Tablet Handwriting to Text App: Stylus, Screen, E-Ink
By Schema LawPublished Updated
Yes. A tablet handwriting to text app turns what you write on the screen into typed text, either while you write or later when you select the ink and convert it. Backlit tablets such as an iPad, a Samsung tablet with an S Pen or a Windows pen device do it, and so do e-ink tablets built for note-taking.
Can a tablet turn handwriting into text as you write?
Yes, in two modes. In the first, the tablet converts each word to type as your pen leaves the glass. In the second, your handwriting stays on the page as ink and you convert a selection or a page when you choose. The makers of the main tablet families document one mode or both.
Here is what four vendors' own pages say, with the mode each describes.
| Device family | Convert as you write | Convert afterwards | Vendor page |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPad with Apple Pencil | Scribble "automatically converts your handwriting into typed text" in any text field | Notes lets you select handwriting and paste it as typed text | Enter text with Scribble on iPad |
| Samsung tablet with S Pen | The Samsung keyboard has a handwriting mode | Samsung Notes: Clean up handwriting, then Convert to text | Samsung Notes handwriting functions |
| Windows pen device | The touch keyboard's handwriting panel | OneNote's Ink to Text, covered in the post on OneNote handwriting to text | Get to know the touch keyboard |
| reMarkable paper tablet | Not described in the conversion article | Convert to text creates a new page of typed text | Convert handwritten notes into text |
If your aim is to convert handwriting to text as you write, look for the first column. If you want to keep the page as you wrote it and produce a typed copy when the meeting is over, look for the second.
One term needs sorting out. People search for tablet OCR handwriting, but OCR in the strict sense reads a picture of a page. A tablet has more to go on than a picture, because it records the pen's path as you write. The post on handwritten text recognition explains the difference between reading strokes and reading an image. The practical point is narrow: a tablet's pen conversion applies to writing made on that tablet. It does not apply to a paper page you photograph with the same device.
LCD tablets and e-ink tablets: two ways of writing on glass
A backlit tablet is a general computer with a pen: it runs email, a browser and note apps of your choosing. An e-ink tablet has a paper-like display that reflects light and is built mainly for reading and writing. Both can convert handwriting. They differ in what else they do, and in where conversion takes place.
Backlit tablets
An iPad, an Android tablet and a Windows two-in-one each run a full operating system. Handwriting conversion on them comes from the system (Scribble, a handwriting keyboard, the Windows handwriting panel) and from whichever note app you install. That gives you choice, and it gives you more to check: every app has its own storage, account and export behavior.
Per-platform detail is in the posts on the iPad's options for converting handwriting to text and on handwriting to text tools on Windows.
E-ink tablets
An e-ink note tablet is a narrower device. The display holds an image without a backlight, and the software centers on notebooks and documents. reMarkable, which calls its devices paper tablets, states on its home page that all of them include handwriting conversion.
reMarkable's support article shows how such a device handles conversion, and two lines in it matter for planning. Before you start, it says, "Make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi" and "Make sure you are logged in with your reMarkable account". So on that device conversion is something you do when you have a connection, which may not be the moment you wrote the notes. The post on reMarkable handwriting to text covers the steps and requirements.
Other e-ink makers have their own arrangements. Read the conversion page for the exact model before you buy, and look for the same two facts: does conversion need a network, and does it need an account?
Side by side
| Question | Backlit tablet | E-ink note tablet |
|---|---|---|
| What else does it do? | Email, browser, document review, video calls | Reading and writing, by design |
| Where does conversion come from? | The operating system and the note app you choose | The maker's own software |
| What decides where notes are stored? | Each app's settings | The maker's account and sync service |
| What to check before a meeting | Which app you are writing in, and its sync setting | Battery, and whether you need Wi-Fi to convert later |
| What draws attention away from the client? | Notifications, unless silenced | Little, since the device does little else |
Neither class is better for legal work in general. A lawyer who wants one device for documents and notes will lean to a backlit tablet. A lawyer who wants a pad that happens to produce typed text will lean to e-ink.
Which stylus does tablet handwriting recognition depend on?
It depends on the feature, so read the requirement for the one you plan to use. Some features are documented as needing the maker's pen: Apple describes Scribble as writing with Apple Pencil, and Microsoft says its Ink to Text pen "only works with handwriting from a digital pen (or stylus) on your device." Others accept a fingertip.
