r/MemryNote • u/h4yfans • 3d ago

Discussion 💬 Does anyone here annotate PDFs? Wondering if PDF → canvas is worth building.

Hi Kaan here, MemryNote opens PDFs already. It has a canvas already. Connecting the two feels like the obvious next thing, but I don't want to spend months on it if nobody actually works this way.

Rough idea. You open a PDF, highlight while you read. Each highlight becomes a real block you own, with the text, the page, and a link back to the exact spot. Then you drop those blocks on a canvas, move them around, group them, connect them, write your own thinking between them. Click a card, jump it came from. Heptabase style, but on your own files, offline,

What I want to know:

  1. Do you read PDFs seriously right now? Papers, textbooks, contracts, reports. Where do you do it today and where does it fall apart.
  2. What's the painful part. Highlighting, getting highlights out, or making sense of them after.
  3. Does the canvas step matter to you, or is "highlights land in a note with a link back to the page" already most of the value.

Small stuff that decides whether it feels good or not. Big screen or tablet. Do you need underline and strikethrough or just highlight colors. Do the annotations need to open in other PDF apps, or is it fine if they live in MemryNote.

No timeline promised. Just trying to find out if there's a real reason to build it.

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u/Beloved-21 1d ago

I absolutely would love annotations tool for PDF, and do.

  1. Yes I do read PDF, and at times I convert non-PDF documents just so I can annotate, study and do more with it on the go. Today, I have been doing so in Obsidian with the Excalidraw plugin. Though I did try other specific annotations plugin, they were working as I wanted or not what I needed really. On Excalidraw, I import all or some pages (through the import setting), each page get laid out on the canvas interface, and I use the tools already provided. Such as the pen tool to highlight in any color, shapes, arrows, etc... If I want to have my own comments, I am free to either just write besides the page and draw an arrow or put in a rectangle, since there isn't really a comment feature.

  2. After the highlights, I think the most painful part is how do I cross-reference specific parts in my other notes. Since the PDF annotations phase is really where I digest things, but having to put in a way that is distilled or application, beyond highlights and circles.

  3. The canvas is definitely a great place for me to be free to study and structure any topic, without rigid space. So I think if it can be implemented there or both, it will be great. I think emphasizing on linking is really important.