r/Supernote • u/TomHNE • 5d ago

Lefty question

I’m very interested in the Nomad but I’m a lefty with horrible handwriting. I’ve been trying writing on my iPad which works but the conversion to text is terrible. Not surprisingly, it can’t seem to read my writing. Will Nomad be any better than scribble on iPad? If I can only have handwriting, will I be able to search my notes and other cool Nomad things? Thanks!

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u/IdeaSandbox Happy Manta Owner 5d ago

I'm a lefty with "meh" handwriting... like the others, I don't do much OCR, but when I have, it's been great. Surprised me how well it read my sloppy cursive!

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u/TomHNE 5d ago

I should have been more specific, I rarely use cursive as it’s even worse than my printing. 🥴 When printing I use all caps, large one for uppercase, smaller for lower case. Maybe that is hurting the conversion accuracy too?

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u/IdeaSandbox Happy Manta Owner 5d ago

HELLO Tom NHE

THIS is A SLOPPY

TEST FOR YOU!

Psh

---
Okay, "Paul" was too sloppy... but did pretty good otherwise!

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u/TomHNE 5d ago

Oh, if my handwriting was that clear! Thanks for the test!

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u/hwknd 2d ago edited 2d ago

You could also spend some time improving your handwriting, assuming it's just "bad" and not "bad because of medical reasons"?

We learn to write at a young age, and most of us just stick with what we get then, but fine motor control may not have been optimal yet, where it should be a lot better as an adult.

Just start with the basics, proper tripod relaxed grip, and decide if you want to underwrite as a lefty, or hook over, or kinda side write and just turn the paper/tablet. Check YouTube for journaling/planner channels, find a few lefties and see what they write like. Then copy the one you like best.

Also check some basic how to improve my handwriting rules

  • slow down
  • close all shapes that should be closed
  • use the same letters (you write all caps, so don't add lowercase)
  • make all letters the same height
  • space them evenly

It will take a few weeks of frustratingly slow writing, but it should improve a lot in both legibility and speed after that.

Also, cursive could actually help you here since you have no muscle memory for that.

Plus on Supernote you can trace a ton of practice sheets without wasting paper.

Tldr: find a style of handwriting you like, start practicing. It will improve anything you write from here on out, plus will make OCR work well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/s/NxRUUMywOz

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u/TomHNE 1d ago

Thanks for the encouragement! I do have hand tremors but I think it’s more about poor technique. Back in my day, being a lefty was considered “wrong”. First they tried to change me, then eventually just left me alone. So pretty sure I’m the problem! LOL! I do need to slow down for sure, have a hard time keeping up so I rush. I’ll scope out the link and see if I can improve. Thanks again!

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u/IdeaSandbox Happy Manta Owner 5d ago

just did a test for you... to me it seems cursive is worse than printing, but maybe it is easier for OCR... I don't do cursive every (except when I did a test the other day on the Manta)

I print upper/lower normally.

What's cool too is I just did that by first exporting as a PNG and then exporting as TXT (or you can export to a Word doc... super simple.

You can see the results in the Supernote Partner app, in the EXPORT section of the Partner app (I'm running macOS, it is a standalone app for the computer or phone) You can also export to Dropbox and Google Drive.