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Better Android Handwriting Support Please!


EvernotePat

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I totally agree with this topic. I just bought a Samsung S3 Tablet. I tried OneNote and Samsung Notes. Evernote product is much better in many aspects, but the handwriting support of evernote is really worse. The lack of support for pressure sensitive input from s-pen is disturbing. And the pen could have more lower thickness.

I almost migrate to OneNote this year. Please improve handwriting support.

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I would also like to add a request for Google pixelbook & pixel pen support.

I use Evernote for everything, but I am having to find alternatives (Squid, nebo) to take handwritten notes and then import them in a horribly convoluted way which is a pain!

If the handwriting feature was more advanced in evernote then I wouldn't need to consider others.

 

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Another +1 from my side. 

I am an Evernote premium user for many years (it is literally my extended brain, I place there all my notes, daily planing, and anything I want to note down.... I love it). Recently I got a Samsung galaxy tab s3 with s-pen (Android), to further improve my note taking flow and especially to be able to also add handwritten notes directly on my notes. I think more and more people will do this. In my case I want to stop taking notes on paper then take photos and copy them there, etc (go paperless) and get all my notes where they should be - Evernote for me. 

I am really underwhelmed by the basic handwritten support of evernote... I actually like the simplistic interface. However, it is so basic and writing is not even very responsive for me, which makes the experience of taking notes directly on evernote practically impossible (for me). This really means not being able to use it properly, especially after trying Samsung notes or any other reasonwble note-taking app... So my current workflow is rather fragmented and error-prone: take my handwritten notes on samsung notes, export them as image to a special notebook on evernote (manually) then (when I remember) copy the image to a note where I have some pre-meeting/event notes and points of discussion already.... I tend to forget some of these steps, and even worse, sometimes I revisit handwriten notes and make changes (recapping things, etc) and then need to again go throw all the steps and replace the image... It is not nice... but I really tried to use evernote handwritten notes but they are just too far from the others that I have to go through this painful set of steps... 

I know there is Penultimate for ios (which is also a product by evernote), but I think the idea of having this feature within the product will make many people happier (instead of using another app, sync the note to evernote as an image...). 

I think the original message pretty much covers my request for features extensions, I leave bellow some extra remarks (some redundant, sorry):

  • Improve responsiveness (maybe it is just me and one can get use to it, but there is a real delay, which makes it difficult to write...) 
  • Pressure sensitive 
  • Thin pen, it is really think now (even the thinnest one...) 
  • Maybe multiple pen types (I don't care so much, but it is nice to have two or three types) 

If I can give any other feedback please let me know... As mentioned above, this is becoming a rather popular way of taking notes and it is really a pitty to have these limitations (basic support) on our beloved Evernote. 

Cheers. 

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Just bought a  Samsung Tab S3 and I would much like to see S Pen support improved in Evernote. Samsung Notes works great with the pen but it's lacking in features that Evernote has had for years. I'd gladly pay for a subscription if Evernote support for the stylus worked well.

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On 11/29/2019 at 8:47 PM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Please be sure to indicate your support for the idea by clicking on the upward pointing arrow at the top of the page. Can INKredible Pro export to JPG or PDF? Those files could be attached to Evernote notes.

INKredible Pro can export the notes to PDF / PNG and the files to be attached to Evernote. But then the Evernote is used worst than file storage because PDF / PNG are not editable (as handwritten data) any more.

If I keep the INKredible Pro file format files to Evernote then they are not viewable / editable unless they imported back to the application.

In any case, Evernote handwrite feature is the desired behavior (viewable and editable from evernote direcly - not using other apps which they do insert delayes and extra procedures) but the handwrite editor of Evernote is just garbage as I already have told.

I have the impression that the handwrite feature of Evernote, is just a useless “candy“ just to say that Evernote support handwritten notes compared to other apps (like i.e. MS Notes). I think Evernote should give emphasis in fixing that feature thus to be actually useful and not just garbage. A lot of people are using stylus to keep digital notes and Evernote is shutting the door on them, while it could provide them a competitive solution integrated with all the other features of Evernote. If at least the editor had a very good responsiveness to stylus (as almost all other apps have), it would be a good reason to use it. Now it's just impossible to write normally. Just to clumsy draw things...

