Drawing with stylus and sideloaded books

[7hir7een]

I'm getting excited about the upcoming color Libra device, and I had a question for the Sage/Elipsa owners out there. Do the drawing on the page features work with sideloaded epubs? I have a massive collection of ebooks and I'm hoping I don't have to convert them to kepub to use that feature.

I tried googling the answer but I couldn't find it, and I've had no answers on Reddit, so I appreciate any help!

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

I'm getting excited about the upcoming color Libra device, and I had a question for the Sage/Elipsa owners out there. Do the drawing on the page features work with sideloaded epubs? I have a massive collection of ebooks and I'm hoping I don't have to convert them to kepub to use that feature.

I tried googling the answer but I couldn't find it, and I've had no answers on Reddit, so I appreciate any help!

Well, I haven't side-loaded via cable from PC in an age, but it certainly works with epubs I've dropped on the device through Dropbox integration, so I would assume it would work with any side-loaded epub.

I just drew an awful looking picture on the first chapter of an epub right over the text to check before I answered! Then promptly deleted my "artistic" horror show...

[7hir7een]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Well, I haven't side-loaded via cable from PC in an age, but it certainly works with epubs I've dropped on the device through Dropbox integration, so I would assume it would work with any side-loaded epub.

I just drew an awful looking picture on the first chapter of an epub right over the text to check before I answered! Then promptly deleted my "artistic" horror show...

Thank you so much, very helpful!

[Cootey]

Yes, you can draw in sideloaded epubs. You can highlight, annotate, and sketch to your heart’s content. The only drawback is that none of your annotations will be saved to Kobo’s servers. Kobo doesn’t support sideloaded book syncing at this time. So if you should have a massive database corruption, your annotations will be gone. Make backups!!

In addition, you can’t export or share any annotations regardless of whether the book is Kobo sanctioned or not. You can take screenshots of them, assuming you know how to enable that feature.

At least that is the way it is now. I keep crossing my fingers that there will be some big update around the corner that will make this more useful. Maybe the changes to the Color Libra will be what I’ve been waiting for.

[mmc_meneses]

Also any handwrite annotation is in format . svf that even if you could transfer to your PC via USB you would have to convert to other format to handle it.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

I'm getting excited about the upcoming color Libra device, and I had a question for the Sage/Elipsa owners out there. Do the drawing on the page features work with sideloaded epubs? I have a massive collection of ebooks and I'm hoping I don't have to convert them to kepub to use that feature.

Yes, but it's useless compared to touch keyboard to annotate.

The PDFs get an extra image layer, so the PDF can be copied back.

Only the Advanced notebooks are much use. The Libra 2 (not original libra) does work with pen in Sketchpad to save svg files. They can only be later viewed, not edited, on the Libra 2.

The Sage and Elipsa Sketchpad is hidden and only shown in Devmodeon as it's less functional than the basic Nebo notebooks.

[BlankEyes]

Will this help in exporting notes?

https://overread.dev/

[Quoth]

no. Useless and privacy issues.

[BlankEyes]

Ah, that’s bad.
Thanks for a swift reply.

[cerebrollywood]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, but it's useless compared to touch keyboard to annotate.

The PDFs get an extra image layer, so the PDF can be copied back.

Only the Advanced notebooks are much use. The Libra 2 (not original libra) does work with pen in Sketchpad to save svg files. They can only be later viewed, not edited, on the Libra 2.

The Sage and Elipsa Sketchpad is hidden and only shown in Devmodeon as it's less functional than the basic Nebo notebooks.

Do you think it would be possible to port the notebook function from the Libra Color to the Libra 2? I mean, the stylus works on the Libra 2 when you use it on Sketchpad, so maybe it's just a software limitation that can be "unlocked" or something...

I would love to not buy another Kobo!

[Quoth]

It's likely possible for Kobo, but performance might be poor, as it is, Nebo (Advanced Notebooks) is abysmal on the Sage and Elipsa compared to Nebo on the Android tablet I have with a digitiser and pen or Nebo on the iPad plus Apple Pencil.

I'd doubt it's in the code. Kobo are certainly paying MyScript for Nebo. No idea if it's a percent or fixed fee per model sold or some other deal. Perhaps they tried it before Libra 2 release (the original Libra doesn't work) and decided it was too poor, so it's not included in the Firmware build.

You can make notes on the Libra 2 and save the *.svg files, copy those to PC/Mac/Android/iOS/Linux via USB and try handwriting OCR. The files even appear in "My Books" and can be viewed. You just can't edit them on the Libra 2 once you save.

In theory a 3rd party OCR or editor could be added like the way KOReader is added. No jailbreak needed. However a TCL Nxtpaper 11, TCL T-Pen and official cover is less than €300. 4G RAM, 128G Flash, 2000 x1200 pixels, SD card slot works up to 1T byte. True HD video and 200 fps.
Also Google's Gboard (at least Android 7 and later free from Playstore) does very good handwriting conversion even on an old 5.5″ phone, no digitiser needed (though can use a pen), but DO change all the default settings!

Note the Nebo on Kobo for notebooks is even more cut down than the free iPad version. There is no real time preview (which works well on TCL Nxtpaper 11 Android). Gboard also is real time. It's not viable on eink (I tried it on eink Android).

An old and iPad orientated review of Nebo, which Kobo is using for their notebooks. You can copy Kobo *.nebo files to iOS, Windows or Android and import and edit them in Nebo, but not vice-versa.
https://paperlike.com/blogs/paperlik...ebo-app-review