Forgive my ignorance, but I’ve got a question concerning OCR tools. Until now, I have utilized a paid service to upload, scan, convert them to searchable documents, and store my handwritten Uni notes. Handwritten because, frankly, my brain seems to engage with the content “better” than by digital note-taking.

It worked fine for what I needed, so I have never investigated open-source or had actual ownership/control over my uploaded notes before. As my work expands and the database of notes grows, maintaining data privacy is a huge concern, and I do not want to use the same system for interviews and such. My Uni has been, well, unhelpful sadly.

Are there any recommendations for having a similar system that puts more control and privacy in my hands?

  • Handwriting has been proven to enhance learning in humans, so you are doing great by keeping the habit!

    I don’t have much to recommend, but so far this little tool was very useful for me and my math studies: https://github.com/lukas-blecher/LaTeX-OCR

    I am not a student, but I learn like a student all the time. I also enjoy handwriting (got an e-ink tablet for that) and knowledge management. I am often dreaming of a “perfect setup” where all I write gets pushed automatically through OCR into my knowledge vault (Obsidian, Logseq or whatever I/my peers happen to use). Even came up with a plan. I hope this new year will leave me enough energy to execute something useful.

    Would you like to collaborate on that perhaps?

    • I appreciate your answer; give me time to research what you’ve laid before me and get back to you. Feel free to ping me (PM? DM? I’m new here) to discuss further. I am starting from 0 on this one, including having little to no knowledge of Obsidian beyond “Hey, that exists.”