Lattics
Lattics · Writing
Lattics is a knowledge base and writing app for Mac and Windows built around a simple idea: your notes and your drafts should live in the same place and talk to each other. It organizes work into projects, articles, and cards, then lets you connect any piece to any other with bi-directional links. On top of that sits a visual graph, a timeline planner, PDF annotation with citation styles, and AI tools that help you translate, rewrite, and proofread as you write. It suits researchers, students, and long-form authors who are tired of juggling a note app, a reference manager, and a word processor.
About Lattics
What Is Lattics
Lattics is a desktop writing environment that treats knowledge as a network rather than a stack of files. It blends note-taking, project planning, and document editing into one academic writing app so you can move from a scattered idea to a finished thesis without exporting anything between tools.
The core structure is three layers: projects hold articles, articles hold cards, and every piece can link to any other. That supports non-linear writing, where you draft ideas out of order and connect them later. It mirrors how a Zettelkasten works, where small notes build into larger arguments over time. A graph view and a timeline show the shape of a project, which helps when you're mapping a novel's plot or tracking a research plan.
The most honest limitation is scope. Lattics runs on Mac and Windows only. That means no mobile or web version to carry your notes around. It stores files locally by default, which is good for privacy but hands you the backup job or a cloud sync setup. And it's built for people who write long, structured work, the kind that spans months and dozens of sources rather than a single afternoon session. If you just want a quick grocery list, it's more app than you need.
Getting Started
- Download Lattics for Mac or Windows from the official site and install it.
- Create a new project to hold everything related to one topic, paper, or book.
- Add articles for your drafts and cards for individual ideas, then link related pieces together.
- Import research files, annotate PDFs, and let Lattics generate citations as you reference them.
- Write in the editor, using the graph and timeline to keep the structure in view, then export when you're done.
Product Information
A quick look at Lattics's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- Graduate students
- Researchers
- Novelists and non-fiction authors
Tasks
- Writing a thesis or research paper
- Building an interconnected knowledge base
- Planning a long writing project
Scenarios
- Working through a literature review where dozens of sources need to be cited in a specific style.
- Drafting a book or report that needs structure planning before you write a single paragraph.
- Keeping personal research notes that should connect to each other instead of sitting in separate folders.
Key features
A Brain-Like Knowledge Base
Lattics organizes content into projects, articles, and cards, and any item can be linked to any other. Those bi-directional links act as trails, so a card you wrote months ago can surface again when you're working on a related argument. It works. This is the Zettelkasten method in app form, where small notes grow into bigger work. It's the feature that sets Lattics apart from a plain notes app.
Visual Graph and Timeline
The graph view comes in three modes: Mind Map for planning, Plot of Story for fiction, and Aerial for a big-picture look at how ideas connect. A separate timeline handles story design, historical research, and project management. Seeing a project laid out this way makes it easier to spot gaps and dead ends before they become rewrites. What does that buy you in practice? Fewer surprises later.
Research-Grade Citations
Lattics handles the tedious parts of academic referencing. You can annotate PDFs, and the app generates citations and bibliographies in specific formats, with support for CSL styles and Zotero. When a paper lives in your knowledge base, you cite it anywhere in your writing rather than hunting for the details again. No more scrambling for a page number.
AI Writing Assistance
Right-click selected text and an AI panel opens with tools for translation, proofreading, rewriting, and creative writing. You can edit the AI's output directly, and version control tracks every change so you can see what you accepted. There's also batch processing. Type @ to pull multiple articles into an AI chat and have them handled together. It's assistance, not autopilot. You still do the thinking, and the tools just speed up the parts that drag, like reformatting a paragraph or translating a source you can read slowly but never quickly.
Immersive Focus Mode
For the actual writing, there's a full-screen focus mode with a typewriter view and keyboard sounds, plus a two-pane editor for comparing or translating two articles side by side. A sequence-reading mode lets you move through project articles in order. It sounds trivial. It isn't. These small touches matter when a writing session runs for hours.
Formulas, Charts, and OCR
Lattics supports LaTeX syntax for long formula derivations and precise chemical structures, and it can recognize formulas, tables, and images through OCR. You can insert professional tables and interactive charts that update in real time as you change the data. That mix of academic notation and visual presentation covers a lot of ground. A lab report and a business summary both fit. It's flexible like that.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Combining notes, project planning, and long-form writing in one app cuts the back-and-forth between separate tools.
- Bi-directional links and graph views support the Zettelkasten method well for building a linked knowledge base.
- Citation tools, PDF annotation, CSL styles, and Zotero support cover academic work end to end.
- Local-first storage keeps your files on your machine, with optional third-party cloud sync.
- AI tools are folded into the writing flow rather than bolted on as a separate chat window.
Cons
- Desktop only (Mac and Windows), so there's no mobile or web app for writing on the go. Sync is yours to set up.
- Local-first storage means you're responsible for backups and setting up sync yourself.
- Its structure and features assume long, complex documents, which can feel like overhead for short or casual notes.
Frequently asked questions
Lattics offers a free version that covers the core knowledge base and writing tools, enough to start building notes and drafts. Paid plans add advanced features, and the exact price depends on the license you pick. Check the official site for current numbers, since they change. Prices move.
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