I love Muse, and 2.0 is a huge gain for me.
I only wish that the inking/writing/drawing experience was a bit better.
When I use a real pen to write notes on real paper, my handwriting is pretty! That generates positive feelings for me both when I create notes, and also when I review notes.
In the same way, the apps in which my handwriting looks good create a feedback loop where seeing my own handwriting encourages me to continue to write more, and makes the app more "sticky" for me.
At the moment, my handwriting in Muse looks displeasing, which discourages me from writing more. I'm currently getting around this by mostly using the new text note type instead of ink, but it is a more limited kind of expression and note taking than free-form inking, which is a shame.
I understand this behaviour/reaction is unlikely to be universal, or might be a condemning expression of vanity on my part in some way, but still - I might not be alone!
I'm a big believer in tools that make us feel good about our work. Pretty handwriting as an output is in that category.
You'd be surprised how much engineering goes into point simplification, bezier smoothing, etc. One of our team members, Adam Wulf, has worked extensively in this space and even open-sourced a lot of the results: https://adamwulf.me/open-source/
...but point remains that we can make the inking experience better in Muse. It's on our list to work on.
I consider Muse’s ink engine pretty good, although I’ve never found anything that comes close to GoodNotes. So that would be the one to emulate – including nice features like their “pause and hold for straight line”, which I really miss in Muse
I’ve felt the same way with GP; IMO the big issue is that the thing that I’ve written or drawn changes during writing. This removes the pen feeling of the Apple Pencil and feels more like a graphic tool? So like drawing circles feels fine, but writing text and seeing that the text feels wobbly while writing gives me the perception that the pencil is not meant to write text in Muse.
Changing while you write sounds surprising. All ink engines have some amount of retroactive smoothing going on, but typically (and this is the same for Muse) it should only be the last 50ms or so of data, and often that part is still hidden by your hand or stylus tip.
You are not alone, and thank you for articulating this better than I could. The handwriting experience is the reason I return to Notability for any significant writing despite its performance problems. I've yet to find an app that reaches the same level of handwriting fidelity.
I really hope the good people at Muse make this a priority. That, and search.
When I use a real pen to write notes on real paper, my handwriting is pretty! That generates positive feelings for me both when I create notes, and also when I review notes. In the same way, the apps in which my handwriting looks good create a feedback loop where seeing my own handwriting encourages me to continue to write more, and makes the app more "sticky" for me. At the moment, my handwriting in Muse looks displeasing, which discourages me from writing more. I'm currently getting around this by mostly using the new text note type instead of ink, but it is a more limited kind of expression and note taking than free-form inking, which is a shame.
I understand this behaviour/reaction is unlikely to be universal, or might be a condemning expression of vanity on my part in some way, but still - I might not be alone!