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Curio 34 Press Kit

Capture More Than Notes

Curio is a freeform notebook for macOS that gathers your notes, research, and documents into a single local project file, with integrated tools for brainstorming, outlining, mind mapping, and task tracking.

Download Press Kit (ZIP) Curio Home Page Mac App Store
Download Curio (Free Trial) Curio 34 Release Notes Curio 34 Docs

28 MB · updated August 19, 2026

What’s in the Kit

Everything on this page, bundled into a single download. All images are unframed, full-resolution captures — crop and scale them as you like.

  • Screenshots — the device-framed hero image, plus six full-resolution, unframed PNG captures of Curio 34 at 2880 × 1800.
  • Curio 34 — feature captures of Kanban boards, the Curio CLI, macOS widgets, table formulas, and more.
  • Brand — the Curio app icon at 512, 256, and 128 pixels, plus the Zengobi logo as PNG and SVG.
  • README.txt — fact sheet, boilerplate, and press contact.

Curio screenshots and app icons may be reproduced in articles, reviews, and roundups about Curio without asking us first. If you need something that isn’t here — such as a review license or if you have any questions — just ask.

Fact Sheet

App
Curio 34
What it is
Curio is a freeform notebook for macOS that gathers your notes, research, and documents into a single local project file, with integrated tools for brainstorming, outlining, mind mapping, and task tracking.
Platform
macOS 15 Sequoia through macOS 27 Golden Gate, on Apple silicon or Intel (universal binary)
Curio 34 release
September 1, 2026
First released
Curio 1.0 shipped in 2004 and has been in continuous development since.
Price
License keys from $79.99 to $119.99 (one-time, includes a year of updates). Mac App Store subscriptions from $5 per month billed yearly. Free 2-week trial; free mode afterward.
Editions
Curio Standard and Curio Professional. Curio Pro sustainers — customers with an active subscription or a license still inside its update year — also get the Curio CLI and MCP server.
Developer
Zengobi, Inc., North Carolina, USA
A one-person company — George Browning, a solo, indie developer building Curio full-time since 2002.
Website
https://www.zengobi.com/curio/
Website download
https://www.zengobi.com/curio/download?v=34
Mac App Store
https://apps.apple.com/app/curio/id1475550603
First launch
Curio starts a 2-week trial with every Professional feature enabled, and opens the bundled Welcome to Curio project on first launch for a guided tour.
Documentation
https://www.zengobi.com/curio/docs/34/
Release notes
https://www.zengobi.com/curio/releasenotes/?v=34
Curio CLI
https://www.zengobi.com/curio/cli/
Documentation · Gallery · Release notes · Download
Videos
https://www.zengobi.com/videos
Press contact
George Browning, Founder, Zengobi, Inc. — george@zengobi.com

About Curio

Copy freely — these blocks are written to be pasted straight into an article.

Short description (one paragraph)

Curio is an intuitive, freeform notebook environment for macOS. Create a project to represent a real-world project, then fill it with everything related to that project — rich text and Markdown notes, images, PDFs, documents, web links, and multimedia — placed anywhere you like on Curio’s freeform idea spaces.

Standard boilerplate (three paragraphs)

Curio is an intuitive, freeform notebook environment for macOS. Create a project to represent a real-world project, then fill it with everything related to that project — rich text and Markdown notes, images, PDFs, documents, web links, and multimedia — placed anywhere you like on Curio’s freeform idea spaces.

Integrated collections such as mind maps, lists, tables, index cards, albums, pinboards, stacks, and Kanban boards organize that material when structure helps, and extensive metadata — tags, dates, priorities, ratings, checkboxes, percent complete, and custom data — makes all of it searchable and trackable.

Every Curio project is a single local file on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded to a remote service, nothing requires an account, and your work stays readable and exportable on your own disk.

Background (context and history)

Most note-taking apps ask you to choose a shape before you start: an outline, a document, a card, a canvas. Curio doesn’t. A Curio idea space is a freeform canvas where a paragraph of text, a scanned handout, a mind map, a table of lab results, and a to-do list can sit side by side, positioned however the work actually makes sense to you.

Curio is built by a solo, indie developer. George Browning began work on it in 2002, shipping Curio 1.0 in 2004 and developing it continuously ever since. Its diverse customer base includes designers gathering inspiration and client requirements, writers brainstorming plot and character development, students taking notes and annotating handouts, professors building and presenting lesson plans, scientists collecting lab results, project managers tracking feature checklists, lawyers preparing cases, and entrepreneurs mapping out new companies.

