A question buyers ask AI

How well does OCR search in note apps work on scanned PDFs and photos of whiteboards, and does it index handwriting too?

Measured in 1 answer, last on Nov 10, 2026. Only the passages that name a brand are shown.

Brands in the answers

BrandNamed inRecommended inPositiveAvg. position
Evernote100%100%100%—
Microsoft OneNote100%100%0%—
Obsidian100%100%100%—
Apple Notes100%100%100%—
Google Keep100%100%100%—
Goodnotes100%100%0%—

Where each answer names a brand

Answer 1 · Nov 10, 2026
EvernoteRecommendedpositive
“Evernote is particularly interesting here because it supports searching handwritten text inside images and PDFs.”
+ handwriting search in images and PDFs

“Evernote is particularly interesting here because it supports searching handwritten text inside images and PDFs.”

Microsoft OneNoteRecommendedmixed
“OneNote also supports image OCR, although recognition of highly stylised handwriting can be unreliable.”
+ image OCR

“OneNote also supports image OCR, although recognition of highly stylised handwriting can be unreliable.”

− recognition of highly stylised handwriting

“OneNote also supports image OCR, although recognition of highly stylised handwriting can be unreliable.”

ObsidianRecommendedpositive
“Organising a personal knowledge base | Obsidian, with OCR plugins”
+ OCR via plugins

“Organising a personal knowledge base | Obsidian, with OCR plugins”

Apple NotesRecommendedpositive
“You write with an Apple Pencil in Apple Notes.”
+ handwriting recognition of digital pen strokes

“These apps can recognise the digital pen strokes and make the words searchable.”

Google KeepRecommendedpositive
“Simple image-based text search | Google Keep”
+ simple image-based text search

“Simple image-based text search | Google Keep”

GoodnotesRecommendedmixed
“You take handwritten lecture notes in Goodnotes.”
+ handwriting search inside the app

“For example, Goodnotes can search handwriting written inside the application, but doesn't automatically add OCR to every imported image-only PDF.”

− no automatic OCR on imported image-only PDFs

“For example, Goodnotes can search handwriting written inside the application, but doesn't automatically add OCR to every imported image-only PDF.”

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