On 11/29/2019 at 9:40 PM, DTLow said:

I'm a fan of using "external high quality apps"   
Evernote can store files of any format as note attachments; I store my handwriting notes in Evernote


Same answer as above. :)

 

 

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30 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

@terablade2001, you've said several times that Evernote's Android handwriting feature is "garbage," but I wonder if you could be more specific about how it fails for you. I'm sorry if this should be obvious, but I don't use this feature much, and I'd like to know more about its strengths and weaknesses. It might also be helpful if any Evernote staff check this thread and are looking for specific ideas to improve it.

I say that Evernote's (android at least) handwriting feature is garbage because its impossible to keep actual notes there, while i.e. you are watching a seminar. I mostly think this is due to low response time of that feature. This may intepreted as lag between writting and displaying; writting fast and seing the ink displayed with lag is confusing. To understand the difference you have to actually use stylus on Evernote's handwriting feature and on other apps.

Futhermore features like:

*Make use of stulys button to switch temporary to eraser.

*Provide more colors (and user defined color)  for pencils/pens.

*Provide colors for background page

* Provide some templates for background for example typical horizontal lines, to write straight on them.

*For writting lag when zoom-in (there the application just sucks as the lag increases).

*Provide marker pencils (e.g. mark with color words).

would make the feature even better. But most important is to reduce lag between writting and displaying.

I think its algorithmic matter. Try for example make a small filled dot (e.g. listing dot). I doesn't displayed unless you pull up the stylus or increase the bullets radius. That's unacceptable!!!

32 minutes ago, DTLow said:

 


j
 

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37 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Just wanted to post another purpose for using PDF/PNG files
The content is indexed for Evernote's search feature; even handwriting

Yes. Evernote offers a lot of features. Although I haven't used the specific search feature, it would a good reason to use someone Evernote for handwritten notes. But handwriting feature needs a lot of improvent!

I think that if Evernote takes handwriting feature seriously, it can make a hit on handwriting paid applications due to the integrated indexing engine that its already provides. But has to take it more seriously. I already described above some features, and notice, I didn't say anything about stylus pressure / orientation features (which I can live and without them).

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On 01.12.2019 at 19:57, terablade2001 said:

I say that Evernote's (android at least) handwriting feature is garbage because its impossible to keep actual notes there, while i.e. you are watching a seminar. I mostly think this is due to low response time of that feature. This may intepreted as lag between writting and displaying; writting fast and seing the ink displayed with lag is confusing. To understand the difference you have to actually use stylus on Evernote's handwriting feature and on other apps.

...

most important is to reduce lag between writting and displaying.

The visual lag of Evernote handwriting is atrocious. Even not comparing it to the responsiveness of Nebo, One Note or Samsung Notes, the "feel" of writing in Evernote with any stylus is an exercise in frustration. It's like the feature hasn't advances at all since its introduction in 2014.

Now that Samsung has severed the 'sync with Evernote' feature in their notes app, and other competitors have very fluid and natural-feeling handwriting features, there's really no excuse to keep it so rudimentary in Evernote.

I can live without OCR "on the fly", no support for dark mode/backgrounds, and a very limited color palette, but please do something with that input lag.

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+1 from Premium user here too.

Agree with most of the above. The two reasons I find it unusable are:

1. Lag / fidelity is horrible. Just use the built-in Samsung Notes to see the difference.

2. Erasing is difficult. There's a button on the stylus that is used by the built-in app.

Personally, I'd be fine with using a separate app IFF it integrates directly with Evernote. This means that if I click on the page in evernote it should launch the app to continue editing.

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This feature is getting more and more votes...

I really hope Evernote team finds time to pick it up and make a step forward in the handwriting features of Evernote. Not sure how things are prioritized - as I don't see major innovations for a good while now (which is not the case on Evernote's main competitors, e.g.: OneNote), I mostly see very small things and "keep it running" (and all the "inspiration" emails coming... would prefer some actual developments). I would argue that it would be rather strategic for "The note-taking and organizing app" to bring the level of this "interface" to notes (being taking handwritten notes on all of our mobile devices, or annotating photos/documents with proper interface) to the next level. This does not need to be "the best", but make it reasonable and usable, the current option is just not usable (see the many points made above).

@Evernote Team: are you looking into improvements on this particular part of the product? 

Thank you.

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Hey @DTLow,

Looking at the requests for Android this is top-8 now, so I think there is some priority (at least product teams working on Android will see this when they open the list of request 😛).