Curio 34 adds Kanban boards that generate their own sorted stacks from any grouping you choose, Excel-style table formulas, project-scoped tag sets, paragraph and character text styles, macOS widgets, Shortcuts support via App Intents, and — for Curio Pro sustainers — the new Curio CLI and its built-in MCP server, which give Terminal scripts and AI agents direct, structured access to Curio projects.

Key Features

What Curio does

  • Arrange anything anywhere on freeform idea spaces.
  • Build mind maps, outlines, lists, tables, index cards, albums, pinboards, stacks, and Kanban boards.
  • Work with rich text and Markdown, images, PDFs, documents, web links, audio, video, equations, and diagrams.
  • Spread a PDF across idea spaces to annotate and take notes page by page.
  • Track work with tags, tag sets, checkboxes, priorities, ratings, resources, and start/due dates.
  • Connect ideas with wikilinks, backlinks, deep links, and cross-references.
  • Find what you need with fast, relevance-ranked search, fuzzy matching, and query-based collections.

Why Curio

  • One integrated workspace. Brainstorm, research, plan, write, and present without scattering your work across unrelated apps.
  • Local-first and offline-ready. Your projects are files on your Mac, under your control.
  • Flexible and visual. Start with a blank canvas, or use built-in collections, templates, and styles to give ideas structure.
  • No lock-in. Extensive import, export, and printing options keep your work usable elsewhere.
  • Made for deep work. Researchers, writers, students, educators, designers, project managers, and engineers use Curio to develop ideas, collect sources, plan projects, take class notes, prepare presentations, and track work.

What’s New in Curio 34

The release summary below is written to be copied straight into an article. The full release notes cover dozens more improvements and fixes.

Release summary (copy and paste)

Curio 34 is packed with new ways to organize, connect, calculate, automate, and find your work.

Organize
  • Build Kanban boards that automatically group and sort work by priority, rating, tags, dates, and more. Professional adds Smart Kanban boards that gather matching items from across a project.
  • Create project-specific tag sets with their own colors, ordering, and Kanban grouping.
  • Place adornments in 12 positions and optionally keep checkboxes in a separate left margin for cleaner task scanning.
Connect
  • Keep copied lists, mind maps, and stacks linked with synced collection instances in Professional.
  • Curio Professional adds a new References inspector panel that makes creating and viewing typed references between figures, and out to websites, easier to manage.
  • Follow connected idea graphs in Focus mode, and return to a designated Home idea space with the new navigator Home button.
Calculate
  • Add Excel-like formulas to native and Markdown tables in Professional, with structured references and common math, statistical, and formatting functions.
  • Sort native tables by any column while keeping header and footer rows fixed.
Automate
  • The new Curio CLI and its built-in MCP server open Curio to Terminal scripts, shell and Python automation, and AI agents — a separate free download for Curio Professional sustainers.
  • Automate Curio with native macOS Shortcuts actions, built right in.
  • Put project tasks and query results on your Desktop or in Notification Center with new macOS widgets.
Find
  • Find content faster with improved relevance ranking, conservative fuzzy search, field autocomplete, and custom-data sorting.
  • Search the text inside your PDFs, documents, and images, including files embedded in your project, using Curio’s own native extraction.
Write and present
  • Apply project-wide paragraph and character text styles, with new kerning, line-height, and paragraph-spacing controls.
  • Watch live word counts with readability and sentiment details as you write.
  • Jump to any idea space from the context menu while presenting in Professional.
And more
  • Open local HTML files as interactive figures, and reach for new color tools and generated palettes.
  • Enjoy extensive improvements to Markdown, export, the Organizer, galleries, backups, macOS Tahoe support, performance, and reliability.
Mac App Store
  • Download Curio and start a free 14-day trial without beginning a subscription first, and use the new File > Manage Authorized Folders command to review which folders Curio may access.

Feature Images

Captures of the new features, sized for inline use in an article. Each title links to its documentation.

  • A new collection type that generates one sorted stack per value from the grouping you choose — priority, rating, tag set, or dates like start, due, and last modified. Here it’s grouped by priority, with a fallback None stack; dragging a card to another stack changes the underlying priority to match its new home.
    Kanban Boards

    A new collection type that generates one sorted stack per value from the grouping you choose — priority, rating, tag set, or dates like start, due, and last modified. Here it’s grouped by priority, with a fallback None stack; dragging a card to another stack changes the underlying priority to match its new home.

  • Curio Pro backs a Kanban board with a search query, gathering matching figures from anywhere in the project into synced instances that stay live with their originals.
    Smart Kanban Boards Pro

    Curio Pro backs a Kanban board with a search query, gathering matching figures from anywhere in the project into synced instances that stay live with their originals.

