Handwriting to Text App Types: Which Kind Fits a Lawyer

A handwriting to text app is one of four kinds: a keyboard or pen-input tool that converts as you write, a camera app that reads handwriting from paper, a note app that converts ink in its own notebooks, or a web converter you upload a page to. Pick the kind first, by where the handwriting is, and the product second.

What kinds of handwriting to text app are there?

There are four kinds of handwriting to text app, and they differ in what they take in. Pen-input tools take strokes as you write them. Camera and scanner apps take a picture of paper. Note apps take ink written in their own pages. Web converters take an uploaded file. An app of one kind cannot do another kind's job.

Store listings blur these together, because every one of them can fairly be described as an app that converts handwriting to text. The description hides the question that matters: handwriting from where?

Some products belong to two kinds at once. A note app may also include a camera feature for paper. A scanner app may also offer a web version. When that happens, treat each feature as its own tool and test it on its own input, because being good at one says nothing about the other.

Two of the kinds have their own posts and are only outlined here. Note apps, including the difference between searching ink and converting it, are covered in the post on note taking apps that convert handwriting to text. Web converters and what happens to an uploaded page are covered in the post on converting handwritten pages to text online.

If you have not yet decided whether an app is the right tool at all, as opposed to a typist or a transcription service, start with the overview on conversion of handwriting to text, which compares the routes.

Keyboard and pen-input apps that convert as you write

Keyboard and pen-input apps turn handwriting into typed characters while you are writing. You write a word in a writing area or directly in a text field, the tool recognizes it, and typed text appears where the cursor is. Nothing is saved as handwriting. The ink is a way of typing.

This kind suits a person who thinks better with a pen than a keyboard and wants typed output from the start. It has clear limits for legal work.

What it does well

• Short entries: a name in a contact form, a line in a time entry, a search term, a reply to a message.
• Writing in a language or script you find awkward to type, provided the tool supports it.
• Use across many apps, when the tool works at the system level as a keyboard.

What it does not do

• It does not read existing handwriting. A pad of notes from last month cannot be fed through a pen-input keyboard.
• It keeps no image of what you wrote. If the tool misreads a word and you do not notice, there is nothing to go back to. For notes of a client meeting, that is a real loss compared with a pad you can scan.
• It demands attention while you write. You have to glance at each converted word to see that it is right, which is hard to do while also listening to a witness.

What to check before relying on one

1. Write ten proper names from a current matter and see how many arrive correctly spelled.
2. Write a date, a dollar amount and a case number. Digits and punctuation are where a wrong character does the most damage.
3. Find the tool's language setting and confirm it is set to the language you write in.
4. Find out from the maker's documentation whether recognition happens on the device.

Tablets with an active stylus are where this kind is most at home. The post on tablet handwriting to text apps compares the device classes and the two ways of working, converting while you write or converting afterwards.

Camera and scanner apps that read handwriting from paper

Camera and scanner apps read handwriting from paper by photographing the page and running recognition on the picture. They are the only kind of phone app that can deal with handwriting that already exists, such as a client's letter, a witness's notes or your own old pads. Results depend on the hand and on the photograph.

A scanner app's listing may promise text recognition without saying whether that includes handwriting. Recognition of print and recognition of handwriting are different abilities, and an app can have the first without the second. Look in the app's documentation for the word "handwriting". If it is absent, assume print only until a test shows otherwise.

A two-page test settles it: one page of careful hand printing and one of joined cursive, both by a writer whose pages you need, each compared with what the app returns. If the printed page comes back mostly right and the cursive page does not, you have learned where the app's limit is for that writer. The post on what handwriting recognition can and cannot read explains why the two differ.

Camera apps also change the picture before reading it. They crop to the page edges, flatten the perspective and may raise the contrast. Those steps help with print and can thin out faint pencil or light ballpoint. What happens between the shutter and the text, how to photograph a handwritten page for an app, and why lines go missing are all covered in the post on scan handwriting to text apps.

One distinction to hold on to: a scanner app that exports a searchable PDF and a scanner app that shows you copyable text are doing related things in different places. In the first case the text is hidden behind the page image in the file. In the second it is on your clipboard and the file may hold no text at all. Check which one you have before you file the result.

Does a handwriting to text app send your writing to a server?

Some handwriting to text apps recognize writing on the device, and others send the strokes or the photo to a server for recognition. A store listing may not say which. You find out from the maker's documentation and privacy policy, and you can confirm part of the answer yourself with a simple offline test.