Thank you for sharing your take on how you organize your way of working, but each one of us have different ways of working and I am really not happy with mine. For me (and I would say this is not that exotic) Evernote is my reference note-taking application (in all the forms, as they also position themselves: text, images/docs/etc... not just "archive" and text note taking). I like it so much that I became a premium subscriber quite a few years back, so I could be extra equipped with this application I literally use every day! 

Evernote offers a handwriting feature (for a good while) and I don't think if ones takes a lot of handwritten notes a day, like I do, you are looking to use another app and export them as images to Evernote... I am not talking "drawing quality" sort of application (if that would be the case, I think it would be fair to not expect that from Evernote), but simply something where I can sketch my notes on a meeting, make a quick diagram in the middle of my note, etc. - without having to buy/go-to another application and then go through the pains of maintaining my parallel handwritten notes on another application (because these notes/sketches may change and then you need to export again...). I cannot do that on current handwriting feature of Evernote, it is just impossible to use...

I don't think this is a lot to ask and you don't need to look a lot to see that the major competitor (OneNote) provides a great experience on this front (you can take handwritten notes, make diagrams, annotate docs, etc., with a good experience)... I am actually at the moment running an experiment where I use it to take all my handwritten notes... and to be fair it is working OK, I then export images to my Evernote notes... but it just feels wrong, when I am paying my annual subscription to Evernote to be my "archive of notes", when I could just use OneNote and get all these features in a single application.

So, I am one of those that are by a thread sticking on Evernote... my 10+ years history with Evernote, how much I enjoy Evernote (in general), my "muscle memory" on Evernote and a few other things are keeping me here, but I sincerely don't know how much longer (as it does not cover my note taking needs).

Cheers.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Eduardo Silva said:

my "muscle memory" on Evernote and a few other things are keeping me here, but I sincerely don't know how much longer (as it does not cover my note taking needs)

Just to say... I have recently cancelled my subscription (just waiting to change from premium to free in a few days) ... Pricing is too high (compared to other platfroms) for just text notes and files organization... Indeed the "muscle memory" is a way, but in a proper transition period it's re-calibrated! :) I'll turn off also notifications of this thread! :) Cu and hope njoy ever-noting!!

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Yes Yes Yes.. Need a better handwriting experience.

1. Palm rejection

2. Undo

I have been using OneNote. It's great for handwriting. But i would prefer to keep everything within Evernote.

 

hmmm maybe i can write in OneNote, and export to evernote.. oh that's a chore

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Em 02/01/2018 at 02:52, EvernotePat disse:

Hi, I am a user of Evernote Premium and I love the core Evernote ideology of having the best search around. However, I am very interested in using evernote for digital note taking via handwriting on a Samsung tablet with s-pen. The following are a few features that would make this functionality much more useful to me:

1. More stroke width options - The smallest stroke width is still way too big for me. I want to be able to write small.

2. Ability to set background to lined paper

3. Support for pressure sensitive input from s-pen, asus pen, etc.

4. Ability to zoom in/out and pan - Currently it just lets me add pages. I do not like writing close to the edges of the tablet because it is not comfortable when I am writing on the couch.

5. More pen colors and highlighting.

Upvote if you also want one or more of these features.

Thank you for making my experience the best it can be. Please let me know if any of this functionality is in the works or when I could expect to see these.

Voto

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On 1/23/2018 at 8:33 PM, asciimo said:

I just fired up Evernote after almost 2 years of inactivity. I just got a Samsung Tablet S3 and I love the pen. I would consider upgrading to Premium if Evernote supported the s-pen using the Samsung Android SDK. This would reduce the lag greatly and probably offer more features. http://developer.samsung.com/galaxy/pen

Honestly I would only need the erase button as a first step, always selecting the eraser manually is extremely frustrating.

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2 horas atrás, loiterbaer disse:

Honestly I would only need the erase button as a first step, always selecting the eraser manually is extremely frustrating.

I think that exists a solution more elegant: erase with a finger (like the app Squid does). To scrolling through the page, use two fingers (as evernote already does). The implementation of this feature pass through the detection of stylus pen. 

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@Comote I am not sure if it has improved, as I never used it before (on other tablets). However, as I mention it still is very poor when compared with other handwriting note apps - which is still a deal breaker to me (on adopting Evernote Handwriting feature for all handwritten notes...). Apart from that, I love the tablet and my workflow now is to use Samsung Notes and then export as image to Evernote... I really don't love this workflow, but it was the best I could come up with - to still use Evernote as my "single point of notes" and benefit from my Samsung S3 to take very nice handwritten notes...

