Digitally Archive Your Handwritten Doodles With 'Draft'

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By Meg Wagner2013-10-25 23:26:28 UTC

For writers, artists and thinkers who still prefer ink pens to keyboards, there's now a way for handwritten memos and doodles to live on digitally.

Draft is a service that that scans your physical notebooks and archives them in a searchable, cloud-based format.

See also: How to Turn a Composition Notebook Into an iPad Case

"Nothing beats a notebook for some activities," said Jon Wheatley, co-founder of Need/Want, the start-up behind Draft.

He developed the idea with his business partner Marshall Haas after he spent an "ungodly amount of time" photographing the pages in his notebooks as a digital back-up, he told Mahsable. After too many blurry photos, the team decided there had to be a better way.

Every month, Draft sends you a blank, hard-covered notebook, with your choice of ruled, dot grid or unlined pages. There's currently one size — similar to the dimensions of an iPad mini — but, in the future, Draft hopes to offer different size notebooks, so artists can create masterpieces in huge sketchbooks and the casual notetaker can jot down reminders in a pocket-sized pad, Haas said.

When the month is over and the pages are full of your scribbles, doodles and thoughts, mail the notebook back to Draft using pre-paid postage. Within five days, the team scans the pages, uploads them to Draft's cloud and recycles the used notebooks.

While Draft won't return filled physical notebooks to users, it can also sync your memos and sketches to Evernote and Dropbox.

Draft's Kickstarter campaign runs until Nov. 21. Three days into the funding period, Draft had raised more than $5,000 toward its $20,000 goal.

Early backers can buy 3 months' worth of notebooks and archiving for $29 or a year's worth for $100. Haas said Draft will also sell single notebooks, allowing users to buy notebooks as they need them instead of signing up for a monthly plan.

If the campaign is funded, notebooks should begin shipping in February.

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Homepage image: Draft

Topics: cloud, Dropbox, evernote, Gadgets, Inventions, kickstarter, Lifestyle, Work & Play