  • Excel-like structured reference formulas evaluated inside a Curio Pro table, written with column names rather than A1-style references — current-row ([@Column]) and whole-column ([Column]) references, plus the usual math, statistical, and text functions.
    Table Formulas Pro

    Excel-like structured reference formulas evaluated inside a Curio Pro table, written with column names rather than A1-style references — current-row ([@Column]) and whole-column ([Column]) references, plus the usual math, statistical, and text functions.

  • The same structured reference formulas inside a rendered Markdown table — column-name references, running totals, and TEXT number formatting, computed live. We’re not aware of another Markdown editor or renderer that does this.
    Markdown Table Formulas Pro

    The same structured reference formulas inside a rendered Markdown table — column-name references, running totals, and TEXT number formatting, computed live. We’re not aware of another Markdown editor or renderer that does this.

  • One list, three views. A Curio Pro synced instance can carry its own styling — or take an entirely different shape, like a mind map — while item text, checkboxes, and progress stay in lockstep with the original.
    Synced Collection Instances Pro

    One list, three views. A Curio Pro synced instance can carry its own styling — or take an entirely different shape, like a mind map — while item text, checkboxes, and progress stay in lockstep with the original.

  • The new References inspector panel, with typed references attached to a figure using Curio jump targets or web URLs from the clipboard, building a cross-reference layer over a project.
    References Panel Pro

    The new References inspector panel, with typed references attached to a figure using Curio jump targets or web URLs from the clipboard, building a cross-reference layer over a project.

  • Tag sets scoped to a single project sit alongside global ones — the briefcase and globe icons mark which is which — with colors and ordering preserved for Kanban grouping.
    Project Tag Sets

    Tag sets scoped to a single project sit alongside global ones — the briefcase and globe icons mark which is which — with colors and ordering preserved for Kanban grouping.

  • Automation with real reach. The curio command opens a project to Terminal users and shell or Python scripts, while its built-in MCP server hands the same full command set to AI agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Claude Desktop — querying and rewriting figures, setting metadata, importing and exporting, building Organizer structure, and navigating, all without touching the UI.
    Curio CLI and MCP Server Pro sustainers

    Automation with real reach. The curio command opens a project to Terminal users and shell or Python scripts, while its built-in MCP server hands the same full command set to AI agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Claude Desktop — querying and rewriting figures, setting metadata, importing and exporting, building Organizer structure, and navigating, all without touching the UI.

  • The Status widget on the macOS Desktop, mirroring Curio Pro’s Status shelf: tasks from every project grouped by stage, with priorities, due dates, and progress. A Query widget covers results from a specific saved query. Click any item to open Curio and jump straight to it.
    macOS Widgets

    The Status widget on the macOS Desktop, mirroring Curio Pro’s Status shelf: tasks from every project grouped by stage, with priorities, due dates, and progress. A Query widget covers results from a specific saved query. Click any item to open Curio and jump straight to it.

  • The Text inspector with project-wide paragraph and character styles that update matching rich text and Markdown across a project, joined by new kerning, line height, and paragraph spacing controls.
    Paragraph and Character Text Styles

    The Text inspector with project-wide paragraph and character styles that update matching rich text and Markdown across a project, joined by new kerning, line height, and paragraph spacing controls.

  • Adornments can now sit at any of twelve positions around a figure, and checkboxes can be separated into their own margin. Here checkboxes line up with the outline numbering on the left while dates, resources, and tags gather into tidy columns on the right.
    Flexible Adornment Positions

    Adornments can now sit at any of twelve positions around a figure, and checkboxes can be separated into their own margin. Here checkboxes line up with the outline numbering on the left while dates, resources, and tags gather into tidy columns on the right.

  • The Word Count status bar module tracks the current selection live, and its popover adds sentiment plus Flesch-Kincaid, Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog, and Coleman-Liau scores, each with a plain-English reading.
    Word Count and Readability

    The Word Count status bar module tracks the current selection live, and its popover adds sentiment plus Flesch-Kincaid, Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog, and Coleman-Liau scores, each with a plain-English reading.

Screenshots

The hero image is device-framed and ready to lead an article; everything below it is an unframed capture at 2880 × 1800. Click any image for the full-resolution PNG, or grab them all in the press kit.

The image we lead with on the Curio home page. Unlike the captures below it’s device-framed rather than a raw screenshot, which makes it a natural lead image for an article or roundup.
Hero image Curio on a MacBook Pro

The image we lead with on the Curio home page. Unlike the captures below it’s device-framed rather than a raw screenshot, which makes it a natural lead image for an article or roundup.

