It’s now available on the 2022 Kindle Scribe and works on purchased or sideloaded content
My biggest gripe with the original Kindle Scribe at its launch in 2022 was how it treated my margin scribbles in ebooks – like sticky notes that could only be typed. And it didn’t even work on all the content on my device. It took a while for Amazon to allow handwritten annotations to some ebooks purchased via the Kindle Store.
That is now no longer a complaint because the 2024 Kindle Scribe debuted with a new feature called Active Canvas which, as of December 4, is also available on the older model via the latest firmware update (v 5.17.2).
Active Canvas is so named as it adds a box (aka a ‘canvas’) around your annotation, then automatically realigns the page by indenting adjoining lines so text wraps around your note. The size of the automatically created box is changeable, but you can’t move it from its original position.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best thing to happen to margin scribbles since e-paper tablets became a thing as I think it makes the page look nice and neat. That said, I suspect there will be some Kindle Scribe users who won’t necessarily agree with me because of the reformatted page or the fact that this still isn’t exactly free writing. You’ve got to remember, though, this is the closest we’ve come to margin scribbles on the Kindle Scribe since it first launched and brings it more in line with what the competition offers.
What truly excites me is that Active Canvas isn’t restricted to content purchased via the Kindle Store – it works for sideloaded EPUBs too! It’s supposed to work on a handful of different file formats, including PDFs and Microsoft Word documents, but I’m yet to confirm if the feature works just as well on other files.
