Handwritten notes into Obsidian Excalidraw, searchable and editable.

Two knowledge bases, and only one of them you can search.

If you think on paper, an iPad or a reMarkable, your vault ends up split. The typed notes link and surface in search; the handwritten pages sit there as screenshots. You can place a screenshot on an Excalidraw canvas, but it stays a picture: no search, no editing, and nothing to extend when the idea grows six months later.

A converted page behaves like the rest of the vault. The plugin stores every text element in the file's Text Elements section, so a word you wrote by hand turns up in Obsidian search. The boxes and arrows stay where you put them and stay editable, and anything the model misread you fix right in the note (see the accuracy note). Scenes are re-baked for a light or dark theme, so the note reads correctly in the theme your vault uses.

Habits that keep a handwritten vault useful.

1. Name files after the idea, not the export. image1_light.excalidraw.md means nothing in six months; media-bias-mindmap.excalidraw.md turns up in the quick switcher.
2. Embed it where the thought belongs. Put ![[name.excalidraw]] in the daily or project note the page came from, so the drawing shows inline.
3. Pick your theme once. If your vault is dark, convert in dark: the scene is re-baked so dark ink still reads on a dark background, and every embed matches.
4. Keep the source page. Store the original photo in your attachments folder and link it from the note, so you can check a word against what you actually wrote.
5. Convert what you will reuse. A page you will extend or search for is worth a conversion; a throwaway scribble is not.