What it means

What a reMarkable template installer actually does

The phrase “reMarkable template installer” gets used to mean two different things, and the difference matters before you pay for anything. There are two kinds of templates on a reMarkable tablet, and only one of them needs an installer.

The first kind is a native template. Native templates are the page backgrounds you see when you create a new notebook and pick “Lined,” “Dotted,” “Planner,” or any of the other options in the Templates menu. They live in a system folder on the tablet and they’re built into the OS. Replacing them, or adding your own, is what every paid tool people call a “reMarkable template installer” actually does.

The second kind is a PDF template. A PDF template is a regular PDF file with a planner, tracker, or notebook layout that you import into the device, open, and write on top of. The reMarkable treats it like any other document. PDF templates don’t need an installer at all. You drag them into the official desktop app and they sync to the tablet over WiFi. This is what almost everyone actually wants when they search for an installer, and it’s worth knowing before you buy a tool you don’t need.

Method 1

Method 1: PDF templates via the desktop app (do this first)

This is the route for 99 percent of readers. It works on every reMarkable, including the Paper Pro Move, and it survives every firmware update without any reinstall.

  1. Install the reMarkable desktop app from the official site if you don’t already have it.
  2. Sign in. Make sure your tablet is connected to the same account.
  3. Drag the PDF template files into the desktop app’s main window. They’ll appear in your library and sync to the tablet automatically.
  4. On the tablet, open the PDF and write on it like any other document. If the PDF was built with hyperlinks (a planner with month, week, and day pages that link to each other), the tablet will navigate when you tap the links.

The thing to watch on Paper Pro Move specifically is page size. The Move’s screen is 7.3 inches at a 1696 x 954 working resolution; a planner built for the 11.8-inch Paper Pro will scale, but it’ll feel cramped. Look for templates explicitly sized for the Move, or built as a multi-size set. Our own reMarkable bundle ships in both sizes, and the Paper Pro Move import guide covers the device-specific quirks.

Method 2

Method 2: A paid native-template installer (RCU or eInkPads)

If you genuinely need your custom templates inside the device’s Templates menu (the one that shows when you create a new blank notebook), you want a paid installer. Two are worth knowing about, and both solve the same problem the desktop app can’t: putting your own designs into the system template folder, and putting them back after firmware updates wipe them.

RCU (reMarkable Connection Utility) is the long-running tool of choice for power users. It costs around $12 one-time, runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and gives you a drag-and-drop window for installing custom template PNGs and SVGs. The killer feature is the restore button. Every reMarkable firmware update overwrites the system template folder, deleting your custom files and resetting templates.json. RCU keeps a backup and reinstalls in one click.

The eInkPads Template Installer is the alternative. Mac and Windows, similar drag-and-drop UI, similar update-resilience. Price varies by version. Either tool handles the underlying SSH connection so you don’t have to touch a terminal, and either one is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.

Worth knowing before you buy: both tools require your tablet’s developer password, which you can find in Settings, Help, Copyrights and Licenses, GPLv3 Compliance. The username is root, the password is unique to your device, and the tablet has to be on the same WiFi network as the computer. On Paper Pro and Paper Pro Move, WiFi is off by default until you connect a USB cable and enable it the first time.

Method 3

Method 3: The DIY SSH route (and what to skip on Paper Pro)

The third route is doing what the paid tools do, by hand, over SSH. On a reMarkable 1 or 2 with current firmware this still works. On Paper Pro and Paper Pro Move it’s the fastest way we know to break the device, and the reason isn’t anything readers necessarily catch from the older GitHub guides.

Two specifics. First, the templates directory on the Paper Pro family is mounted read-only by default. You have to remount it before the tablet will accept new files, and the remount command is firmware-specific. Old how-to scripts written for the reMarkable 2 won’t issue the right command on a Paper Pro. Second, reMarkable changed the template file format somewhere in the Paper Pro generation, from PNG raster files to SVG vectors. Many of the open-source helper scripts on GitHub were written for the PNG era and push the wrong file type. The result is a templates.json that lists files the OS can’t render, and the menu starts showing blanks.

The honest rule: before you run any command-line script on a 2026 device, check the repo’s last update date. If it hasn’t been touched since 2024, treat it as a reMarkable 2-only tool. The official reMarkable support page on templates is the canonical reference for what the system folder looks like on current firmware.

Verdict

Which reMarkable template installer route to pick

Read across the row that matches what you actually want.

Pick by what you want 3 of 3 methods
If you want Use Cost Survives firmware update?
PDF planners and notebooks to write on The reMarkable desktop app Free Yes, always
Custom designs in the built-in Templates menu RCU or eInkPads installer ~$12-25 Yes, with one-click restore
Full control, terminal-comfortable, reMarkable 1/2 only Manual SSH Free No, you reinstall by hand

Two more rabbit holes worth knowing about. If you want to make your own templates rather than install someone else’s, our template creator guide walks through the SVG and PNG sizing rules, and template size for reMarkable 2 covers the page-dimension specifics. For a fuller library to start from, our productivity-template roundup covers what we’d recommend across planners, notebooks, and journals. The reMarkable hub indexes the rest.

If you’ve used a different installer that’s holding up on current Paper Pro firmware, drop it in the comments and we’ll add it. The native-template tooling moves slowly but it does move, and the SSH-script side of the ecosystem deserves a maintained reference more than it has one today. We’ll keep this post current as the picture changes.