What the vendor pages say
| Feature | Input the vendor documents |
|---|---|
| Scribble on iPad | Apple Pencil, on supported models |
| Handwriting in Apple Notes | "Apple Pencil (on supported models) or your finger", per Apple's Notes handwriting page |
| Gboard handwriting layout | "a finger or stylus", per Google's Gboard help page |
| Windows handwriting panel | "a pen or fingertip", with a setting to allow the fingertip |
| Samsung Notes | Written around the S Pen; Samsung says you can also use your finger to draw or write |
| Ink to Text pen in Microsoft 365 apps | A digital pen or stylus only, per Microsoft's Ink to Text pen page |
So a pen is not always a condition of recognition. What a pen changes is the writing itself.
Why the pen still matters
Recognition can only work with the strokes it is given, and a fine point lets you write at the size you would on paper. A pen made for the tablet also lets you rest your hand. Microsoft's Surface Pen page puts it this way: "Rest your hand on the screen, like you would on a piece of paper, then start writing. Your Surface is designed to ignore your hand and other inputs while you write."
That is the feature to test in a shop or on a colleague's device. Write three lines with the side of your hand on the glass. If stray marks appear or the page scrolls, note-taking at speed will be a struggle whatever the recognition can do.
Buying the right pen
Pens are tied to models. Apple publishes an Apple Pencil compatibility page that lists which of its four pencils works with which iPad, and some of them need a minimum iPadOS version. Other makers publish their own lists. Before ordering:
- Find the tablet's exact model name in its settings.
- Find the maker's compatibility list for the pen.
- Check whether the pen needs charging or pairing, and how.
- Buy spare tips if the maker sells them, and keep one in the case.
A capacitive stylus with a rubber tip, the kind sold for any touchscreen, behaves like a finger. Expect finger results from it.
Convert while writing or convert afterwards: which suits a hearing or a meeting?
For a hearing or a client meeting, write in ink and convert afterwards. Converting as you write asks you to watch the screen and fix misread words while someone is speaking, and it leaves no handwriting to check against. Live conversion suits short entries made when nobody is waiting on you.
What each mode costs you
Convert as you write. The text is ready the moment you finish. The cost is attention: each misread word tempts you to stop and correct it. And the original is gone. Apple describes Scribble as converting your handwriting into typed text; what remains is the type. If "Hartley" became "Hartney" and you did not notice, nothing on the page will tell you later.
Convert afterwards. You write as you would on a legal pad. The ink is the record of the meeting. When you convert, you can compare the typed text with the handwriting line by line, while you still remember what was said. The cost is a second step that someone has to do.
Whether the ink survives conversion depends on the tool and on how you invoke it. reMarkable's article is a clear example. It says that converting through the document settings menu creates a new page and "your original handwritten notes remain unchanged", but that the selection tool method "does not preserve handwriting, it swaps it for text". On any device, find out which of your app's commands keeps the ink before you use it on notes you care about.
At a deposition or a hearing, write the names, dates, amounts, and initials in ink, and convert after you leave. Those notes are documentary evidence of what you recorded beside the transcript. Store the ink and the text together for authentication. Add a chain of custody line when you export them. Read any dollar figure beside the ink before you rely on its relevance.
Matching mode to setting
| Setting | Suggested mode | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hearing or trial | Ink, convert later | Your attention belongs on the bench and the witness |
| Deposition | Ink, convert later | You need time-stamped jottings beside the transcript, and the reporter makes the record |
| Client intake meeting | Ink, convert the same day | Eye contact matters, and memory fills gaps while it is fresh |
| Phone call at your desk | Either | Nobody sees the screen; correct as you go if you like |
| Time entry, task or calendar note | Convert as you write | Short, structured and checked at a glance |
| Diagram of an accident scene | Ink only | A sketch is not text; conversion has nothing to offer |
The last row has a documented basis in one case: reMarkable's article says symbols such as mathematical notations and diagrams are not converted.
A same-day routine
Suppose a fictional associate, Leila Brandt, takes six pages of ink notes at a mediation.
- That evening she converts the pages with the command that keeps the ink.
- She reads the typed text against the handwriting and corrects names, figures and every "not".
