Built-in support for handwritten notes (mainly for mobile apps), e.g. Apple Pencil

Use case or problem

When using Obsidian on mobile devices (smartphone or tablet like iPad), it would be a great addition for Obsidian to be able to handwrite a note (alongside typed text, as in Apple Notes).

Proposed solution

Adding support for handwritten notes.

Current workaround (optional)

A workaround is to use Excalidraw. But this is far from what we could accomplish if Obsidian had built-in support for handwritten notes.

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Do you mean handwriting with the Pencil that automatically inputs typed text? Or do you mean storing handwritten notes alongside the text, like in Apple Notes?

Hello @rigmarole, I meant the second option : storing handwritten notes alongside the text.

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Ah yes, thanks :+1:
In that case, if you don’t mind, I’m going to merge your thread with an existing plugin idea that has a lot of support already.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Drawing support for users who use styluses/tablets

Hello @rigmarole, could you answer please, if the first option is already supported in Obsidian? I am very interested on the feature to write my text with the Pencil directly in Obsidian which is then automatically converted to typed text? Without using any other intermediary app which transforms the handwritten text to the typed text which then can be copied to Obsidian.

Hi @mulik93, did you try?

Yes, I tried it on Microsoft Surface. But it is not a tablet, so I don’t know whether Obsidian supports this handwriting feature on tablets. I would be very grateful for everybody who would like to share his or her experience and knowledge.

I can say handwriting to text does work on Android…at least on my Pixel 6 Pro.

I can say that handwriting to text does not work for the Andplroid app running on a ChromeOS tablet, nor doesit work when running Obsidian for Linux on a ChromeOS tablet.

You said “Pencil”, I figured you meant iPadOS.

iPadOS supports writing with the pencil universally into any text input. Including Obsidian. It has nothing to do with Obsidian supporting it. But I’m not sure about Android or anything.

There is a similar feature in Samsung tablets. It mostly works.

My personal opinion on that is that it’s near useless. Handwriting is converted to text immediately, so you lose the spatial component. But as a pure alternative to normal screen keyboard this input method is slower and less reliable.

The most important part of note-taking by hand is placing text and drawings on a page freely.

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absolutely right, the ability to draw anywhere with a note is what is needed, similar to Microsoft Onenote

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would it be possible to add hand writing feature and palm rejection?

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Yes, please +1 for a feature like this.

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there is a plugin waiting approval, tldraw i think is the name, that adds this.