Please please please make the Apple Pencil usable in Evernote.

[LondonJames 17]

I feel like i've waited for years for this basic functionality.  I love Evernote - and i especially LOVE the Mac update - now the iPad feels like a poor relation. 

I do EVERYTHING on my iPad. All client notes, all meeting notes etc.. - all taken by hand. I have a combination of GoodNotes - and now use Agenda heavily too for my client interactions. 

I'm forced to use these apps, because the Evernote one is so bad. I would LOVE to consolidate and do everything in Evernote (and get rid of Agenda) but currently i can't. 

Please please please. Thx - JH

[Peeler 11]

Apologies for the brevity of my post.

I have used Penultimate, Goodnotes, Nebo and many others over the years and now use Noteshelf as it syncs to Evernote so that the read-only Evernote copy keeps up with changes in the Noteshelf original and allows quick and easy read-only access, filing and tagging within Evernote. It would just be easier if Evernote offered the same editing functions, with stationery and PDF import, itself. It cannot even distinguish between a finger and the Apple Pencil when sketching. Noteshelf is brilliant and any Evernote user taking handwritten notes should use it rather than any of the alternatives.

Much more frustratingly, my other major use of Apple Pencil is annotating PDF’s with script and highlights, normally using PDF Expert.  Evernote is hopeless for PDF annotation on IOS, particularly with no zoom or finger/palm rejection. On MacBook it is easy to annotate in PDF Expert with changes appearing instantly in the original Evernote note. On IOS the PDF has to be copied to PDF Expert then copied back into a new note in Evernote, needing filing and tagging after every reading/annotation session - completely impractical.

I hope this explains my frustrations.

[lost_gweedo 73]

On 2/1/2021 at 4:43 AM, Steven Eff said:

It would be nice to have the Apple Pencil integration in Evernote use the tool palette from the Apple Pencilkit API, but I wonder if that would cause interoperability issues with non-Apple platforms.

I'm not a fan of the PDF markup tools either, but they 'do'.

You might try liquidtext.  I have moved away from evernote (about 1 year ago) because of the stupid lack of apple pencil support.  However, I'm thinking of changing my workflow and coming back because onenote simply doesn't do what I need.  Currently, I use liquidtext to annotate pdf's, it works really well.  Am guessing I'll do my handwriting in notability and pdf work in liquidtext, and export those to evernote.  

[LondonJames 17]

On 1/31/2021 at 9:00 PM, PinkElephant said:

Don’t understand what you are posting. My EN iPad works fine with the pencil and the EN sketch feature. It is roughly the same as in Apple Notes - you get an indefinite canvas, can draw and write on it, and it is saving inside of a note. Handwritten text is made searchable by the EN server OCR function (Premium accounts).

It is working different than GoodNotes 5, and the handwriting feature is not as good. GN5 is dedicated for handwritten note taking - EN does many more things than just that. So it works to add content to a note with Apple Pencil on the iPad. If I had a longer note to take, I would use GN5, and export the note(book) later as a pdf to EN for storage and retrieval.

This is an example of how it looks:

I don’t understand what you’re posting - this is a children’s sketch, not a professional note. The pen choice is poor, the options are poor, the palm rejection is poor. 

 

[Kearsu 2]

Totally agree!!!

It would be better if we can write notes in Evernote like how we do it in OneNote! The writing notes on Evernote should not be confined in small rectangular areas and we definitely need palm rejection, double tap feature support, ink optimization and so on!!!!

even though there are other apps, it’s always troublesome to write in other apps and import them to Evernote! And for the Noteshelf, it only supports syncing an entire notebook! We cannot write notes separately at all. It can be hard for us to keep things organized 

[LB01571 14]

For real handwriting recognition and "word processing" by handwriting, I use the Nebo app. Then the text can be imported. What I WOULD like is for Evernote to convert a scan of handwriting into ASCII/editable text. They are already recognizing your handwriting in scans. I don't see the problem in taking the next step and letting you pull that text into ascii form. (I'm trying to find other suggestions about this, and that's how I landed on this thread.)

[Peeler 11]

On 1/28/2021 at 8:45 AM, LondonJames said:

I feel like i've waited for years for this basic functionality.  I love Evernote - and i especially LOVE the Mac update - now the iPad feels like a poor relation. 

I do EVERYTHING on my iPad. All client notes, all meeting notes etc.. - all taken by hand. I have a combination of GoodNotes - and now use Agenda heavily too for my client interactions. 

