Tools

Tap the active tool again for its options - thickness, opacity (pen), what the eraser erases, the shape options or the selection mode. Colours sit on the toolbar; in a narrow window they move into a panel under the colour button.

Eraser options

For shapes and for the highlighter separately: Off (left alone), Whole (touching removes all of it) or Part (cuts out only what you rub over). Filled shapes and arrows are always removed whole.

Shapes

• Line styles: solid, dashed, dotted, dash-dot.
• Fill: outline only, solid, light fill with outline, or light fill only.
• Outline and fill colours are separate: with a fill on, the Outline / Fill fields before the palette pick which one the palette changes. Right-click or long-press Fill to match the outline again.
• Hold Shift for straight angles, squares and circles.

Selection

• Draw around strokes and images, or tap one (it is selected with its whole group).
• Drag to move - also onto another page. Corner handle: scale. Round handle: rotate (Shift = 15° steps).
• The palette recolours the selection; tap the selection tool again for thickness.
• Selection options (toolbar button or right-click): group / ungroup, lock, bring to front / send to back, align, rotate 90°, duplicate, copy, cut, delete.
• Locked items can't be selected, moved or erased - right-click the page → Unlock.

Keyboard shortcuts

Scrolling and zoom

• Fingers / trackpad: one finger scrolls (with inertia), two fingers pinch-zoom. Mouse: wheel scrolls, Ctrl + wheel zooms.
• Zoom button (e.g. 135%): - / +, Fit width, 100% and up to four favourite zoom levels. Open notes at … makes every note open at that zoom.
• Zoomed in, you can push the page further sideways - bring its edge under your hand.
• Notes remember where you stopped and open there.
• The current page has an accent frame, the other pages are slightly dimmed, and its number (12 / 40) sits beside it - tap it to open the pages panel.

Pages panel

Open it with the Pages button, ⋯ → Pages panel, or right-click / long-press a page.

• Sections: pages are grouped by their titles; tap a header to fold it. Search jumps to a page number or a title.
• Tap a thumbnail to go there; drag it (or long-press and drag) to move it.
• Long-press / right-click a thumbnail: add page before / after, duplicate, title, style, move to…, delete.
• Select several pages for Style, Duplicate, Move to… or Delete.
• Contents tab lists the titled pages. Columns: 1, 2 or 3.
• Every change can be undone from the Undo message; deleting pages first saves a version.

Page style

⋯ → Page style…, right-click a page, or the pages panel. Apply it to this page, all pages (also used for new pages), another page or the selected pages.

• Size: portrait A4, landscape A4, or endless - one page that grows as you write (up to 16 A4 pages).
• Pattern: dots, lines, grid, blank, Cornell, isometric, lines + margin, checklist, millimetre paper, music staff.
• Paper colour: presets or any colour. Use note default removes a page's own style.

Page titles and contents

Right-click a page → Page title… (also in the pages panel and as a command). Titled pages start sections in the pages panel, appear in the Contents tab, are found by Go to page… and become bookmarks in exported PDFs.

Images and screenshots

• Paste (Ctrl+V), drag and drop, or ⋯ → Insert image….
• Move, scale and rotate like strokes; right-click → Crop image….
• Screenshot (Windows): starts the Snipping Tool and inserts the capture.

PDF import

Each PDF page becomes a page of the note with the PDF as its background - write on lecture slides, worksheets or papers. Landscape PDF pages become landscape pages. Uses the PDF engine built into Obsidian (offline).

Calculator

Toolbar button or command. A compact Basic tab and a Scientific tab with complex numbers, matrices, integrals, derivatives, equation solving and a unit converter. Click a result to copy it.

Function plots

⋯ menu or command. Functions, parametric and polar curves, or data points with a fitted curve. Options include One period, π-based ticks, a clean style without a grid and size presets. Plots are inserted as images and stay editable (right-click → Edit plot).

Export to PDF

⋯ → Export to PDF (or the command). Choose where to save it each time, or set a default: next to the note, a vault folder, or - on desktop - a folder on your computer. Page sizes, patterns, images and PDF backgrounds are kept; page titles become bookmarks. Resolution: Settings → Files and export.

Printing

⋯ → Print… On desktop the system print dialog opens with one sheet per page (endless pages are cut into A4 sheets). On phones and tablets plugins can't open a print dialog, so the note is exported to PDF - print it from your PDF viewer.

Version history

Versions are saved automatically: while you work (at most every N minutes), when you close the note, before pages are deleted and before an older version is restored. Identical and empty versions are never stored.

⋯ → Version history… lists versions by day with a preview: restore (can be undone), open as a copy, save a version now or delete. The last 24 hours keep every version, older days keep one per day. Retention and a size limit per note: Settings → Version history.

PDF without Obsidian (hnote2pdf.py)

A small Python script (3.8+, no extra packages; Pillow optional) turns .hnote notes into vector PDFs on any computer.