For a lawyer the question is not academic. Notes of a client meeting, or a photographed page of a client's letter, are client information. If recognition happens on a server, that information has left the device, and your duties and your firm's policy on outside services apply.

An offline test

1. Turn on airplane mode and switch off Wi-Fi.
2. Open the app and convert a line of handwriting, or photograph a page and ask for the text.
3. If conversion works, recognition can run on the device.
4. If conversion fails, stalls or shows a connection message, recognition needs a server.

The test has a limit you should understand. It tells you where recognition runs. It does not tell you what the app does once the connection returns. An app can recognize on the device and still sync the notebook, the photo or the converted text to the maker's cloud or to your own cloud account afterwards. So the test answers one question and the documentation has to answer the rest.

What to look for in the documentation

• A plain statement that handwriting recognition is performed on the device, or that it requires an internet connection.
• Whether notes or scans sync to an account, and whether sync can be turned off.
• Whether uploaded content is used to improve the product.
• How long content is kept after you delete it.

If the documentation is silent on a point, treat the point as unanswered and ask the maker in writing before client material goes in. Web converters are the clearest case: an uploaded page is on someone else's server by definition, so the terms of the site are the whole answer.

Store privacy labels and app permissions are a further source, and the post on whether scanner apps are safe explains how to read them. For the professional duties behind the question, see the post on whether it is safe to upload client documents to an OCR tool.

Which type of handwriting app suits client notes, and which suits evidence?

Client notes are your own writing, made now, so a note app or pen-input tool can suit them. Evidence is someone else's writing, already on paper, so only a camera app, a scanner or an upload can reach it. With evidence, the untouched image matters more than the text any app produces.

The two jobs pull in different directions.

Your own notes of a meeting or call. You control how they are made. You may write on a tablet in a note app and convert afterwards, or write on paper and photograph the page. What you want from the app is a faithful record you can turn into a memo, and a notebook stored somewhere your firm accepts. A note app that keeps the ink beside the converted text is preferable to a pen-input keyboard that discards the ink, because you can go back and see what you wrote.

Handwritten documents from clients, witnesses or the other side. You do not control how they were made, and they may be exhibits one day. Three rules follow.

1. Capture the page as it is, in full, and keep that first image unaltered. If the app applies a filter, keep a copy of the unfiltered photo as well, or scan the page on office equipment.
2. Treat the app's text as a reading aid. Anything you quote, check against the image.
3. Do not let the app be the only place the image lives. Export it to the matter file.

For the last two rows an app on a phone may be the wrong tool altogether. A browser-based service that takes a scan from the office scanner is another option. Schema Law, for instance, takes a PDF, PNG or JPEG of up to 20 MB and reads the pages into text you can view and export. Its homepage says recognition is weaker on handwriting than on clean print and that nothing marks a passage as uncertain, so the same rule applies: check the text against the image. The security section of the homepage states the site's commitments about uploaded documents.

Once you have settled on a kind, choosing between products of that kind is a separate exercise. The post on the best handwriting to text app sets out what to check in one app before client notes go into it.

If the page may be an exhibit, keep the photo as the documentary evidence and check the name, the date, the amount, and the signature on it. Quote the image, and keep it for the best evidence rule. Write a chain of custody line for who captured the page. Save the unaltered frame so a filter does not create a spoliation worry, and decide relevance with that frame open.

Matching a handwriting app type to the device you already carry

The device you already carry narrows the kinds of handwriting app open to you. A phone without a stylus is a camera first. A tablet with an active pen suits note apps and pen input. A laptop without a touch screen leaves uploads and web converters. Start from the device, then look at products.

Buying a device for the sake of an app is the expensive way round. Begin with an inventory.

Three points help when reading that table against your own bag.

The operating system may already include a tool. A phone, tablet or computer may ship with handwriting features built in, and which ones depends on the maker and the version. Look at what your device's own documentation describes before you install anything, since a built-in feature is one fewer vendor to assess.

The pen has to match the screen. Note apps and pen input are comfortable only with a pen the screen is designed for. A rubber-tipped stylus on an ordinary phone screen behaves like a finger. If handwriting on glass is the plan, confirm that the device and pen are meant to work together.

Firm policy may decide before you do. If the firm manages your phone or restricts which apps may hold client information, the list of permitted apps is the real menu. Ask before you test with anything from a live matter.

A sensible order of work, then: write down what you carry, cross out the kinds that device cannot support, cross out the kinds your firm does not allow, and test one product of each kind that remains on a page you are free to use. Two or three short tests on your own handwriting will tell you more than any listing.