...this is the reason I really would love a bit more of effort on this feature! :)

Cheers!

 

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On 1/29/2019 at 8:34 AM, Eduardo Silva said:

@Comote I am not sure if it has improved, as I never used it before (on other tablets). However, as I mention it still is very poor when compared with other handwriting note apps - which is still a deal breaker to me (on adopting Evernote Handwriting feature for all handwritten notes...). Apart from that, I love the tablet and my workflow now is to use Samsung Notes and then export as image to Evernote... I really don't love this workflow, but it was the best I could come up with - to still use Evernote as my "single point of notes" and benefit from my Samsung S3 to take very nice handwritten notes...

...this is the reason I really would love a bit more of effort on this feature! :)

Cheers!

 

Thank you!

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As Evernote is all about note taking, it would seem obvious that s-pen, stylus, entry with handwriting would be a priority.  Handwritten notes are largely how Big ideas are born.   The handwriting feature is so lame, that I can't use that feature of my Evernote, or choose not to because it limits my creative output.  Please improve.  

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+1 from Premium user

Very happy with other options and cross-platform performance. But the handwriting underperforms compared to so many other apps. If not improving the handwritten option, then perhaps create compatibility with implementing Samsung Notes (which does work adequate)?

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Brauchbare Handschriftliche Notizen in Evernote zu erstellen ist nachezu unmöglich. Jedoch finde ich die Überschrift falsch gedacht. Es sollte einen Übergreifende Unterstützung für Handschriftliche Notizen für alle Betriebssysteme geben, auf denen Evernote läuft (Android, Windows, IOS, Macos). Keine Einzellösung für bestimmte Betriebssysteme. 
Im Moment experementiere ich viel mit One Note herum (Läuft auf allen Systemen).


Meine Überlegungen:
Wenn Evernote nicht die nötige Kompetenz im eigenen Haus hat, sollte eine enstrechende Software hinzugekauft und implementiert werden (Z.B. Incredible, bietet funktionierende Lösung für IOS und Android).  

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1 hour ago, therob said:

Creating useful handwritten notes in Evernote is almost impossible. ...

At the moment I'm experimenting a lot with One Note (runs on all systems).
 My thoughts:
 If Evernote does not have the necessary in-house expertise, it should be purchased and implemented ...

 -Translated by Google-

Evernote's core editor functions are text based, and a sketch feature is not a great solution for note-taking

My solution is to use an external note-taking editor.  
Evernote did purchase Penultimate, but I prefer the Notability app on my iPad

I store the documents  in Evernote as file attachments; in both native and PDF format

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Evernote 's handwriting feature is just garbage.

Me and my collages are using SM-T820 to keep notes and drawings. Although we do use Evernote a lot (most of us annually paying) we just can't use that feature. We are forced to use external high quality apps (im using INKredible Pro) to do our job, but they do not integrate with Evernote directly. Thus our handwriting notes can't be stored in Evernote.

It's just a shame that Evernote does not support at least a decent handwriting engine for at least some standard devices like SM-T820 with S-Pen, but instead it does provide a garbage engine for handwriting, which can be used only by babies for basic drawing.

😡

 

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21 hours ago, terablade2001 said:

Evernote 's handwriting feature is just garbage.

Me and my collages are using SM-T820 to keep notes and drawings. Although we do use Evernote a lot (most of us annually paying) we just can't use that feature. We are forced to use external high quality apps (im using INKredible Pro) to do our job, but they do not integrate with Evernote directly. Thus our handwriting notes can't be stored in Evernote.

It's just a shame that Evernote does not support at least a decent handwriting engine for at least some standard devices like SM-T820 with S-Pen, but instead it does provide a garbage engine for handwriting, which can be used only by babies for basic drawing.

😡

 

Please be sure to indicate your support for the idea by clicking on the upward pointing arrow at the top of the page. Can INKredible Pro export to JPG or PDF? Those files could be attached to Evernote notes.

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23 hours ago, terablade2001 said:

use external high quality apps (im using INKredible Pro) to do our job  ... Thus our handwriting notes can't be stored in Evernote.

I'm a fan of using "external high quality apps"   
Evernote can store files of any format as note attachments; I store my handwriting notes in Evernote

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39 minutes ago, terablade2001 said:

INKredible Pro can export the notes to PDF / PNG and the files to be attached to Evernote. ... PDF / PNG are not editable (as handwritten data) any more.

