Does Penultimate Convert Handwriting to Text?

Penultimate is a popular note-taking app for iPad users, especially those who value the Apple Pencil experience. If you've been using it to capture handwritten notes, you might be wondering whether it can convert those notes into editable text. The short answer is no. Penultimate does not have built-in handwriting to text conversion capabilities.

While this limitation might be frustrating, you're not out of options. Understanding what Penultimate can and cannot do helps you choose the right approach for converting handwriting to text and digitizing your notes effectively.

Quick Takeaways

• Penultimate focuses on handwriting capture, not OCR conversion
• Evernote integration makes notes searchable but doesn't convert them to editable text by default
• Evernote's newer AI Transcribe feature offers actual text conversion
• Dedicated OCR services provide better accuracy for converting Penultimate notes to text
• Export options let you use specialized handwriting recognition tools for batch processing

What Penultimate Actually Does

Penultimate excels at creating a natural handwriting experience on iPad. It offers smooth writing with the Apple Pencil, multiple paper styles, and organizational features like notebooks and folders. The app's Drift feature automatically moves the page as you write, creating a seamless experience.

What Penultimate doesn't do is optical character recognition. The app treats your handwriting as images rather than text. This design choice prioritizes the writing experience over conversion capabilities.

Penultimate processes notes as drawings, not as recognizable text characters.

The Evernote Connection

Since Evernote acquired Penultimate, the two apps work closely together. When you sync Penultimate notes to Evernote, something interesting happens. Evernote runs OCR on your handwritten notes in the background, making them searchable.

This searchability is useful but limited. You can find notes containing specific words, but Evernote's primary strength lies in making handwritten content searchable rather than providing direct conversion to editable text format. If you search for "meeting notes," Evernote will find pages containing those words, even if they're handwritten.

Evernote's AI Transcribe Feature

More recently, Evernote introduced AI Transcribe, which actually converts handwriting to editable text. This feature goes beyond searchability by extracting text from images and inserting it as plain text below the original image.

The transcribed content remains stored with your original notes and can be edited, searched, and referenced. This represents a significant upgrade from simple searchability, though it requires an Evernote subscription and works on a per-note basis rather than batch processing.

Limitations of the Penultimate-Evernote Workflow

While the Evernote integration helps, it comes with constraints:

Search vs. Conversion

Making notes searchable is not the same as converting them. You still can't copy and paste your handwritten content into a Word document or edit it directly. The handwriting remains as an image with searchable metadata attached.

Accuracy Challenges

Evernote's OCR might not always accurately recognize every handwritten word, especially if your handwriting is unclear or the notes contain technical terminology. The search function works best with clear, print-style handwriting.

Processing Time

OCR processing happens in the background after syncing. For large notebooks, this can take time, and you won't know which notes have been fully processed until you try searching them.

Limited Bulk Processing

Converting multiple pages or entire notebooks requires processing each note individually through AI Transcribe. This becomes time-consuming when you need to digitize large volumes of handwritten content.

Better Options for Converting Penultimate Notes to Text

If you need actual text conversion rather than just searchability, consider these approaches:

Export and Process

Penultimate allows you to export pages as images. You can then upload these images to a dedicated handwriting OCR service. This approach gives you more control over the conversion process and typically delivers better accuracy than general-purpose search features.

Services designed specifically for handwriting recognition handle various writing styles, including cursive and mixed handwriting that general OCR tools struggle with.

Batch Processing

When you have multiple pages to convert, batch processing capabilities become important. Export all your Penultimate pages at once, then process them together rather than one at a time.

This saves significant time compared to processing individual notes through Evernote's interface.

Structured Output

Dedicated OCR services often provide output in formats like CSV, Excel, or structured JSON. This is particularly useful if you're converting forms, surveys, or notes that need to be organized in databases or spreadsheets.

Alternative Apps That Convert Handwriting to Text

If handwriting conversion is essential to your workflow, several note-taking apps offer better built-in OCR capabilities:

Nebo

Nebo offers exceptional handwriting to text conversion accuracy. It converts handwriting in real-time as you write, making it easy to switch between handwritten and typed content within the same note.

GoodNotes

GoodNotes combines excellent note-taking features with handwriting recognition. While not as focused on real-time conversion as Nebo, it handles both typed and handwritten content smoothly and offers robust search capabilities.

Apple Notes

Apple's built-in Notes app provides straightforward handwriting to text conversion. It automatically recognizes handwriting and makes it searchable without requiring third-party services.

If you're committed to Penultimate for its writing experience, you can still get accurate text conversion by using a dedicated OCR service for your exported notes.

When to Use Dedicated Handwriting OCR Services

Consider using a specialized OCR service when you need:

Higher accuracy requirements. When you're working with important documents where every word matters, such as research notes, meeting minutes, or historical documents, dedicated services typically deliver better results than general-purpose tools.

Multiple language support. If your notes contain multiple languages or non-English text, specialized OCR services handle mixed-language content more effectively.

Privacy and security. When converting sensitive or confidential handwritten notes, using a service that doesn't use your data for training and deletes files after processing provides better privacy protection.

Batch processing capabilities. For large volumes of handwritten pages, dedicated services process multiple documents simultaneously, saving hours compared to per-page conversion.

Structured data extraction. If you need to extract specific information from handwritten forms or surveys into structured formats, specialized tools offer custom extraction capabilities.

How to Convert Your Penultimate Notes

Here's a practical workflow for converting Penultimate handwriting to text:

1. Export your Penultimate pages as images. Select the pages you want to convert and use the export function to save them to your iPad.

2. Transfer the images to your computer or upload them directly from your iPad to an OCR service. Most services accept standard image formats like JPG and PNG.

3. Process the images through a handwriting OCR service. Upload your exported images and let the service analyze and convert them.

4. Review and edit the converted text. While OCR accuracy has improved significantly, always review the output for any recognition errors.

5. Save the converted text in your preferred format. Export as plain text, Word documents, PDFs, or structured data formats depending on your needs.

Your documents remain private and are processed only to deliver your results. They're not used for training or shared with anyone else.

Conclusion

Penultimate doesn't convert handwriting to text on its own. The app prioritizes the writing experience over conversion capabilities. While Evernote integration makes notes searchable and its AI Transcribe feature offers conversion, these solutions work best for occasional conversion rather than bulk processing.

For reliable handwriting to text conversion, especially when working with multiple pages or requiring high accuracy, dedicated OCR services provide the best results. These tools are designed specifically for handwriting recognition and handle the variety of writing styles, mixed content, and bulk processing needs that general-purpose apps struggle with.

If you value Penultimate's writing experience, you don't need to abandon it. Export your notes and use a specialized service when you need accurate text conversion. This approach gives you the best of both worlds: natural handwriting capture and reliable OCR conversion.

Ready to convert your Penultimate notes to text? Try HandwritingOCR with free credits at https://www.handwritingocr.com/try to see how accurate handwriting recognition handles your specific writing style.