I'm forced to use these apps, because the Evernote one is so bad. I would LOVE to consolidate and do everything in Evernote (and get rid of Agenda) but currently i can't. 

Please please please. Thx - JH

Me too.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

Don’t understand what you are posting. My EN iPad works fine with the pencil and the EN sketch feature. It is roughly the same as in Apple Notes - you get an indefinite canvas, can draw and write on it, and it is saving inside of a note. Handwritten text is made searchable by the EN server OCR function (Premium accounts).

It is working different than GoodNotes 5, and the handwriting feature is not as good. GN5 is dedicated for handwritten note taking - EN does many more things than just that. So it works to add content to a note with Apple Pencil on the iPad. If I had a longer note to take, I would use GN5, and export the note(book) later as a pdf to EN for storage and retrieval.

This is an example of how it looks:

[PinkElephant 8,170]

Thanks for elaborating.

EN is not optimized for extended handwriting - the feature is called Sketch, and that pretty much describes it.

In my use I have no problem with finger / palm recognition. But as I said, I don't use it for anything longer than a few words. When writing longer text, probably the hand position changes to avoid fatigue. In these cases I use GoodNotes 5, which allows to choose the hand position in settings. Noteshelf or Notability are other good apps, and Nebo (which makes the engine many other apps are using).

Regarding pdf annotation I think the main problem is not the pencil, it is the lack of a zooming ability in v10. This was already debated in other threads, and I think it must return to make annotation work (not only with the pencil). PDF Expert does a good job, but of course the workflow is broken with exporting, editing and reimporting.

[Peeler 11]

Thanks. I agree, zooming would make a huge difference. Sketch is fine for the odd jot and the other apps fill the gap for extended note taking. 
I use Evernote a lot and have since 2008. I like the new versions a lot and look forward to the improvements. 

[PinkElephant 8,170]

We all do, I think. It is easier to wait for the improvements to roll in on the desktop where there is legacy as an option.

[Steven Eff 35]

It would be nice to have the Apple Pencil integration in Evernote use the tool palette from the Apple Pencilkit API, but I wonder if that would cause interoperability issues with non-Apple platforms.

I'm not a fan of the PDF markup tools either, but they 'do'.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

It is called Sketch, and that pretty much says it all. If they would call it Renoir or Picasso I would be with  you. 

It is a tool embedded into a note taking app to quickly jot down an idea visually, and for this it does the job. Nothing more.

If you need more, get an app that specializes in the ability to express artistic or design work.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

If you want a handwriting app now, get one.

Or wait (supposedly a long time, since there are no activities visible by EN in that direction) until, if ever this will be added to the EN toolbox.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

 Not that easy: The picture to text conversion of the handwriting apps happen on the device itself. This ability is build into the clients.

The OCR capability of EN is build into the server software. And it is used to build a search index, not to extract the text. AFAIK It does not change the document itself, it writes information into a hidden part of the note.

EN would have to implement a whole new set of capabilities into the clients. I doubt this will happen any time soon.

My workaround is still to use GoodNotes 5 for my handwriting. In autumn with iOS 15 there will be this capability build into iOS - at last for newer devices, because it needs a lot of computing power.

[LB01571 14]

2 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

 Not that easy: The picture to text conversion of the handwriting apps happen on the device itself. This ability is build into the clients.

The OCR capability of EN is build into the server software. And it is used to build a search index, not to extract the text. AFAIK It does not change the document itself, it writes information into a hidden part of the note.

EN would have to implement a whole new set of capabilities into the clients. I doubt this will happen any time soon.

My workaround is still to use GoodNotes 5 for my handwriting. In autumn with iOS 15 there will be this capability build into iOS - at last for newer devices, because it needs a lot of computing power.

I didn't say it was easy. I said I wanted handwriting recognition in Evernote. 🙂  And since it happens in the cloud, it should be possible to implement. I'm curious — do you speak for Evernote, PinkElephant?  

[Claudiofpiga 59]

Handwriting recognition and conversion into text is already available in iPadOS → native feature Scribble
I agree that the sketch feature (in Evernote) could be better for drawings and even Apple can improve Scribble, but so far ( at least for me ) so good.

using the IPad all my notes are done with the apple pencil and converted into text automatically (and with the paperlike protectors better.no matter the brand) pretty fast, accurate

Claudio 

 

[PinkElephant 8,170]

14 hours ago, LB01571 said:

I didn't say it was easy. I said I wanted handwriting recognition in Evernote. 🙂  And since it happens in the cloud, it should be possible to implement. I'm curious — do you speak for Evernote, PinkElephant?  

