Betabook will put a whiteboard in your handbag or backpack

It may look like a notebook, but the Betabook is something quite different. It’s a portable whiteboard, a rewritable dry erase surface with a book form factor that gives you all the advantages of a whiteboard on the go.

Why not just carry around a notebook for jotting down your thoughts and sketches? Or, for that matter, why not look into some of the other portable whiteboards out there?

Betabook — now three days from the end of a successful Kickstarter campaign — aside from its utilitarian purpose of brainstorming, mindmapping, sketching, note-taking, doodling, mental experimentation and visual communication, offers more flexibility and creativity than existing portable whiteboards.

You can choose a Betabook in two sizes: the traditional A4 at 8.3 x 11.7 inches (open) at six ounces and the larger A3 (a Pro version) at 11.7 x 16.5 inches (open) at 12 ounces. A DIY kit that ships with the book (when you contribute $30 to the cause) lets you customize your personal whiteboard into a completely personal product.

Doubling your surface area with the larger Betabook Pro, you can more easily use it to conduct group meetings, pitches, professional presentations, detailed sketching and drafting, documentation, storyboarding, and tabletop gaming.

Betabook consists of one page, one pen and an erase cloth folded into the middle of a simple elegant cover in either black or white. The plastic board surface is matte rather than shiny, unlike most whiteboards, and when you’re using it in various lighting conditions, this makes a huge difference. If you want to keep a notation from your whiteboard, just do what you always do with whiteboards: photograph it with your smartphone.

A DIY kit is available starting at the $30 donation level for completely customizing your whiteboard. It includes four sheets of matte Betabook whiteboard plastic with adhesive backing. The DIY kit helps you upcycle a favorite old book cover or hack an existing product like the back of your laptop or the inside of your notebook — wherever you can add the whiteboard surface for extra functionality.

Betabook with ship in May 2015.

The Kickstarter project has three days left, so you still have time to join the 1,120 (and counting) project backers.

➤ Betabook