Full-resolution PNG (4260 × 2840)

  • A research idea space mixing rich text, a highlighted quote, hand-styled note cards, an embedded PDF, an equation, and a photo album — with the Organizer sidebar at left and the Layers popover at right.
    Freeform Idea Space

    A research idea space mixing rich text, a highlighted quote, hand-styled note cards, an embedded PDF, an equation, and a photo album — with the Organizer sidebar at left and the Layers popover at right.

    Full-resolution PNG 2880 × 1800 JPG

  • The Insert popover, offering text, shapes, stencils, lists, mind maps, tables, index cards, albums, pinboards, stacks, Kanban boards, compositions, audio and video recordings, equations, and live web views.
    Insert Anything

    The Insert popover, offering text, shapes, stencils, lists, mind maps, tables, index cards, albums, pinboards, stacks, Kanban boards, compositions, audio and video recordings, equations, and live web views.

    Full-resolution PNG 2880 × 1800 JPG

  • A long-form research note with Markdown formatting, an embedded mind map, and a data table, while the Sleuth shelf keeps ChatGPT open beside the work.
    Research Alongside AI

    A long-form research note with Markdown formatting, an embedded mind map, and a data table, while the Sleuth shelf keeps ChatGPT open beside the work.

    Full-resolution PNG 2880 × 1800 JPG

  • Curio’s integrated Journal for daily class or meeting notes, with the cross-project Status shelf at right aggregating tasks from every open project by due date.
    Journal and Status Shelf

    Curio’s integrated Journal for daily class or meeting notes, with the cross-project Status shelf at right aggregating tasks from every open project by due date.

    Full-resolution PNG 2880 × 1800 JPG

  • Spread PDF lays the pages of a document across an idea space — and across additional idea spaces — so notes and annotations can sit alongside each page.
    Spread a PDF for Annotation

    Spread PDF lays the pages of a document across an idea space — and across additional idea spaces — so notes and annotations can sit alongside each page.

    Full-resolution PNG 2880 × 1800 JPG

  • The bundled Welcome to Curio project that opens on first launch, shown with a tabloid composition and the Stencils shelf of bundled and custom stencils.
    Welcome to Curio

    The bundled Welcome to Curio project that opens on first launch, shown with a tabloid composition and the Stencils shelf of bundled and custom stencils.

    Full-resolution PNG 2880 × 1800 JPG

Brand Assets

The Curio app icon and the Zengobi logo. Please don’t recolor, distort, or rebuild them.

Video walkthroughs and feature overviews are on our video page and YouTube channel.

Download Press Kit (ZIP)

Every screenshot and brand asset on this page, plus a plain-text fact sheet · 28 MB

Curio Standard and Professional

Curio ships in two editions. A feature-by-feature comparison is on the Curio home page.

Both Curio Standard and Curio Professional include:

  • Freeform idea spaces and rich text, Markdown, document, image, PDF, audio, and video figures
  • Mind maps, lists, tables, cards, albums, pinboards, stacks, Kanban boards, compositions, and focus mode
  • Shapes, lines, pens and brushes, equation editing, templates, stencils, and paragraph and character text styles
  • Search with tags, checklists, task priorities, ratings, resources, start/due dates, and regular expressions
  • A live word count with readability and sentiment details
  • Import and export options, PDF export, powerful PDF import, and Calendar and Reminders syncing
  • An integrated research browser with support for popular AI and web services
  • Native Shortcuts actions and a macOS Query widget

Curio Professional adds:

  • Smart Kanban boards and other query-based collections
  • Formulas in native and Markdown tables
  • Synced figure and collection instances, file-backed text, and sync file figures
  • Mermaid diagrams, syntax-highlighted code blocks, layers, and typed figure references
  • Project-wide status tracking and a macOS Status widget
  • Custom data, variables, master templates, presentation mode, custom appearance themes, project passwords, and more
  • The Curio CLI and its MCP server for Terminal and AI agent automation — a separate download for Pro sustainers

Pricing and Availability

Curio is sold two ways: a one-time license key from our website, or a subscription from the Mac App Store. Both unlock nearly identical feature sets. All prices are US dollars.

License keys (zengobi.com)

EditionNew licenseAcademicUpgrade
Curio 34 Professional $119.99 $99.99 from $79.99
Curio 34 Standard $99.99 $79.99 from $59.99

A license key is a one-time purchase that includes a full year of free major and minor updates. Curio doesn’t expire when that year ends — it simply stops receiving updates until the license is renewed. Crossgrades and volume discounts are available, with an automatic 20% discount on quantities of 20 or more. See the License Key FAQ.

