Mini Notes

Coming Soon

A note from the developer

Hello there, fellow painter!

I'm a hobby painter — probably just like you — and I originally built this app only for myself. After a couple of months it had quietly become part of every painting session: my go-to tool for keeping track of my progress. That's when I decided to share it, because I figured it might be useful for more people than just me.

Have you ever been chatting with a friend about miniature painting and wanted to show off your latest work? You open your phone gallery… and then the struggle begins — digging through endless recent photos of your partner, kids and pets to find that one shot of your mini. A few minutes later you finally find THE photo, but by then your friend has already lost interest.

That's exactly why I made Mini Notes. Your photos and notes live in one place, so next time you'll find them instantly. It also remembers the exact colours you used on each part of a mini, so it doubles as a painting diary.

I'm guessing you also own a small mountain of paints, and that every time you're in a store you wonder whether you actually need that colour — or whether you already have it. That's why I added the Inventory: a simple way to track every paint you own. I even built in some fun features like camera recognition, so you don't have to type in each and every bottle by hand. Paints in your inventory can then be linked to specific notes on a photo, so you'll never lose that perfect mix or blend again.

And like you, I sometimes struggle just to get started — work, family, life… something always pulls me away from the desk. So I added statistics and notifications to keep us motivated: little nudges to sit down, relax and enjoy the hobby, plus a bit of satisfaction when you see how much time you've poured into it.

That's all, folks. I hope you find the app useful. My wish is that it gives you more time at the painting table, helps you impress a friend a little faster, and sparks a few more good conversations with fellow painters at the next workshop.

If you end up enjoying Mini Notes and stick with it for the long haul, you can always leave me a tip — or join me on Patreon or Discord using the links below. Either way — happy painting, and may your pile of painted minis grow ever taller!

— A fellow hobby painter

Mini Notes is a hobby app for miniature painters: organize models by status (Not Started / In Progress / Done), run live timed sessions or log manual ones, and keep a unified timeline of notes and sessions per mini. Photo notes use numbered pins with optional paint swatches from your inventory; a magnifier loupe makes precise placement easy. Scan barcodes against a bundled catalog of ~2,900 paints (Citadel, Vallejo, AK, Army Painter, and more) with offline lookup and online fallback. Export a full painting log as PDF or Markdown with stats, timelines, and pin overlays. Built with SwiftUI; data stays on device.

ios swift hobby

Changelog

Version 1.0

v0.1 2026

Mini tracker with statuses, live and manual sessions, swipeable hero galleries, and per-mini “used colours” views. Photo notes with hidden-by-default pins, inventory paints on notes, and a fullscreen editor (reword, reposition, delete, add) everywhere photos appear. Inventory with fill level, favourites, manufacturer filters, and VisionKit barcode scanning plus ~2,900-paint offline catalog. Live-session “Add Photo Now,” prefilled stop-session review, per-mini paint-filter memory, and session delete. Profile with painter stats and paint-usage drill-down. Settings for theme, default session length, pin visibility, about/changelog. PDF and Markdown export with timelines, pin maps, and paint thumbnails.