Handwriting Natively

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!

• 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)
• Commands to create a handwritten PDF, create a GoodNotes-sized blank notebook, add a matching blank page, and export selected ink as SVG (create-handwritten-pdf, create-notebook, add-page-to-active-pdf, export-selected-pdf-ink-as-svg)
• File-explorer folder context menu New PDF (GoodNotes Standard blank page in that folder)
• Assignable Hotkeys commands to switch to Pen, Eraser, Laser Pointer, Lasso, or Text (select-pdf-pen, select-pdf-eraser, select-pdf-laser-pointer, select-pdf-lasso, select-pdf-text), plus undo and redo (undo-pdf-annotation, redo-pdf-annotation)
• 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.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Privacy

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