I have been a long time good note, user, but with the new update, and not wanting to pay for yet another subscription, I looked at the DEVONthink to go PDF templates. For the times that I do take notes, the lined paper seems to be more than enough and the Writing tool seem adequate. Devon think does not appear to OCR handwritten text, however. (Please correct me if I’m wrong).
I know if I write in goodnotes that when I import this into DEVONthink, the handwriting will be OCR’ed, however, are there any other options to consider? (Ideally in DT or DTTG to simplify down to one application only).
Is there an easy way to do handwriting OCR on handwritten PDF if I do use DEVONthink to go (for example, a script, or some thing that I could automate rather than exporting the PDF to do the OCR, and then re-importing to DEVONthink).
I can’t comment on your DTTG handwriting workflow as I’ve never tried handwritten notes in DTTG, but as a GoodNotes user myself I can comment on that bit GoodNotes 5 will apparently still be available, it just won’t be updated any more, so you don’t have to switch straight away. GoodNotes 6 is available as a one-off purchase if you don’t want a subscription, it’s $29.99 (Goodnotes Pricing | Free to Download).
I don’t need any of the new stuff they’re offering so I will be sticking with GoodNotes 5 for now. I’ve not really found anything else that matches their OCR engine for handwritten stuff (though I’ve not tried hard as theirs is very good). Like you I convert notes to PDF inside GoodNotes when needed and export to DT.
I think I was an original Goodnotes 4 user and upgraded to five, so I am not sure that I qualify for any discount on Goodnotes 6. I was just looking for another workflow before I make one more purchase. I am considering holding off on updating Goodnotes until the new iPadOS update, as Apple notes now supports in line editing of PDFs (aka annotate on top of a pdf). I use PDF templates that I write on top of for meeting notes and apple notes may be a reasonable solution as I believe it does support OCR as well.
But the idea of doing it all in DTTG is intriguing. Just for convenience of one app I may trial using it for the PDF annotation and tag the notes or add some text that should be searchable. Only annoying part which I wish was added was ability to import pdf as templates rather than just using in built template (aka GoodNotes). Instead I just keep a folder of “template PDFs.”
No, DEVONthink To Go does not recognize handwriting as text. However, it does support the Scribble function so handwriting, e.g., in a rich text documnt, is converted to typed text on-the-fly.
PS: Using the freeform pen tool in a PDF is strong text using Scribble.
macOS Preview uses LiveText and does a decent job of translating handwriting to text in a PDF. In order to embed the text to the PDF file, you have to “Export…” under “File” and select “Embed text”. Obviously this is fine for an occasional PDF, but it would be enormously useful if this capability could be applied en masse/batch across many PDFs.
Is there any way for DT to plug into LiveText functionality to embed text onto handwriting in PDFs? It is really unfortunate that Apple doesn’t offer this functionality, as a “Service” item or as an Automator function.
There is software like: https://owlocr.com that apparently convert handwriting to text and embed in PDF. I’m guessing they’re just using Apple’s LiveText to do the hard part (handwriting to text). If that’s true, other third-party apps should be able to access LiveText functionality as well… thus my question about DT plugging into LiveText.
that would be amazing! This has tremendous implications. It will close the gap between pen and paper versus electronic handwriting. I prefer the effectiveness of the former for learning and cognition but have to bend reluctantly to the convenience of the latter. No longer!
Very exciting indeed. I’d be keen too if my handwritten annotations to PDFs would become searchable in that way (I create many by annotating directly in DT2G). Game changer. I better start working on my handwriting for that future OCR job.
Meanwhile, I have been fishing around for a temporary solution but haven’t been willing to commit. An issue with many of the services is privacy. One is left wondering who has access to the PDF that undergoes handwriting OCR. With respect to privacy concerns, DT using Apple-provided LiveView that runs entirely locally on one’s machine would be a vast improvement.
GoodNotes 5 will apparently still be available, it just won’t be updated any more, so you don’t have to switch straight away. GoodNotes 6 is available as a one-off purchase if you don’t want a subscription, it’s $29.99 (