Reflowing digital ink annotations

Abstract

Annotating paper documents with a pen is a familiar and indispensable activity across a wide variety of work and educational settings. Recent developments in pen-based computing promise to bring this experience to digital documents. However, digital documents are more flexible than their paper counterparts. When a digital document is edited, or displayed on different devices, its layout adapts to the new situation. Freeform digital ink annotations made on such a document must likewise adapt, or "reflow." But their unconstrained nature yields only vague guidelines for how these annotations should be transformed. Few systems have considered this issue, and still fewer have addressed it from a user's point of view. This paper reports the results of a study of user expectations for reflowing digital ink annotations. We explore user reaction to reflow in common cases, how sensitive users are to reflow errors, and how important it is that personal style survive reflow. Our findings can help designers and system builders support freeform annotation more effectively.