Subscriptions (Mac App Store)

EditionBilled yearlyBilled monthly
Curio Professional$6 / month$8 / month
Curio Standard$5 / month$6 / month

Apple handles billing and renewals, and all updates arrive automatically. Academic and volume discounts aren’t available on subscriptions. See the Subscription FAQ.

Trial and free mode

Curio starts a 2-week trial with every Professional feature enabled, and opens the bundled Welcome to Curio project on first launch for a guided tour. The trial is a free download from our website — no account, no payment details. When the trial ends without a purchase, Curio keeps working in free mode with the Standard feature set and projects of up to five idea spaces; larger projects open read-only for viewing, exporting, and printing.

Curio CLI and MCP

The Curio CLI is an extra perk for Curio Professional sustainers with either an active Mac App Store subscription or a traditional Curio license within its current update window. There is nothing extra to buy, and it works with both the website and Mac App Store editions of Curio. The companion product is covered in full in Curio CLI and MCP Server below.

Curio CLI and MCP Server Pro sustainers

A companion product to Curio 34 rather than a feature of it — separately downloaded, separately versioned, and with its own documentation, release notes, and gallery.

The Curio CLI is an extra perk for Curio Professional sustainers with either an active Mac App Store subscription or a traditional Curio license within its current update window.

The curio command line tool is the largest structural addition in Curio 34. It is a separate, free, Apple-notarized download rather than part of the app, so protocol and security updates can ship on their own cadence, and it works with both the website and Mac App Store editions.

It runs two ways. Pointed at the running app it gets the complete command set, including read/write access and the current selection; pointed at a .curio file with --project it reads straight from disk without launching Curio, which keeps unattended reporting and analysis read-only by construction.

The same command set is exposed to AI agents through a built-in MCP server, so tools like Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, and Codex can query and edit a project through a structured interface rather than by driving the user interface.

What the CLI can do

  • Query a project or the whole Project Center with Curio’s own search language and get structured JSON back.
  • Read and rewrite figure text, tags, dates, priorities, ratings, checkboxes, and custom data.
  • Import content into idea spaces and export figures, collections, and whole projects.
  • Build and navigate Organizer structure, and jump the app to any result.
  • Serve the same commands to AI agents over MCP, with bundled skills for common workflows.
Automation with real reach. The curio command opens a project to Terminal users and shell or Python scripts, while its built-in MCP server hands the same full command set to AI agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Claude Desktop — querying and rewriting figures, setting metadata, importing and exporting, building Organizer structure, and navigating, all without touching the UI.

Links for reviewers

Curio CLI overview

The landing page for the tool: what it does, who gets it, and how the two modes differ.

CLI documentation

Full command reference, installation and update guidance, settings, and AI agent setup.

CLI gallery

Downloadable recipes and step-by-step tutorials showing finished things people build with the CLI.

CLI release notes

New commands, improvements, fixes, and the app and macOS versions each release requires.

CLI download

The signed, notarized universal installer for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. This link starts the download immediately.

From the CLI Gallery

The gallery is the quickest way to see what the CLI is actually for. Both examples below are free downloads with complete source, and both are good candidates for a screenshot or a demo in a story.

  • A downloadable Python recipe that turns a Project Center category into a local web dashboard — deadlines, a read-only Kanban board, tag analysis, and cross-project status — built entirely from read-only CLI queries.
    Recipe Curio Atlas Dashboard

    A downloadable Python recipe that turns a Project Center category into a local web dashboard — deadlines, a read-only Kanban board, tag analysis, and cross-project status — built entirely from read-only CLI queries.

  • A tutorial, with a demo video, in which an AI agent reads a selected scientific PDF, writes a plain-English summary, generates illustrations, and arranges all of it on a Curio idea space.
    Tutorial Heat Domes

    A tutorial, with a demo video, in which an AI agent reads a selected scientific PDF, writes a plain-English summary, generates illustrations, and arranges all of it on a Curio idea space.

About the Developer

George Browning, a solo, indie developer, has been working on Curio full-time since 2002 after creating Zengobi, Inc. in North Carolina. He prototyped and refined the first version with a focus group of creative designers, with the goal of blending the freeform flexibility of a whiteboard, sketchbook, and notebook with organized, integrated collections such as lists, mind maps, and index cards.

Curio 1.0 shipped in early 2004 and has been developed continuously ever since, earning innovation awards and a customer base that ranges from students and professors to engineers, designers, lawyers, writers, entrepreneurs, and filmmakers. More is on our about page.

Press Contact

George Browning, Founder, Zengobi, Inc.

george@zengobi.com

Mention your publication and your deadline and we’ll get back to you quickly. We’re happy to provide review licenses and answer any questions.