writing instruments, a powerful eraser, and a selection tool, all located at the bottom of the canvas.

• The Pen: A standard, solid-color ink pen. If you double-tap the icon, you can change the ink color and adjust the thickness of the line.
• The Marker: A thicker, slightly transparent tool that mimics a felt-tip marker.
• The Highlighter: A highly transparent, neon tool designed specifically for coloring over text without obscuring it.
• The Eraser: Double-tap this tool to reveal the “Clear Canvas” button, which instantly wipes the entire drawing clean in a single tap.
• The Selection Tool (Dotted Box): This is the most powerful tool in the app. Use this tool to draw a circle around a specific sketch. You can then physically drag that sketch to a different part of the canvas, or shrink it down to make room for more drawings.

Adding Drawings to Existing Text Notes

You are not restricted to creating dedicated drawing files; you can inject a sketch directly into the middle of a massive text document.

1. Open any existing text note or checklist.
2. Tap the Plus (+) icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
3. Select Drawing from the pop-up menu.

This will open the canvas. When you finish your sketch and hit the back button, your hand-drawn image will automatically embed itself directly above your typed text, creating a perfectly integrated multimedia document.