Handwriting Natively

unlisted

by Mars

PDF handwriting. Use your apple pencil/stylus to write in PDFs natively as the higher powers intended.

★ 2 starsUpdated 19d agoMIT
View on 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)
  • 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.

Optional real-Obsidian performance probe

For repeatable desktop zoom investigations, build the separate local developer plugin at ../obsidian-dev-probe. Install it only in a disposable development vault alongside HN, start a capture, reproduce a zoom/draw/rotate sequence, then export its JSON report.

While capture is active, HN supplies bounded in-process phase diagnostics for zoom start/settle/repaint/release, native PDF-page mutations, and sidecar persistence. It does not write these diagnostics to the vault, alter source PDFs, or emit pointer-move telemetry. With no active probe capture, HN does not dispatch those events.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Privacy

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

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