Zettel VS xournalpp

For outlines, use Markdown. I tried to document my software setup at https://github.com/flengyel/Zettel/wiki.

If you follow the links I provided, you would see that I did indeed use dot-delimited IDs.

I also use Zettlr to take notes that are not handwritten, that might suit your needs (?) https://github.com/flengyel/zettel/wiki/Zettelkasten-software-components

See https://github.com/flengyel/Zettel/wiki/From-Fleeting-Notes-to-Project-Notes

It's straightforward to ensure that a digital Zettelkasten has spanning trees in each connected component of the Zettel graph with timestamp IDs. I make template Zettels available at my github site.

Mathematically, Luhmann's Folgezettel numbering (not a term Luhmann used) gives you a distinguished spanning tree in each connected component of the graph of Zettels of a Zettelkasten. Since the software system I use doesn't support Folgezettel IDs, I use an alternative with timestamp IDs at https://github.com/flengyel/Zettel.

CONTEXT https://github.com/flengyel/Zettel

I highly recommend Rnote to anyone on Linux that misses the "hodgepodge" notetaking of apps like OneNote. It works like a dream on touchscreens and drawing tablets, with a surprising amount of configuration under the hood.

Also worth noting is Xournal, an older but similar project: https://xournalpp.github.io/

I've been using Xournalpp[1] for many years, highlighting books as I read them, adding in text/hand drawn annotations in whitespaces if necessary. Unlike other PDF readers/annotators, it saves a separate file, so the original PDF is untouched. It can also export the annotated PDF as a new PDF with highlights and annotations.

Obsidian[2] also has PDF support, where you can open a markdown document side by side with the PDF to take notes as you read. I think it also lets you highlight the PDF itself.

Emacs I think has a similar feature, via plugins/org-mode(?) to the Obsidian setup.

And of course your typical PDF reader probably has support for highlighting PDFs too, but I find them clunky and they save by exporting a PDF, which can be a bit heavy-handed IMO compared to just saving the annotations/highlights as a separate file as Xournalpp does.

[1]: https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp/

Currently, I am trying to build a small open source NLP project for which I first find text on a page and then translate it; see the current project state here: https://github.com/PellelNitram/xournalpp_htr. The purpose of this project is to make handwritten text in Xournal++ searchable for all users.

[Xournal++](https://xournalpp.github.io/) is in my option the best handwritten note-taking software out there, because it has all the coolest features (like LaTeX snippets and shapes) and it's open source too, so make sure to check it out!