restoring a backup does not restore deleted scans from that backup

Steps to reproduce: take some scans export a backup zip file delete a scan restore the backup Current behavior is that the deleted scan stays deleted. Users might expect to be able to recover deleted pages this way. There are a couple of options for handling this better. One is to prompt the user to ask if scans should be restored. This would trigger if there are scans marked as deleted in the app, that are not marked as deleted in the backup. The prompt asks the user if those scans should be restored, ideally with options for selectively restoring. The other option is to offer an "undelete" feature. That could go along with a "move to trash" strategy instead of immediately deleting. Restoring the backup gives you another change to undelete in case the undeletion window in the app has expired. The advantage of this approach is that it doesn't require user action right at the restore point, which would work better with cloud sync which runs in the background.

search across all journals

Automatically orient scans

Display scanned page images with rotation applied to make the page appear as straight up-and-down as possible. Ideally any horizontal lines / rules on the page should appear perfectly horizontal on the screen.

Save pages without handwriting analysis

This would apply if you have run out of page scan credits, or if there is server downtime or some other error. The idea is that you could still scan and save pages, but you wouldn’t get page number detection, search, or text copying for those pages. I was concerned that the experience in that case would be degraded enough to turn people off of the app. But there might be a middle ground: save pages, but have some kind of persistent notice that the writing on those pages hasn’t been analyzed. There would be an option to run handwriting analysis after the fact when you get more scan credits, or when the server is back online.

Store data on SD card

I got a request for an option to the local copies of page scans on an external SD card. I’ll have to do some research on how to do this on Android and iOS - if iOS supports this. It looks like iPhones don’t have SD card slots, but people sometimes use USB-C or Lightning connected storage. At least I know on Android internal storage keeps files completely private to that app. Using external storage can make data available to other apps that have permission to access storage. Maybe there is also an app-private external storage option. If not that could be acceptable if the user is informed. Another option (that is not mutually exclusive) is to support external storage as a backup target.

Match lighting between scans

Request from a tester: An option to match lighting. Whether that's a simple image edit, or just an AI touch-up option, something in case the lighting is wildly different between uploads. I’ve noticed the same thing. The easiest option might be to desaturate scans which would end up with a black and white look, or something closer to a black and white look. But maybe there is some less aggressive white balance option.

Setting per-journal for whether to use page numbers

From the tester who made this request: When creating a new journal, I would love the option to "Use page numbers" (followed by marking where on the page to check for page numbers. Say "upper corner," "upper center," "lower corner," or "lower center") OR, "Use page order" to automatically number by where the page is in the upload order. This option would also really benefit from a feature that lets you choose "Reorder Pages" (or similar) to hold-and-drag to manually order pages So this relates to @Setting for where page numbers are located but this request specifies an option to not use page numbers.

Re-review numbers for saved pages

Request from a tester: Option from the Journal screen to "Update all page numbers," that does a Review for all of the pages scanned so far. It sounds like this is a request to take all pages from a journal that have already been reviewed and saved, and to review them again with the review feature where you see zoomed in views of the detected page numbers. So this would be an option to catch mistakes that slipped through the cracks previously. The reporter points out that currently page number changes to saved pages have to be done one page at a time.

Remind me which pages need scanning

Another request from a tester: When adding new pages, it would be super helpful to have a prompt somewhere that says "Last page added: (#)", or "Pages uploaded so far: (# to #)" I think the idea is to have this info on the scan screen, and I agree. Space on that screen is quite limited, so it will take some creativity to fit it in. Currently there is a message at the top before you start scanning that has instructions. You don’t need to see that after you have learned the process, so that space could be used for page number reminders instead. But that area gets replaced with thumbnails after you start scanning. Is it important to fill that top space with a strip of thumbnails? Maybe a more compact status indicator would work? There was another comment from the reporter: I upload 20ish pages in two batches, and on the "Review scans" screen I couldn't remember what page I'd ended on before, so my journal right now goes from 0-35 and then 50-63 because I didn't want them to mix by guessing too low on the first page number of the second batch

Setting for where page numbers are located

I got a request for a setting, perhaps a per-journal setting, to fine-tune page number detection. Currently the app looks for numbers in the corners, and in the top center and bottom center. (It might be too generous about what is considered “corner”, “top”, and “bottom” - that’s another detail to tweak.) You could set it so, for example, for your current journal it should only look in the bottom corners for page numbers. At this point the app doesn’t know whether it’s looking at a left page or a right page so there isn’t a great way to get more specific about which bottom corner to check.

text in exported PDF does not have spaces

export a PDF from the app select text & copy paste somewhere text can be inspected Pasted text does not have spaces between words.

repeated zoom is not centered on gesture

When zooming a page scan, the zoom transform is centered on the gesture, so you zoom in to the spot between your fingers. That's expected behavior. But if you zoom in, take your fingers of the screen, and zoom in further then the transform for the second zoom is not centered between your fingers.

Hashtags

It would be nice to be able to characterize a note using hashtags. So a note related to an idea for a renovation project could be #ideas, #projects/renovations

Automatic sequential numbering

When uploading multiple pages, I should have the option to set sequential page numbers, so that after setting the first page number (n) subsequent pictures are given page numbers n+1, n+2…

configurable options to delete old page versions

To save memory, especially if some pages are re-scanned many times, add configurable policy for automatic deletion. This could be something like "delete old versions" or "keep last 3" or "keep for one week". The Borg backup program has UX examples to reference. So does the nh old generation cleanup feature.

draw ios-style text selection handles on ios

Crop guides that match proportions of journal pages

Framing scans is a little tricky because the camera view is wider than my journal pages. I think it would be helpful to have configurable crop guides to make it easier to capture all text on a page without accidentally getting some text from the opposite page. Journals commonly use ISO paper sizes like A5 or B5. Those all use the same proportions, so that could be a good default. It would be helpful to have some presets for other proportions, like for US letter, legal, and composition books. Maybe also an option to enter custom proportions.

on journal switch, offer to move unreviewed scans

failed scan should disappear

option to delete journal

Share & Export

Sometimes getting "invalid token" from Google auth until app is restarted

back up to iCloud

back up to Google Drive

review screen loads slowly

prompt with clarification on what will happen before restore from backup

restore should exit onboarding flow if a journal is present

android icon is over-cropped

scan preview is blurry on some iphones

expo-apple-authentication.signInAsync is not available on android

The error message above appeared with the message “Handwriting analysis failed” when attempting to scan pages on one user’s device. The Android app isn’t supposed to try to use the Apple authentication library, so it looks like some wires are crossed.

unreviewed scans indicator in journal switcher widget