Open Source @lemmy.ml first_ad4972 @sh.itjust.works 1 yr. ago

Any recommendations for FOSS alternatives to notability? (for intel mac)

The main features I want are:

Import PDFs and annotate them in the app’s native format (so that I’ll still be able to remove previous changes after I save and re-open it)
Quickly add text boxes anywhere on the PDF
Draw some basic shapes and lines with different colors (can either be notability-style “draw and hold to make shape” or just a classic “insert shapes” option from the toolbar)
Have a page thumbnail option and can search text in the PDF file and quickly go there

18 comments

Xournal++
- I tried this app before, but on Mac this app has a weird layout and I can’t even find the toolbar that is in the screenshot on the official site. How do I make the toolbar show?
  
  I don't know, I use it on Linux and it works fine there. What exactly do you mean by "weird layout?"
Zotero.org has a pdf reader, but it's a reference manager to use in more academic world
- This was gonna be my recommendation also.
I know Okular can do at least most of that. Don't think it's available for Mac OS X, though.
- Not long ago, I installed Okular on Windows for a friend. I was surprised that the version available officially was pretty old.
  
  It would be great if Mac and Windows could have access to flathub.org daydreaming
  
  there are nightlies bins in their ftp - they are a bit hidden
- Think it's possible if you can install via KDE/Macports
Honestly, building a Notion level FOSS alternative, probably in the lines of Obsidian as well, would be a fun project. Especially with the features you mentioned.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PDF,_PS_and_DjVu#Graphical_PDF_editing
- But which of these is available for Mac OS?
  
  Click the link for each software and read the first sentence? I'm not your preschool teacher. Many/most tools that run on Linux will run on macOS. Not all of them and don't expect them to take full advantage of the Mac UI framework. But open source Mac stuff isn't that common considering... Mac isn't open source.
Doesn’t MacOS do this natively?
- But MacOS's pdf editor saves the file as PDF, which means I can't change a text box or drawing I already did once I save the file and delete previous versions. And I'm planning to switch to linux in the future so I want something open source.
  
  Doesn’t it let you do that? Have you tried?
  
  Works for me iirc, but haven’t gone crazy with it.

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