As always, because this is a software suggestion, it applies to all devices, not just the Note series.
The Problem
It’s not an uncommon occurance to be halfway through a lecture and realize your notes are all in the wrong color. This is super frustrating, because the current workaround is to just erase everything, select the correct color, and rewrite / redraw it. This is unnaceptable, especially mid-lecture, when you’re already racing to write things down.
The Solution
Many writing and drawing apps allow users to select ink and change its properties. Along with stretching, shrinking, and copying, these apps allow the user to change the ink’s color, or thickness. So, it seems natural to implement this behavior in the Notes App.
To my understanding, the notes app uses touchpoint data to record which direction an inkstroke flows, and some smoothing to render the line. So, it should be possible to throw a few more pixels around the lines in the selection of the intended color as an easy solution for line thickness modification, since it should be easy to determine where the edges of the line are, and where the line is going (from touchpoint and stroke data within selected region).
However, a more robust implementation would basically simulate the job of rewriting everything, but using the current data of how things look. this way, the touchpoint and stroke data are used to re-render the strokes within the selected region, but with the user’s desired preferences, rather than the one being used now. Here’s a quick mock-up of how this would work:
- The user selects some ink, and selects a different color/width than what is being used in that ink
- The touchpoint and stroke data within the region selected is copied so it can be preserved
- The ink within the selected region is deleted, including the original touchpoint and stroke data.
- The copied touchpoint and stroke data are rendered onto the page with the user’s modified color / thickness, as if the user just rewrote everything