Earmark · Product Design · Native App
Incoming · Prototype in development
Earmark: Earmark
Save, find and connect passages from printed books.
When I read physical books, I mark a lot and rarely bother to type passages out. Earmark saves book passages quickly with the camera, keeps book and page number, and helps me get back in after a reading break.
01
Marking is fast. Finding them again is rare.
From my own reading habits, three simple rules for the app emerged:
Three rules
Save in seconds
If capture takes too long, you never pick up the phone while reading.
Always keep the page
A quote is useless later if I no longer know which book and page it came from.
Don’t lose the thread
After two weeks away I want to see immediately where I stopped and what mattered last.
02
Photograph, mark, keep reading.
Photograph the page, select the passage, save. To stay in the reading flow, the main path has no required fields for notes or tags. Anything extra can be added afterwards.
Text selection · from device tests
- Discarded
Directly on the photo
Dragging a frame on the photo kept pulling in words from the facing page on open books.
- Discarded
Raw text only
Selecting in recognised text was clean, but I lost all sense of where I was on the page.
- Current
Page + text
First tap the intended page, then mark the text, with the photo as orientation in the background.
03
Back in after a break.
Opening a book in the app shows a card with the last state: current page, recent marks and your notes. Tapping Continue reading simply closes the card: reading continues in the real book, not on the display.
04
Organise by questions, not folders.
Instead of collecting quotes loosely, Earmark ties them to your own questions (e.g. “How do routines form?”) as supporting or opposing evidence. A simple list shows how different books sit on the same topic. A small graph adds the overview.
From question back to the find
05
Quote and app clearly separated.
So content is readable at a glance, the app uses two typefaces: scanned book passages in a classic book face (Source Serif 4), buttons and app chrome in a clear sans (Satoshi).
06
Built and tested in my own reading life.
The Android prototype runs locally with React Native and Expo. Camera capture, book view and the questions system are in place.
Next I will replace the schematic flows on this page with real app screens and test with other readers whether the new text selection works without explanation.
