An interesting approach to digitizing hand-written notes

In recent years, a number of approaches to taking hand-writing and turning it digital has come to the market. From tablet computers to writing tablets with e-Ink technology, there are plenty of offerings out there, none of which has scratched my itch for hand-written notes. Tablet computers tend to be too slick and slippery, resulting in a less than satisfactory writing experience, and e-ink writing tablets are – at least as this is being written – just not good enough for my use.

At a seminar last year, I was introduced to Rocketbook, a company with four offerings; the Wave, whose pages can be wiped in a microwave oven, the Everlast, whose pages can be wiped through the use of water, the One, whose pages cannot be wiped, and the Colour, whose pages can be wiped through the use of water. In addition to all these, they also offer free, printable PDF templates.

On their own, these offerings are somewhat underwhelming. That all changes when you combine their use with the free iOS and Android apps, that utilise the camera to scan the pages, and the symbols at the bottom of the page to pre-program seven destinations across a number of platforms including email and a number of cloud storage systems.

I have not made a secret of my love of hand-written notes, and the idea of wiping the pages does not really appeal to me. For me, then, printing the templates, in combination with buying a number of the single-use versions, has worked very well. The app scans the pages with reasonable speed, bundling pages in a PDF, and delivering them to the pre-defined destination.

While I don’t expect to ever stop using hand-written notes, Rocketbook at least gives me a quick and efficient way to ensure that I can access my notes even if my notebooks are stuck in a box at home.