If I keep the INKredible Pro file format files to Evernote then they are not viewable / editable unless they imported back to the application.

Depending on your needs
- For an editable file, store in the native file format
- For a viewable file, store in pdf/png format

When I have the same requirement - I save in both formats
The screenshot is an email note; I save in both .eml and .pdf format1509311146_ScreenShot2019-11-30at11_54_49AM.png.45b2879a8a878db83646e59775211e0e.png

 

>>I have the impression that the handwrite feature of Evernote, is just a useless “candy“ just to say that Evernote support handwritten notes compared to other apps (like i.e. MS Notes)

Evernote's sketch feature is not a tool I use for handwriting
My preferred tool is the Notability app (Apple iPadOS)

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15 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Depending on your needs
- For an editable file, store in the native file format
- For a viewable file, store in pdf/png format

My needs (and I guess most people needs that use stylus) is for both editable and viewable files, without saving intermediate files.

If Evernote is actually a note app, it should offer indexed note capabilities for actual handwriting, not indexed storage capabilities in combination with other apps.

21 minutes ago, DTLow said:

Evernote's sketch feature is not a tool I use for handwriting
I prefer the Notability app

Even you, you are referring to Evernote handwriting feature are Evernote sketch feature. Actually its Evernote "clumsy sketch" feature.

All I'm saying is that when Evernote tells that its supporting the handwriting feature, it should actually support it, in a rather good quality. Having a "clumsy sketch" (garbage) feature that promotes it as handwriting feature is just a disgrace; for at least such an application.

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@terablade2001, you've said several times that Evernote's Android handwriting feature is "garbage," but I wonder if you could be more specific about how it fails for you. I'm sorry if this should be obvious, but I don't use this feature much, and I'd like to know more about its strengths and weaknesses. It might also be helpful if any Evernote staff check this thread and are looking for specific ideas to improve it.

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20 hours ago, terablade2001 said:

INKredible Pro can export the notes to PDF / PNG and the files to be attached to Evernote ... viewable ... not editable (as handwritten data) any more.

Just wanted to post another purpose for using PDF/PNG files
The content is indexed for Evernote's search feature; even handwriting

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25 minutes ago, terablade2001 said:

I think that if Evernote takes handwriting feature seriously

In regards to taking a feature seriously, I expect this only applies to Evernote's core feature set
For other features; you're better off using a dedicated app

As to what constitutes Evernote's core, there can be debate
I assure you it's not handwriting.
Even the note editor - I find it limited and often use dedicated editors for serious work

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3 hours ago, Eduardo Silva said:

Not sure how things are prioritized

For priorities, user votes are only one of the factors, and 30 votes Is not a great indicator

For my use, I see Evernote as a text based product (enml/html)   
and look to other products for my handwriting/annotation needs   
The images and documents are stored in Evernote as note attachments

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I've waiting for better handwriting solution on Android/ChromeOS platform for years and absolutely NOTHING was done so I gave up on Evernote and I am using other app. Certainly Evernote was the best note taker app for years, but years ago. Today Evernote is an VERY OLD application that hasn't been improved for years.... form me it is 10 years delayed compared to competitors. 

Just a tip: compare handwriting features to Nebo, Bamboo Paper, Squid or even Samsung Notes (there are dozens more)

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I am not sure if they implemented any of the above but I totally agree with the last post:

1. Palm rejection is must

At least I think they improved lagging/performance issues, because I do not see that happening with tab 8 ultra that much. But since there is no Palm rejection, taking notes in sketch is pain.

You accidentally write on the screen or zoom out...

Please guys

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There is no "better" handwriting support. There is NO handwriting support - all you get is a drawing app that allows you to write something. It is called Sketch because this is what it was build for. Sketch is as far from a real handwriting app as it can probably be.

If you want to take handwritten notes, get a handwriting app. That's the simple bottom line.

As a Pro tip: Noteshelf is a decent handwriting app, for Android as well. As a bonus it allows to sync directly with EN, taking your handwritten notes from Noteshelf and making them available in your EN account.

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Thank you for the suggestion, I will check Noteshelf.

Though, you are right, evernote is bad for handwriting I am aware of that. Only reason I am currently using Evernote is, Samsung notes app not supporting adding video or attachments to their notes. You can only add picture and audio. And that is a deal breaker for me.

Otherwise samsung notes is prefect handwriting app.

Though again, if EN added palm rejection and basic pen support, that would be enough for lot of people.

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