Handwritten annotations

[zuluwi]

When working with PDFs, PDF++ alone can often provide the necessary workflow. Since I often work with workbooks, I need to draw on pdfs, which requires a separate program.

I would like to ask two things about this

• Is there any plan to add a feature to the plugin for adding drawing annotations to the pdf?
• Is there a workflow you use to work simultaneously with PDF++ and the pdf drawing program on the same pdf?

[RyotaUshio]

Hi, sorry for the late reply!

Handwriting is one of the most important open problems about PDFs in Obsidian.
I also often need to handwrite when I read math books for example, and I have been frustrated by how Obsidian forced me quite an awkward workflow when it came to handwriting.

Is there any plan to add a feature to the plugin for adding drawing annotations to the pdf?

Probably, no. But this is a "positive no".

Obsidian uses PDF.js as the underlying PDF viewer library, and the roadmap says

PDF annotation:
Currently waiting for native support in PDF.js.

However, PDF.js already supports ink annotation. You can try it in Firefox or their Chrome extension:

Screen.Recording.2024-02-11.at.19.41.16.mov

So when Obsidian updates their PDF viewer the next time, ink annotation might be included as a core feature.
Given this situation, probably I will not add handwriting functionality to PDF++.

By the way, I found this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/185xzmq/pdf_annotations_soon_progress_on_github_page_of/

Is there a workflow you use to work simultaneously with PDF++ and the pdf drawing program on the same pdf?

I'm not 100% satisfied with my current workflow, but here I'll explain how I do it for now.

First of all, I primarily use my desktop (MacBook Pro), and I only use my iPad when I need to do handwriting.
I use Obsidian Sync to synchronize files between devices.
I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with other platforms.

There are a bunch of iPad apps that seem to let me handwrite on PDFs.
But many of them, including GoodNotes, force me to "import" PDFs into their apps in some other proprietary format.
They let me handwrite, but actually, I cannot draw on the original PDF file itself. When I need my handwriting in PDF format, I need to export it as a new PDF document.

This makes it difficult to integrate those apps with Obsidian. In other words, handwriting should be added to the original PDF file itself.

Workflow on iPad

... I talked too much. My current approach to accomplish the above goal is the following:

1. On your iPad, open the PDF file that you want to handwrite on.
2. Tap the "more options" (three dots) button and select "Share" (or, just run the command "Share").
3. Select Markup.
   
4. Now you can draw on the PDF.
   
5. When you finish drawing, tap "Done" and then "Delete PDF". (This part is tricky; selecting "delete PDF" does not actually delete the original PDF. I'm not sure why Apple designed it in such as way.)
6. Now your drawing or handwriting appears in Obsidian. Thanks to Obsidian Sync (or any other sync service you choose), it will be also visible on your desktop.
   

Tip

Step 1 & 2 can be a bit tedious, but today I released a new plugin called View Sync, which eliminates these steps by allowing Obsidian on iPad to automatically open the PDF file that I open on my desktop.

Tip

The handwritten notes plugin adds a button that lets you go through Step 2 just by tapping that button. The above workflow is essentially the same as the one that the plugin proposes.

Note

In step 3, Markup can be replaced with any other tools that let you add drawings directly to the original PDF file.

• NotesWriter Pro
• Xodo
• PDF Viewer