Fix Notion Import From OneNote Loses Specific Drawing Strokes

When you import a OneNote notebook into Notion, some drawing strokes such as pen thickness variations, pressure sensitivity, and certain ink effects may not appear in the imported pages. This happens because Notion and OneNote use different rendering engines for ink objects. Notion converts OneNote ink into simplified image blocks, which strips out stroke metadata. This article explains why specific drawing strokes are lost and provides a step-by-step method to preserve them before importing.

Why Notion Loses Specific Drawing Strokes From OneNote

OneNote stores drawing strokes as vector data with attributes for pen type, line width, color, opacity, and pressure sensitivity. Notion’s import tool treats these strokes as raster images. When Notion converts a OneNote page, it flattens the ink layer into a low-resolution bitmap. This process discards all vector properties, so strokes that rely on variable width or transparency appear as solid, uniform lines. Text ink and highlight ink are also converted to images, but the loss is most noticeable in hand-drawn diagrams, sketches, and calligraphy where stroke nuance matters.

How OneNote Stores Ink Data

OneNote uses the Microsoft Ink Serialized Object Format (ISF) to store strokes. Each stroke records the pen tip, pressure at each point, and drawing direction. When you import a OneNote page into Notion, the import tool cannot parse ISF. It takes a screenshot of the ink layer and inserts it as a PNG. The PNG has no knowledge of the original stroke properties.

What Notion’s Import Tool Actually Does

Notion’s OneNote importer reads the page structure—text, tables, and embedded images—but it treats all ink as a single image block. The importer does not decompress ISF data. It captures the rendered output of the OneNote page at a fixed resolution. If the original stroke is thin or semi-transparent, the importer may miss it entirely or render it as a faint, jagged line.

Steps to Preserve Drawing Strokes Before Importing to Notion

To keep your drawing strokes intact, you must bypass Notion’s native OneNote import and use an intermediate file format that preserves visual fidelity. The following method works for all OneNote versions on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

1. Open OneNote and select the page with drawings
   Launch OneNote for Windows 10 or OneNote 2016. Navigate to the notebook section that contains the drawing strokes you want to preserve. Click the page tab to display the page content.
2. Export the page as a high-resolution PDF
   Go to File > Export. In the Export dialog, choose Page as the export scope and select PDF (pdf) as the format. Click Export. In the File Save dialog, set the file name and click Save. This creates a PDF with the ink rendered as vector paths, preserving stroke width and opacity.
3. Open Notion and create a new page
   In your Notion workspace, click the + button to add a new page. Give the page a title that matches the original OneNote page name.
4. Upload the PDF using the /file command
   On the blank page, type /file and select File Upload from the menu. Choose the PDF you exported from OneNote. Notion will embed the PDF as a file block. The PDF retains all stroke details because it was created by OneNote’s rendering engine, not by Notion’s importer.
5. Optionally convert the PDF to images for inline viewing
   If you prefer to see the drawing directly on the page without opening the PDF, use a PDF-to-image converter (such as Adobe Acrobat or a free online tool) to export each page as a PNG at 300 DPI. Then upload the PNG using the /image command in Notion.

Alternative Method: Use Evernote as an Intermediary

If you have many OneNote pages with drawings, exporting each page individually may be time-consuming. An alternative is to convert your OneNote notebook to Evernote .enex format and then import that into Notion. Evernote’s importer handles ink better because it stores ink as embedded images with higher resolution.

1. Export the OneNote notebook to Evernote format
   Use a third-party tool like CloudConvert or OneNote Batch to export your OneNote notebook to .enex format. These tools convert each page to HTML with inline images, preserving the drawing strokes as PNG files at the original resolution.
2. Import the .enex file into Notion
   In Notion, go to Settings & Members > Settings > Import. Select Evernote from the list of import options. Upload the .enex file. Notion will create a new page for each OneNote section, with the drawing strokes embedded as image blocks rather than flattened low-res bitmaps.

If Notion Still Shows Missing or Distorted Strokes

Exported PDF looks blurry in Notion

Notion may display PDF thumbnails at a low resolution. Click the PDF block and select Open to view the full-resolution file in your default PDF viewer. The strokes will appear crisp there. To see the strokes directly on the page, convert the PDF to a high-quality PNG as described in step 5 above.

Some strokes are still missing after Evernote import

The Evernote import method works best for notebooks created in OneNote 2016 or OneNote for Windows 10. OneNote for Mac saves ink differently. If you are using OneNote for Mac, export pages as PDFs and upload them individually. For notebooks with pressure-sensitive strokes, ensure the PDF export setting is set to High Quality.

Transparent or highlight strokes appear as solid blocks

Notion’s image rendering does not support transparency in PNG files. If your OneNote drawing uses semi-transparent highlight strokes, convert the page to a PNG with a white background before importing. In OneNote, go to View > Background and disable the page color to ensure the highlight appears on a white background. Then export as PDF and convert to PNG.

Notion Native Import vs Manual PDF Upload: Drawing Quality Compared

Item	Native OneNote Import	Manual PDF Upload
Stroke width fidelity	Lost — all strokes become uniform width	Preserved — PDF retains vector stroke data
Pressure sensitivity	Lost — converted to solid lines	Preserved — PDF stores pressure variations as path points
Transparency/opacity	Lost — flattened to opaque pixels	Preserved — PDF supports transparency in vector objects
Text ink (handwriting)	Converted to low-res image	Preserved — PDF renders at full resolution
Ease of use for many pages	Fast — one-click import	Time-consuming — must export each page individually
Editable after import	Not editable — strokes are images	Not editable — PDF is a fixed file

You can now transfer your OneNote drawings to Notion without losing stroke details by exporting pages as PDFs and uploading them manually. For notebooks with many pages, try the Evernote intermediary method to speed up the process. After importing, test a few pages to confirm that pen width and opacity appear as intended. If you need editable strokes in Notion, consider recreating the drawings using Notion’s built-in drawing tool or a third-party integration like Excalidraw.