Note Formats

1. Industry Pain Points and Our Solution

When taking notes, we often face a dilemma:

• Plain text formats (such as Markdown): Extremely fast input, no need to take hands off the keyboard; but difficult to natively host mind maps, freehand doodles, or audio, offering limited expressiveness.
• Rich text formats (such as traditional web pages): Incredibly rich in functionality, but require frequent use of the mouse to click toolbars during input, which can easily interrupt the flow of thought.

To break this deadlock, Easchi has designed a completely new text processing paradigm:

At the input layer, it is as efficient and seamless as Markdown; At the storage layer, it is as all-embracing as standard HTML.

2. Technical Decision: Why HTML as the Underlying Format Instead of Markdown?

Unlike traditional pure Markdown editors, the underlying core storage format of Easchi is standard HTML. This is a technical decision we made after deep consideration of “expressiveness” and “standardization.”

Why Not Markdown?

• Proliferation of “dialects,” lacking a unified standard: Although the basic MD syntax is simple, when facing advanced layout (such as complex tables, highlighted callout blocks), various software adopts their own proprietary syntax, leading to extremely high migration costs for MD files between different applications.
• Expressiveness bottleneck: Markdown is essentially designed to serve “plain text.” When there is a need to incorporate mind maps, whiteboards, or dynamic interactive widgets, traditional Markdown syntax falls short and cannot natively host them. For example, although our official website is built with Hugo and Markdown, to achieve slightly richer layout and interaction, we had to introduce a large amount of patch code or directly mix native HTML within Markdown — which itself proves the limitations of Markdown in terms of complex expressiveness.

Why Choose HTML?

• A truly global unified standard: HTML has an extremely strict and widely recognized W3C industry standard. No matter the platform or device, as long as there is a modern browser engine, consistent and unambiguous rendering is guaranteed.
• Nearly unlimited extensibility: As the cornerstone of the Web, HTML natively supports rich DOM structures. This allows Easchi to easily accommodate more advanced multimedia interactive components and lays a solid low-level foundation for future feature expansion and a plugin ecosystem.

💡 How to solve the disadvantage of poor HTML readability? The main disadvantage of HTML is the poor experience of handwriting and reading its source code. But in Easchi, HTML is only used as a behind-the-scenes storage format, with complex tag generation and parsing handled entirely by the system. Users still enjoy an intuitive, smooth “what you see is what you get” editing experience.

3. Application Experience: What Can It Bring You?

Thanks to the separation design of the “input layer and storage layer,” Easchi achieves a dual leap in efficiency and functionality at the application end.

✍️ An Input Experience as Natural as Breathing

You don’t need to look for a toolbar or use a mouse. Simply type a few simple symbols as usual and press Shift + Space, and it will automatically complete:

• Headings: Type #
• Lists: Type -
• Bold: Type **
• Blockquote: Type >

(For specific shortcuts, please refer to Advanced Editing)

This design allows your fingers to stay on the keyboard at all times, without interrupting your train of thought. Even if you don’t know what Markdown is, you can master this smooth typing rhythm within minutes.

🎨 A Multi-dimensional Content Carrier that Accommodates More Possibilities

Benefiting from the powerful expressiveness of underlying HTML, your notes are no longer just a “note strip,” but a multi-dimensional spatial canvas:

• Seamless multimedia embedding: Whether it’s freehand doodles, mind maps, voice memos, or complex tables, all can be directly displayed and function smoothly within the note.
• Eliminating layout errors: Completely say goodbye to different interpretations of Markdown syntax by different software, ensuring that your note styles will always remain as they are in both content and appearance, no matter when you view them in the future.

🔄 Easy In and Out, Zero Data Binding

We deeply understand that your data belongs entirely to you. To allow you to manage your notes more freely, we provide comprehensive eco-compatibility support:

• Painless import: Perfectly supports Markdown import. If you previously used Obsidian or other standard Markdown software, you can directly import your old notes, and we will restore the layout as completely as possible.
• Universal export: Supports export to standard HTML and other common formats. If one day you need to leave, the exported standard format can not only be directly opened by nearly all browsers but also minimize data loss during migration.

📌 In a nutshell: This is a note-taking system that perfectly combines “efficient input” with “rich expression.” You only need to pour your ideas out on the keyboard, and leave the rest of the layout and format compatibility issues to Easchi to handle quietly behind the scenes.