1. Settings → Files and export → Save hnote2pdf.py, or the command Copy terminal line to convert this note to PDF with Python.
2. Run it:

python3 hnote2pdf.py "Lectures/Physics/Lecture 1.hnote"          # → Lecture 1.pdf next to the note
python3 hnote2pdf.py "Lecture 1.hnote" -o ~/Desktop/lecture.pdf
python3 hnote2pdf.py MyVault -r -o ~/PDF/                         # every note in a folder, recursively
python3 hnote2pdf.py ".Lecture 1.hnote-data/history/20261019-212953_0f315cad_auto.hnote.gz"   # an old version

Options: --no-pattern, --pressure 0.7 / --no-pressure, --vault PATH. The file format is described at the top of the script and in src/tools/README.md.

Where your data lives

Lectures/Physics/Lecture 1.hnote                  ← the note (plain JSON)
Lectures/Physics/.Lecture 1.hnote-data/           ← hidden folder of this note
    attachments/        images, plots, imported PDF pages
    history/            versions (gzip) + images only old versions use
    meta.json

• The hidden folder moves, renames and is deleted together with the note - the two contain everything.
• Images the note no longer uses move to history/attachments and are removed once no version needs them.
• Prefer Obsidian's attachment folder? Settings → Files and export → Where to keep pasted images and PDF pages. Some sync services (e.g. Obsidian Sync) skip hidden folders.

Privacy

• No network requests, no telemetry. PDF import uses the PDF engine bundled with Obsidian.
• Writes only .hnote notes, their hidden .<name>.hnote-data folders and - when you ask - hnote2pdf.py. Files outside the vault only when you pick a folder on your computer for PDF export (desktop).
• Reads only .hnote files, never your Markdown notes. The vault file list is used to find other notes (so a renamed note can't take over another note's folder) and to offer folders for PDF export.
• Clipboard only when you ask: copy / paste, a screenshot, a calculator result or the hnote2pdf.py command - and while waiting for a Snipping Tool screenshot you started.
• Desktop-only extras: saving PDFs outside the vault, the Windows Snipping Tool, and reading images from the system clipboard. Everything else works on desktop, tablets and phones.

Toolbar and the ⋯ menu

Settings → Toolbar decides what is on the toolbar:

• Tools - eraser, highlighter, selection, shapes, undo / redo (the pen and the colours always stay).
• Shortcut buttons - calculator, zoom, contents, plot, insert image, pages panel, page style, screenshot, import / export PDF, print, version history, fit to width. Reorder (‹ ›), remove (×) or add from Available.

Everything else is in the ⋯ menu (nothing appears twice), together with quick switches for pen pressure and palm rejection.

Pen and touch

• Pen pressure on / off and strength.
• Palm rejection: Auto ignores touch while the pen is near or was just used, and large contacts; Strict - fingers never scroll.
• Pinch to zoom: a sliding hand only scrolls, a resting hand (3+ contacts) does nothing. Can be turned off.
• Long-press menu: hold a finger still for the page menu.
• Pen side button: page menu, undo, redo, Snipping Tool (Windows) or nothing.

OLED care

• Dark paper on screen - light pages shown dark with light ink (display only, files and exports unchanged).
• Fade the toolbar while writing - comes back when the pen or cursor gets close.
• Pixel shift - the view moves by 1-2 px every few minutes.
• Dim when idle - after 1-30 minutes; the first tap only wakes it.

All settings

Commands (Ctrl/Cmd + P)

Project layout

src/main.ts             plugin + the view (lifecycle, loading / saving notes)
src/styles.css          all styles
src/view/*.ts           view features as mixins (input, navigation, selection, currentPage, pagesPanel, toolbar, versions, …)
src/format.ts           file format versions and migrations (v1 → v4)
src/pageFormat.ts       page sizes (A4, landscape, endless)
src/templates.ts        page patterns (shared geometry for screen, thumbnails, PDF)
src/math/               calculator, expression parser, units, function plots
src/tools/hnote2pdf.py  standalone converter; src/tools/embed_script.py copies it into src/converterScript.ts
scripts/                esbuild.config.mjs (build), build-site.mjs (website), deploy.mjs (copy the build into a vault)
site/                   website + live demo: content.mjs (texts and links), render.mjs, site.css, shim/ (fake Obsidian API)
manifest.json           plugin manifest - stays in the repository root, Obsidian reads it from there
.github/workflows/      release.yml: GitHub release on a version tag · pages.yml: the website on every push to master
build/                  build output (not committed)

Scripts

npm install
npm run dev           # build into build/ and rebuild on change
npm run build         # production build into build/
npm run typecheck     # TypeScript check
npm run lint          # ESLint with Obsidian's review rules (eslint-plugin-obsidianmd)
npm run embed         # after changing src/tools/hnote2pdf.py
npm run deploy:local  # build and copy build/* into the vault folder set in .vault-plugin-dir
npm run site:dev      # website + live demo on http://localhost:8080 (rebuilds on change)
npm run site:build    # website into build/site/

Releasing

Set the same version in manifest.json and package.json, then push a tag with that version (no v prefix). release.yml builds the plugin and creates the GitHub release. The website (pages.yml) is published on every push to master.