Upgrade StorageHandwritten notebook feature for ios and android
Hi Zotero team and community,
I've been thinking about how Zotero could potentially expand into handwritten note-taking.
Handwritten note-taking capabilities already exist in PDF annotation, but there's no way to have a dedicated note/notebook where you can add blank pages as needed. It would be useful to have these notebooks in a separate "Notebooks" section alongside Library in the main view. This would let users take handwritten notes without needing a separate app.
Possible extra features that could make this useful:
1. Custom page backgrounds
2. Bookmarks for navigation
3. Mix of typed text and handwriting
4. Links to library items and between notes
I've been using Notes+ as my go-to for handwritten notes, and I think some of those patterns could work well in Zotero's context.
My offer to help: I've actually put together a rough proof-of-concept in a fork of zotero-ios—nothing polished, just exploring feasibility. While Swift isn't my strongest language, I have experience with C++ and Python and would be happy to contribute to development if the team and community think this direction is worth pursuing.
I've been using Zotero for paper annotations on my iPad and I'm really impressed with it—especially the open-source approach, self-hosting options, and feature set. It's become essential to my workflow, and I wanted to share this idea with the community to see if others would find it valuable.
I'd love to hear thoughts from others—whether this resonates with your workflow, if there are concerns I haven't considered, or if anyone else would find this helpful!
I've been thinking about how Zotero could potentially expand into handwritten note-taking.
Handwritten note-taking capabilities already exist in PDF annotation, but there's no way to have a dedicated note/notebook where you can add blank pages as needed. It would be useful to have these notebooks in a separate "Notebooks" section alongside Library in the main view. This would let users take handwritten notes without needing a separate app.
Possible extra features that could make this useful:
1. Custom page backgrounds
2. Bookmarks for navigation
3. Mix of typed text and handwriting
4. Links to library items and between notes
I've been using Notes+ as my go-to for handwritten notes, and I think some of those patterns could work well in Zotero's context.
My offer to help: I've actually put together a rough proof-of-concept in a fork of zotero-ios—nothing polished, just exploring feasibility. While Swift isn't my strongest language, I have experience with C++ and Python and would be happy to contribute to development if the team and community think this direction is worth pursuing.
I've been using Zotero for paper annotations on my iPad and I'm really impressed with it—especially the open-source approach, self-hosting options, and feature set. It's become essential to my workflow, and I wanted to share this idea with the community to see if others would find it valuable.
I'd love to hear thoughts from others—whether this resonates with your workflow, if there are concerns I haven't considered, or if anyone else would find this helpful!