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Handwriting Natively

by Marwan Luay
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Score: 46/100
Install Code

Description

Locally handwrite on PDFs with a stylus or mouse inside Obsidian.

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Stats

6
stars
983
downloads
1
forks
33
days
5
days
28
days
83
total PRs
9
open PRs
11
closed PRs
63
merged PRs
14
total issues
3
open issues
11
closed issues
205
commits

Latest Version

0.1.52
a month ago

Changelog

Summary

  • Improve stylus handling after pen hover and prevent palm contacts from interrupting drawing or touch gestures.
  • Keep two-finger wheel panning in PDF content while native PDF sidebar scrolling stays native.
  • Shift-click PDF thumbnails to select a page range, then use Delete or Backspace to remove the selected pages together.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/MarsLuay/handwriting-natively/compare/0.1.51...0.1.52

See all version on GitHub

README file from

Github

Welcome to Handwriting Natively!

What Handwriting Natively Does

Handwrite on PDFs with a stylus or mouse natively in Obsidian. Annotations live in vault metadata with the original PDFs untouched. Export either a flattened copy or a separate editable-PDF annotation copy. Text boxes are sidecar-backed and editable in Text mode; physical eraser tips and optional whole-stroke/right-click erasing are supported.

I made this plugin after realizing I use Obsidian a lot more than another nameless note taking app.. I hope you find it as useful as I do!

Handwriting Natively drawing toolbar on a Lorem Ipsum PDF

  • Pen, graphite pencil, highlighter, laser pointer (fades away, not saved), circular eraser, and lasso tools with a compact Draw toolbar
  • Draw mode opt-in so normal PDF mouse/trackpad behavior stays intact until you annotate
  • Autosave, recovery, and explicit Save; commands for save, export, and select-all ink (save-active-pdf-annotations, export-active-annotated-pdf, select-all-pdf-ink)
  • Commands to create a handwritten PDF, create a GoodNotes-sized blank notebook, add a matching blank page, and export selected ink as SVG (create-handwritten-pdf, create-notebook, add-page-to-active-pdf, export-selected-pdf-ink-as-svg)
  • File-explorer folder context menu New PDF (GoodNotes Standard blank page in that folder)
  • Assignable Hotkeys commands to switch to Pen, Eraser, Laser Pointer, Lasso, or Text (select-pdf-pen, select-pdf-eraser, select-pdf-laser-pointer, select-pdf-lasso, select-pdf-text), plus undo and redo (undo-pdf-annotation, redo-pdf-annotation)
  • Clear freehand strokes only (no default hotkeys): all pages, selected/current pages, or a page range prompt (clear-all-pdf-freehand, clear-selected-pages-pdf-freehand, clear-specific-pages-pdf-freehand)
  • Desktop and mobile PDF adapters without telemetry or hosted services

Setup

Quick Start

  1. Download the latest GitHub release assets (main.js, manifest.json, styles.css).
  2. Copy them into <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/native-pdf-handwriting/.
  3. Reload Obsidian and enable Handwriting Natively under Settings → Community plugins.
  4. Open a PDF, turn on Draw, and annotate.

Manual Setup

git clone https://github.com/MarsLuay/handwriting-natively.git
cd handwriting-natively
npm install
npm test
npm run build

Copy manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css into your vault plugin folder, then reload Obsidian. See docs/manual-test-checklist.md before trusting private PDF-view integration.

Settings includes Copy all logs, which copies the complete vault debug log after it is enabled and an issue is reproduced. The UI is English; annotation files are language-independent.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Privacy

Local-only annotation processing. See PRIVACY.md and TERMS.md. No telemetry or hosted service.

Sponsors