Scribble on iPad inserts unexpected line breaks

Bug reports
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1

When using Obsidian on an iPad with an Apple Pencil, it should be possible to write out notes using iPadOS’s handwriting-to-text system, Scribble. It mostly is! There is one annoying bug though: when you try to insert text, it adds a line break which you can’t remove without a keyboard.

Steps to reproduce

On an iPad with an Apple Pencil, press and hold the pencil on a location in a paragraph where you want to insert some text. It will push the text apart and add a grey box to write more text in.

Expected result

It should insert the text, and then after a few seconds of not writing, close the gap up into a paragraph again, with the new text inserted.

Actual result

When the grey insert box closes in obsidian, it leaves behind a paragraph break, instead of closing up the space around the insert.

Environment

  • Operating system:
  • Debug info:

SYSTEM INFO:
Operating system: ios 15.6.1 (Apple iPad)
Obsidian version: 1.3.2 (69)
API version: v0.15.9
Login status: not logged in
Live preview: on
Legacy editor: off
Base theme: dark
Community theme: Minimal
Snippets enabled: 0
Restricted mode: off
Plugins installed: 7
Plugins enabled: 7
1: Templater v1.14.3
2: Minimal Theme Settings v5.3.2
3: Smart Typography v1.0.18
4: Dice Roller v8.6.9
5: Excalidraw v1.7.22
6: Style Settings v0.4.12
7: Dataview v0.5.46

Additional information

3 Likes
2

Oh wow, I hadn’t really used Scribble much before so I assumed it always behaved that way.

I changed the title from “Scribble support on iPad” to “Scribble on iPad inserts unexpected line breaks” to reflect the problem described.

3 Likes
3

Has there been any progress on this or is there a bug tracker or something? Obsidian’s lacklustre handwriting support is one of my only complaints about it. It would be really helpful if it could come up to the normal standard of iPad apps.

4

Occasionally we get a reply that a bug will be fixed next version. But in general, there are no estimates, and no public bug tracker.

Plus, just adding my reply that I experience this same behaviour. No plugins. And it seems a bit random. It doesn’t always add a paragraph break, and it doesn’t seem 100% dependent on position, line width, or timing. I wonder why. I tried reading through a few developer docs trying to see if there are any obvious clues, but can’t find much.

1 Like
5

is this still happening in v1.4.4?

6

Yes, it’s still happening in 1.4.4. I just jotted out a quick paragraph and it happened about 3 times in 5 minutes. No pattern that I can detect.

7

I’m on 1.4.6 and this still happens, but I think I figured out the issue.

It seems like scribble is assuming a lined paper overlay. If I write in one level line, and continue writing on that same plane with natural line breaks, the issue goes away.

Scribble seems to be tracking your input across the iPad screen as one page in a notebook.

8

If this is the explanation to the problem, I wonder if this is really a bug!?

9

I think it is a bug yes. I’ve never experienced it in any other app. And I can’t recreate this fix. Sometimes it makes a new line even when I’m part way through a word.

And in other apps, I can go all over the place with the alignment, and it doesn’t happen.

3 Likes
10

Just noticed this issue in v1.4.16, sending along for posterity.

11

I wonder if it might be somehow related to the editor’s underlying structure not being just a big text field.

12

I’ve also been bitten by this issue. It makes the scribble feature nearly unusable with Obsidian. Shame because I was really hoping to be able to make my iPad my primary PKM device and it seems a physical keyboard is practically a necessity when interacting with Obsidian on iPad.

2 Likes
13

I’m also experiencing issues. I just want to do plaintext entry using the Apple Pencil scribble text inline. It works in other notes apps pretty seamlessly but on obsidian the pencil taps make the cursor move unpredictably.

If anyone has any settings or suggestions to make this usable please let me know.

1 Like