No, I speak for myself (just a user …).

Most apps doing the handwriting stuff use a license of the Nebo engine. I am not aware it is tuned to run on a server, every app I know using it does recognition on the device.

The EN handwriting recognition is older, and I think it is proprietary from EN. But it doesn’t do text extraction.

Scribble is already great (and they keep adding languages, initially I had to switch my system language to English to be able to activate it). With iOS 15 we get instant local text recognition in pictures - EN IMHO needs to do something to keep up. 

[DTLow 5,736]

On 7/23/2021 at 6:22 PM, LB01571 said:

They are already recognizing your handwriting in scans. I don't see the problem in taking the next step and letting you pull that text into ascii form.

Evernote's handwriting recognition process (ICR) delivers a list of possibilities, along with a ranking   
Useful for search, but not to "pull that text into ascii form"

>>For real handwriting recognition and "word processing" by handwriting, I use the Nebo app.

I use the Notability app; stored in Evernote in pdf format

[evername 2]

Hi.  I'm new here.  Please excuse my ignorance.  I have an iPad pro with an apple pencil.

If I handwrite words in a new note with the "sketch" feature, will EN try to recognize my writing?  I know it works that way with post-its that I photograph with the EN camera.

Or, do I need a separate app like Notability?

[LB01571 14]

On 7/25/2021 at 7:56 AM, PinkElephant said:

Most apps doing the handwriting stuff use a license of the Nebo engine. I am not aware it is tuned to run on a server, every app I know using it does recognition on the device.

The EN handwriting recognition is older, and I think it is proprietary from EN. But it doesn’t do text extraction.

Scribble is already great (and they keep adding languages, initially I had to switch my system language to English to be able to activate it). With iOS 15 we get instant local text recognition in pictures - EN IMHO needs to do something to keep up. 

Yes, the Nebo approach needs to record your ink strokes, since the order, direction, velocity, etc all factor into how Nebo decodes your handwriting. It's different than analyzing a static picture. But we are seeing other server-based approaches that do analyze a scan or picture. Google Lens does it, and now Apple started to do it (though in Apple's case it's on device?) 

Many of these handwriting discussions here began before Apple introduced Scribble. Scribble is best — so far — with short bursts of text, not novel-writing, to choose an extreme example. So people who prefer their primary text input to be longhand — when entering lots of text, notes, creative writing, etc, are not happy yet. 

[LB01571 14]

21 hours ago, evername said:

Hi.  I'm new here.  Please excuse my ignorance.  I have an iPad pro with an apple pencil.

If I handwrite words in a new note with the "sketch" feature, will EN try to recognize my writing?  I know it works that way with post-its that I photograph with the EN camera.

Or, do I need a separate app like Notability?

If you want to handwrite text directly into Evernote, have you experimented with Apple's "scribble" Pencil features? How has that worked for you? 

[PinkElephant 8,170]

People who want to write longhand and get their stuff converted into computer text usually do this on an app running the Nebo engine (or similar). Yes, it is superior because it analyzes the writing itself, not just the result.

At least in GoodNotes 5 the conversion to text happens after the writing, in a second step: You need to select a passage of your handwriting with the lasso, and tell the app to convert it. The text will show in a new window. 

Apples Scribble works differently: The handwriting is replaced by computer text on the fly.

And then there are more and more apps that analyze pictures of text, and extract (not only OCR for search) text from it.

So there are different approaches. EN currently OCRs handwriting, only on pictures, and makes it searchable. This is simpler than extracting text, because you can save multiple guesses for each word, comprising hopefully the correct solution among several guesses. They do it since quite a while - I have my doubts this will still be sufficient when the newer concepts are rolled out.

It does not make the EN solution bad for searching - but in comparison it pales when working text extraction from pictures (without observing the writing process) becomes available.

[Jerzangel 0]

I use the scribble feature and my biggest peeve with it is that you can’t control how much white for writing room, once you have a full screen of notes you’re squished into a small area on the bottom.

[oxenfree 2]

I’m on an Evernote trial right now – just started it about 20 minutes ago and started to use the Sketchpad feature. Immediately googled “Palm rejection Evernote”. I assumed, surely, there are settings for this since my other note-taking app offers it. 
 

I shouldn’t have to use other apps and integrations for this very basic feature. I don’t need it to convert my handwriting to text, nor do I need to make rich image sketches or anything like that. I just need to be able to hand write on a PDF or jot down a quick idea, which I can’t comfortably do if it’s detecting my palm on the pad. It either results in errant strokes or zooming in/out. This is vital for disabled users/folks with motility issues like me.