- She expands her own abbreviations while she remembers them.
- She adds a header: matter, date, those present, her initials.
- She files the typed note and the ink pages together.
Turning converted notes into a proper file memo is its own subject, covered in the post on getting handwritten notes converted to text.
Taking a tablet into court, a deposition or a jail visit
Whether you may bring a tablet, and what it may do once inside, is set by the court, the parties' arrangements or the facility, and it varies from one place to the next. Check the rule that applies to the room you are going to before the day, and carry a paper pad as a fallback.
Nothing here is a statement of any court's or facility's rules. It is a list of what to find out.
Court
Look for the court's own policy on electronic devices: a local rule, a standing order, a posted notice or the judge's individual practices. Then ask:
- Are tablets allowed in the courtroom, and for counsel only or for everyone at the table?
- Must wireless connections be switched off?
- Are devices with cameras or microphones treated differently?
- Is a device with recording capability allowed if recording is not in use?
If wireless must be off, think about what your note app needs. An app or device that converts only when it has a connection will hold your ink until you are back on a network. That is fine if you planned for it.
Deposition
A deposition room is not a courtroom, and you may be sharing a table with opposing counsel. Check any protocol or stipulation the parties have agreed. Then consider the screen: a backlit tablet lying flat can be read from across a table. Angle it, dim it or use a cover.
Jail or prison visit
Do not assume a tablet may come into a legal visit. Contact the facility ahead of the visit and ask specifically:
- Is a tablet permitted in a legal visit at all?
- Does it matter whether the device has a camera, a microphone or a cellular connection?
- Is advance written approval needed, and from whom?
- May a stylus be brought in?
Get the answer in writing if you can, and bring it with you. If the answer is no, take paper, and convert the pages back at the office using the steps in how to convert handwriting to text.
Before you leave the office
- Charge the tablet and the pen.
- Open the notebook you will write in, so nothing needs a network to load.
- Silence notifications.
- Know how to switch off wireless quickly if asked.
- Put a paper pad and a pen in the bag.
How do handwritten tablet notes reach the firm's document system?
By export or by sync, and you should choose which on purpose. Export means you send a finished note out of the app as a file or as text. Sync means the app copies notebooks to its own online service. Only a deliberate export puts the note in the matter file where colleagues and your records policy expect it.
What comes out
Note apps and tablets export some mix of four things: the page as a PDF, the page as an image, the typed text, and the app's own notebook format. reMarkable's article, for example, says converted notes can be sent "by email as a PDF, PNG, or inline text" or uploaded to cloud services, naming Google Drive and Dropbox. Samsung's page says that after selecting your writing you can tap Copy to paste the text elsewhere.
Before you depend on a tablet, run one note through its export and look at the result:
| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Does the typed text leave the app? | A PDF may carry only a picture of the page |
| Is the ink included? | You want the handwriting kept beside the type |
| Is the file dated and named sensibly? | Rename it to your firm's convention before filing |
| Can a colleague without the app open it? | PDF and plain text pass this; a proprietary notebook file may not |
| Which service carried it? | Email, a consumer cloud folder and a firm system are different places |
Sync is not filing
A notebook that syncs to the maker's service is backed up, in a sense, but it is not in the client's file. It sits under one person's account. When that person leaves the firm, or the subscription lapses, the notes may be hard to reach. Check your firm's policy on where client information may be stored, and whether the note app's service is on the approved list. If it is not, switch sync off for client notebooks or do not put client notes there. The post on note taking apps lists the storage questions to answer before client notes go into an app.
A weekly sweep
- For each matter worked on that week, export the notes as PDF with the ink visible.
- Export or copy the converted text into a document.
- Proofread the text against the ink.
- Save both to the matter in the document system, named by date and event.
- Decide whether the copy on the tablet stays or goes, according to firm policy.
Paper from before the tablet
A tablet converts what was written on it. The legal pads from last year are scans, and they need software that reads page images. Schema Law is one option: you upload a PDF, PNG or JPEG in the browser, view the parsed pages and export them, and the plans on the pricing page set how many pages a month you can process. Its homepage says recognition is weaker on handwriting than on clean print and that nothing marks a passage as uncertain, so the proofreading step applies there as it does to tablet conversion.