Cardsheet

For iPad and Apple Pencil · iPadOS 17 or later

Your lecture PDF, now flashcards and a quiz.

Open a PDF on the left. Cardsheet turns it into flashcards and a quiz on the right. Write each answer with Apple Pencil and it is graded on the spot, with a link back to the page it came from.

Coming soon to the App Store See what’s free

First 10 cards + 5 questions free on every PDF. No account, no ads.

Cardsheet on iPad reviewing Cell Biology · Lecture 3: the lecture page on the left with the source sentence highlighted; on the right a fill-in card answered “cristae” in handwriting with a green Correct stamp

How it works

Three steps, all on your iPad.

  1. 1Bring your PDF

    Your lecture PDF, now a deck

    Import from Files, share from another app, or drag a PDF in Split View. Cardsheet reads the whole file and lays out cards right next to the page they came from. Your original file is never changed.

    • Every card shows its source page; tap it to jump there
    • Handouts, textbook chapters, slides and scanned pages
    • Pages too hard to read are listed and never count toward your free cards
    Split view: Cell Biology · Lecture 3 open on the left, and on the right a column of index cards (Organelle, Cytoplasm, Plasma membrane…) each tagged with its page, under “10 free · 86 found”

  2. 2Circle what matters

    Circle a passage. Make a card.

    Draw a loop around a passage with Apple Pencil and it becomes a card at the top of the list, linked to its page. Strike a card through to hide it. Every step can be undone.

    • 3 circle-to-cards free on every PDF, unlimited with Pro
    • The way to pick your own cards when slides hold few
    • Fingers scroll and zoom; only the Pencil draws
    A circled sentence about mitochondria on page 12 has just become the Mitochondria card at the top of the list, with a “Card added · Undo” message

  3. 3Write the answer

    Write it. Get it graded.

    Answer with Apple Pencil, a finger or the keyboard. Cardsheet reads your handwriting on the iPad and grades it correct, close or wrong, and you can overrule any grade with one tap. Missed answers come back in your review and your Mistakes list.

    • Spaced review for every free card
    • Five free quiz questions on every PDF, retry as often as you like
    • Every result links back to the page to check
    Quiz result 4 of 5: four short answers marked correct, one wrong answer “cristea” shown with Show in PDF and I was right, next to a Mistakes list grouped by deck and page

Private by design

Processed on your iPad. Never uploaded to us.

Your notes never leave your iPad unless you turn on encrypted backup to your own iCloud Drive.

  • No account and no sign-in
  • No ads, no analytics, no third-party SDKs
  • App Store privacy label: Data Not Collected
  • Importing, cards, grading and review all work offline
  • Optional encrypted backup goes to your own iCloud Drive (Pro)

Read the Privacy Policy →

Free on every PDF. Pro when you want all of it.

Your free cards, reviews and seals stay free. Pro adds the rest of every PDF.

What is free and what Pro adds

Free

  • Unlimited PDF imports & side-by-side reading
  • 10 cards + 5 quiz questions per PDF
  • Handwritten answers with auto-grading
  • 3 Pencil circle-to-cards per PDF
  • Spaced review for every free card
  • 5 card types + this week's subject pack
  • Mastery seals & study stats

Pro

  • Unlimited cards & questions from every PDF
  • Unlimited Pencil circle-to-cards
  • Exam Mode: timed mock exams across decks
  • All 14 card types (11 on iPads without on-device Apple models)
  • All 8 subject packs
  • Semester poster
  • Printable deck cover & seal card
  • Encrypted iCloud Drive backup & restore
  • Export to Anki (TSV), CSV, printable index cards & mistakes PDF

Cardsheet Pro: three ways to pay

Best value

Lifetime

$29.99

one time

Pay once · every PDF, every semester

$29.99, once. It is not a subscription and it never renews.

Yearly

$19.99

per year

= $1.67/mo

$19.99 per year. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings.

Weekly

$2.99

per week

$2.99 per week. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings.

Prices shown are for the United States, in US dollars. The price shown in the App Store is the one that applies: it is displayed in your region’s currency before you confirm.

The yearly plan starts with a 3-day free trial for eligible new subscribers.

Renewal and cancelling

Yearly and Weekly are subscriptions: each renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period.

Your free cards, reviews, seals and stats stay free forever.

Terms of Use Apple standard EULA Privacy Policy

Real screens from Cardsheet on a 13-inch iPad.

Seals page: bronze, silver and gold mastery seals for each deck, grouped by semester, with Organic Chem · Ch. 4 at silver, 61% mastered
A seal for every deck you learn
Export panel: Anki (TSV), CSV, printable index cards (PDF) and semester poster, with a preview of a page of 2 × 4 index cards on Letter paper
Export to TSV, CSV or printable index cards
The paywall: free and Pro columns side by side, and Lifetime $29.99 selected as Best value above Yearly $19.99 and Weekly $2.99
Pay once, or don’t pay at all

Questions people ask first

Which 10 cards are free on each PDF, and how are they picked?

Cardsheet reads the whole PDF first. The free cards are the first 10 that pass its quality checks in page order, with no more than 4 of one card type so you see a mix, plus the first 5 quiz questions. They are full cards, not blurred previews. The same file always gets the same free cards: importing it again or renaming it does not reset them. Everything else the PDF yielded is shown as a real count, such as “176 more cards found”, and unlocks with Pro. Free cards stay free, with spaced review, for good.

Why did my slides give so few cards?

Slides often hold a title and a few short bullet points rather than the full sentences and definitions that cards are made from. Cardsheet keeps only the cards that hold up against the page, and tells you when a PDF has fewer than 10. Pick the rest yourself: circle any passage with Apple Pencil to turn it into a card. Slides saved with speaker notes, handouts and textbook chapters give many more cards.

Which iPads does Cardsheet run on, and do I need Apple Pencil?

Cardsheet runs on any iPad with iPadOS 17 or later; there is no iPhone version. Every Apple Pencil model works: first generation, second generation, USB-C and Pro. Without a Pencil you can still read, review and take quizzes, writing answers with a finger or typing them; only circling a passage to make a card needs the Pencil. Landscape works best, and portrait and Split View are supported.

What can I export, and in which formats?

Export is part of Pro. Open a deck, tap Export, choose the deck, your mistakes or selected cards, and pick a format:

  • Anki (TSV) — a text file the Anki desktop app can import.
  • CSV — for spreadsheets.
  • Printable index cards (PDF) — 3 × 5 cards, or 2 × 4 on Letter or A4 paper, with the answer and source page on the back.
  • Mistakes PDF — the questions you missed, with their source pages.
  • Semester poster — your seals and study stats for the semester.

Files are made on the iPad and handed to the share sheet, so you decide where they go.

Does Cardsheet upload my PDFs?

No. Your PDFs are never uploaded to us: reading, card generation, grading and reviews all happen on your iPad. There is no account, no ads, no analytics and no third-party SDKs, and the App Store label says Data Not Collected. Cardsheet only goes online for the App Store and, if you turn backup on, your own iCloud Drive. The full text is in Settings → Privacy Policy.

All questions in Help →

Bring the PDF. Get the deck.

Made for students and exam candidates with an iPad and Apple Pencil: lecture slides, handouts, textbook chapters and long exam-prep notes.

Coming soon to the App Store Read the help

iPad only · iPadOS 17 or later