Was also bummed to find that this has been raised several times in other feedback posts, etc. Some from 4+ years ago. All around, not a great first impression as a new user. Hoping this will make it to the product roadmap. 

[PinkElephant 8,170]

It is OK to ask for changes here. Just a few remarks:

Sketch is a feature that was introduced 1 year ago. Kudos to the users who asked for changes 4 years ago ! OK, they meant another program part of the old apps. EN revised it, and added Sketch to the new editor when v10 launched. 

It is exactly what the name tells: It allows to place a drawing canvas into the note (which is HTML code based, which means text oriented) and jot down a few strokes. That is it, and for me it does this job.

The pdf annotation tool is based on different technology, and does not share much with Sketch.

In general EN is not supporting special devices like the iPad/Pencil combination very good. I think they will continue to add features for all users. If and when they ever switch to provide better support for device segments nobody knows.

My solution is to use specialized apps for special jobs. For handwriting, simple drawings and pdf annotation I prefer GoodNotes 5. The result can be exported to EN as PDFs.

[86Daniel 2]

I would also like to see an good apple pencil integration.

In general it's not really possible to do handwritten text. Only sketches can be done. I think that's not enough.

[PinkElephant 8,170]

There is a huge difference between doing a drawing, and doing decent handwriting. The drawing can be done using Apples routines for the iPadOS with pencil integration. Good handwriting programs use a different approach - many of them use the Nebo engine at the core of their apps. In this toolkit years of development and experience were consolidated about how to create a good feeling while writing, and a smoothened result (but not too smooth). It does OCR as well while the writing goes on, not afterwards like EN does it.

If EN wanted to go down that road, they probably would have to license the Nebo engine, or any competitor, or develop it for themselves.  I currently see no indication that better handwriting support is anywhere on ENs agenda. The HTML-based design of EN is quite hostile to everything but text and attachments - which AFAIK  is the reason the Sketch feature needs to insert a canvas first before you can start sketching.

If handwriting is important for you, don’t wait - get one of the decent handwriting apps that are offered in the AppStore, and start right away.

[DTLow 5,736]

57 minutes ago, 86Daniel said:

In general it's not really possible to do handwritten text. Only sketches can be done. I think that's not enough.

Are you referring to the feature called Sketch?   
I agree, it's not great for handwriting   
In general, I see the Evernote editor as a text  based product

Personally, I use the Procreate app for art work,    
and the Notability app for handwriting   
The documents can be stored in Evernote as note file attachments

[brenter 9]

YES. Sketch / apple pencil experience absolutely blows.  I get evernote started as text/html based, but that's not an excuse. It's 2022 and we've been able to do these kinds of things in html for a while. One Note's web app supports this. Get with the times evernote! I was a loyal user for over a decade until using my ipad and I've been forced to switch to other apps altogether, and no longer a subscriber. 

[gewappnet 79]

12 minutes ago, brenter said:

YES. Sketch / apple pencil experience absolutely blows. 

Sketch is not really usable for handwritten notes for many reasons and one is certainly the lack of proper support for the Apple Pencil.

But it was not said yet in this thread, so especially for you: There are two apps for handwritten notes that have a complete integration in Evernote with automatic synchronization, Penultimate and Noteshelf. Penultimate is by Evernote, but very outdated and does not support the Apple Pencil either. Noteshelf on the other hand perfectly supports it, offers all functionalities that you would expect and has the same perfect synchronization to Evernote as Penultimate.

[Peeler 11]

Noteshelf is definitely the best app to combine handwriting with Evernote.  As a heavy user of Evernote and having tried most of the available apps it is frustrating that this functionality is not built in. I have not however found a workable approach to Apple Pencil annotation of pdf's stored in Evernote - the zoom problem on iPads. 

[gewappnet 79]

29 minutes ago, Peeler said:

I have not however found a workable approach to Apple Pencil annotation of pdf's stored in Evernote - the zoom problem on iPads. 

The zoom bug is so strange as Evernote knows about it (for years!) but does not do anything about it.

A workaround: While displaying the PDF in Evernote tap on the share button and either use Mark Up (system functionality) or open the PDF in another PDF app (I use PDF Viewer Pro). Then save the modified PDF in a local ("On my iPad") or an iCloud Drive folder like "temp". Back in the Evernote note delete the PDF and add it again from the folder "temp". Cumbersome, but one way to do it.