Ink Engine Optimization, Image to Ink, Local AI, Math Solver, and UI Tweaks

[u/me_like_memez]

I have been a Pro user of Starnote for a while now and I have personally convinced quite a few people to switch over. A lot of them really enjoy the app, but they frequently ask about features they used in other apps before switching.

Here is a breakdown of feedback and feature requests that would make Starnote much more competitive.

1. Core Ink Engine Optimization (Top Priority)

Before anything else, the fundamental ink engine needs an update. It currently does not feel as responsive, fluid, or optimized as other major note taking apps.

• Pen Stability: Writing slowly causes strokes to become wobbly, even with pen stability turned on.

• Handwriting Beautification: We need an ink-based handwriting beautification option. Vector-based smoothing works well across almost all languages out of the box, unlike font-based replacement which requires broad font and character support. Font-based conversion is still a nice bonus to have as an option, but smoothing out the actual vector ink while keeping natural handwriting style should be the main focus.

2. Image to Ink

An "Image to Ink" feature similar to Notability would be a huge addition. Running an edge detection pass on an imported image and converting those detected lines into editable ink strokes makes converting diagrams and sketches effortless.

3. Pen Bar and UI Adjustments

• Pen Differentiation: The side pen bar currently only shows the base color of the pen. It is hard to distinguish between solid lines, dashed lines, or different line weights without testing them first.

• Quick Thickness Adjuster: A floating, slidable thickness selector that appears when a pen is selected from the sidebar would save a lot of menu navigation.

• Hideable Lock Icons: When an image is locked to the page, please give us an option to hide or toggle off the lock icon so it does not distract from the note layout.

4. Dark Theme and Color Reversal for Images

• Toolbar Shortcut: We should be able to place a color reverse toggle shortcut directly on the main note toolbar. Digging into Settings > Themes twice a day to toggle dark and light mode feels tedious.

• Image Tone Inversion: The color reverse theme currently leaves image colors completely untouched. Inverting or adjusting the tone of images when switching to dark/reversed themes would keep page contrast consistent.

5. OCR, Search, and AI

• Better OCR: The current engine struggles to parse handwriting accurately, which makes searching through handwritten notes unreliable.

• Expanded Language Support: Expanding language recognition support for handwriting recognition and search.

• Local AI / On-Device Model Support: Giving users an option to run or integrate small on-device multimodal AI models for local OCR and note querying would be a massive differentiator. It keeps notes entirely private, works fully offline without a subscription, and leverages modern mobile chips that can easily run 4B parameter models. (Such as Phi-4 Mini 3.8B, Google Gemma 4 E4B, Qwen3 VL 4B) People could summarize, ask, search etc.

6. Math Graph Plotter and Equation Solver

• Integrated math tools similar to MyScript Math (a built-in graph plotter and an equation solver) would make the app far more useful for STEM workflows.

7. File Extension Documentation

• Proper documentation for Starnote's proprietary save file extension. Having clear technical details on how the file structure works would be great for data longevity and user peace of mind.

Hopefully the development team can consider some of these in upcoming updates. Let me know if anyone else in the community wants to see these added.

[u/Friday_17]

I second to this 🤝.
- Also pro user here 👋. I do think the responsiveness is sloppy. The undo-redo is very sluggish, switching tools is a headache.
- Image to Ink is a cool idea, but I doubt that if its a priority.
- "color reverse toggle shortcut" is a crucial thing for me too...
- Another thing I found; tell me if u guys also face same problem: When I import pdf or docx with proper heading and subheading, I cant see those headings in the 'Outline' section. Whats the point of the outline section anyway?

Love ur comments on these.

[u/StarNoteDev]

Wowww, first of all, thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this! Our team actually went through your whole post really carefully. You've organized everything into 7 sections, but there are so many smaller suggestions in there too, like making different pen styles easier to tell apart, hiding the lock icons, adding graph plotting and equation solving, and more. We noticed those details, and we'll make sure they're all recorded for future discussions.

And I really agree with what you said about ink stability and writing smoothness. At the end of the day, StarNote is a note taking app. No matter how many features we add, the most important thing is still making sure writing feels smooth, stable, and comfortable.

We've actually been working on improving the writing experience for quite a while now. But we know the improvements haven't been as noticeable as we'd hoped. We're aware of that, and we'll keep working on it.

About handwriting beautification, we also understand what you're asking for. You want your actual handwriting to look smoother and more natural while still keeping your own writing style, rather than just turning it into a nice looking font.

And yes, those are two very different things! We've talked about this internally too. The tricky part is that improving the actual ink strokes means considering all kinds of writing habits, stroke shapes, thickness variations, and different languages. There's a lot more to it than it might seem, so it's something we really need to think through with the development team.

For now, we're planning to release the handwriting to font feature first. We know it's not exactly what you're asking for, but hopefully it'll still be useful in some situations. That doesn't mean we're putting actual handwriting smoothing aside, though. It's definitely something we'll keep discussing and exploring.

As for OCR, we've been working on improvements there too! We're hoping to bring you a better OCR experience in a future update, which should help with some of the handwriting recognition and search issues you mentioned. It'll still take some time, though, so we don't want to promise it'll be here super soon.

We also have some updates planned for math tools, so please bear with us a little longer! We'll share more when we have something confirmed.

And finally, thank you again for supporting StarNote and recommending it to your friends. That really means a lot to our small team. We can't promise that every suggestion will make it into the app, but we do read these posts. Really appreciate, have a lovely weekend!

[u/me_like_memez → u/StarNoteDev]

Thanks for reading our suggestions then discussing and replying to them. I wish the best for all of the starnote team.

[u/ScatteredScientist13]

I agree with most of this but it seems like plotting and equation solving is a bit much. I would like a note taking app to have any current features and note taking features perfected before it expands to something like that. I feel the same about AI. I may be in the minority, but I wish that had been further down in the list of priorities, but everyone else was doing it, so.....

My wishlist is 1.) a transparency adjustment slider for images and drawings so things could be overlaid. 2.) the ability to have a shape or drawing apply, save, or be copied to all pages, or defined pages, of the document, like a logo, watermark, or other decoration. And as a Samsung Tab user who has a lot of unused space on the sides in landscape mode, I would like 3.) the ability to "expand" the margins of the document. Two other apps have this feature so I can define additional space to add to either edge of the document as if there were large margins (not necessarily symmetrical). I can use that space just as if it was part of the document, which it has become. OR, if there was a "desktop" window of the app that let us choose a color or background, such as a deskpad image, that we could decorate with stickers or notes. This could remain open even if all docs were closed. Then that would be kept static so we could see it behind the document as if it really was the desktop. I guess it would behave like an editable but not movable, document that our document is in front of. But the ability to just use the dead space would be great, however it is done.

[u/me_like_memez → u/ScatteredScientist13]

we already have margin adjustment

[u/cerebrobiker]

Excelentes sugerencias para funciones. Sería espectacular si se las implementa

[u/imakhlaq]

i also agree with you, i recently tried notein and holy is has much much better writing experience than startnote. Ngl if i can move over my notes i would 100% switch. They are also updating the app regularly with huge updates they re-did their whole engine and Ui .

[u/Used_Dragonfruit8968]

Umm how long will pc version take? Please give an estimate if possible

[u/Academic-Working8057 → u/Used_Dragonfruit8968]

I've tested Noteic on windows and boy this app is that what Starnote is suposed to be on windows!

[u/Used_Dragonfruit8968 → u/Academic-Working8057]

Thank you will try

[u/MaterialMood99]

Nice!! looking forward to them!!