Note taker with embedded drawing and math capabiliy

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Posted by Prion
Mar 21, 2024 at 09:39 AM

Hi all
In my eternal journey towards the non-existing note-taking workflow (here is probably one of the few places where I don’t have to apologize for it) I am looking for an app that would allow me to integrate non-textual input into my notes. I am mostly interested in sketches/drawings and math formulas.

Not static screenshots but stuff I can interact with at a later time.
I really enjoy handwriting formulas on a tablet and converting them later into typeset ones that can be corrected if need be. Not pencil-based but still useful is Compositor , mathpix I have not used in a long time.
Typing Latex math, Not so much.
Goodnotes works well enough for math, but I worry about the future and vendor lock-in.
Agenda is quite good at letting me throw in an embedded drawing that I can pick up later on the iPad but cannot convert math.

Bonus points for free and open source software, privacy oriented, too.
It doesn’t have to be an all-in-one app but a useable workflow that consists of a small number of moving parts.
I am mostly a Mac user.
Any takes?
Thanks
Prion

Posted by Franz Grieser
Mar 21, 2024 at 01:28 PM

Not exactly free (for commercial uses), nor Open Source: Obsidian with Excalidraw.

https://excalidraw.com/

Off course, you can use Excalidraw as a standalone app. You just need a note-taking app that can handle the images and open Excalidraw.

Posted by Prion
Mar 23, 2024 at 09:38 PM

Thank for the pointer, Franz, it seems I have some catching up to do, I had not taken notice of Excalidraw other than through its plugin version for Obsidian.
I’ll take a closer look at its full-scale parent

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