Client sites in WordPress, Node and Express apps, static pages, scenes in Blender, tracks in Ableton Live: that is my actual working week, and every one of those projects collects the same thing: notes about what to fix and what to ask. Every surface Red Pen runs on exists because I hit that problem in that exact spot, in my own work, and got tired of it.
I like zettelkasten-style systems, but any note system that lives outside the software adds a layer of abstraction and distraction to the note-taking itself. You leave the DAW or the viewport to go write the note, and by the time you get back you have dropped the thread. Red Pen files the note inside the tool where the work is happening, and the gathering-up happens afterward.
The established tools I tried either fell short or wanted a subscription for me to navigate my own work. And the notes themselves (my punch lists, my client feedback, my half-formed ideas) would sit on somebody else's servers, used for who knows what by the company I was paying to hold them.
So Red Pen works the other way around. The same note model on every surface, stored in plain files and databases on my machine, aggregated by a board that runs on localhost. You never make an account, and nothing calls out. Every surface is free in full, and if Red Pen saves you a subscription or a headache, you can back the next release.
Lincoln Tracy, Tracy Digital Media LLC