Mark II - A Smart Bookmark That Sends Your Paper-Book Underlines Straight to an App

I love the feel of paper books, but finding the sentences I've underlined later is surprisingly hard. Photos get buried in the gallery, and copying them out by hand breaks my reading flow. Mark II is built to solve exactly that. You hold it like a highlighter, sweep it across a sentence, and that sentence piles up in the app as text.

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📊 Quick Info

Item	Details
Brand	Mark (thinkwithmark.com)
Price	$159 pre-order price
Shipping	Starting Q3 2026, US and Canada only
Material	Aluminum + ABS, double-injection unibody
Connectivity	Bluetooth (some features need internet; saved notes can be viewed offline)
Battery	A week of use, USB-C charging
App	iOS. Notion and Readwise integration
Verdict	⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ An approach that removes the friction of moving paper-book underlines into digital form

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✨ 3-Line Summary

• 👍 Biggest strength: Works on both paper and screens, and reads handwriting and over 100 languages
• 👎 Downside: It's a pre-order product that hasn't shipped yet, and it doesn't ship outside North America. The app is iOS-only too
• 🎯 Recommended for: People who read a lot of paper books and collect their underlined sentences in Notion or Readwise

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📸 Product Tour

The white model. The scanner and button sit in the raised part at the top, and below it is a thin plate like a bookmark

Front view. Only the MARK II engraving at the bottom; the rest is left bare

Front and back of the black model. It comes in two colors

In actual use. You sweep along the sentence over an open book

The real thing on a desk. About the size of a card wallet

The app screen. Collected sentences are organized into collections by book

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🔍 Why It Caught My Eye

It removes the friction between underlining and recording

Reading notes don't pile up because we're lazy, but because the middle step is a hassle. When you hit a great sentence, you have to take a photo or type it out, and that breaks your reading flow. With Mark II, you just sweep it across the sentence with the hand that's already holding it. According to the maker, a light tells you when an underline has been recognized.

You can capture it by voice too

Press the button and speak, and a voice memo is saved. Sometimes the thought you had at that moment matters more than the sentence itself, and this lets you attach it right next to the book. Being able to leave a note that occurs to you mid-read without pulling out your phone looks great.

It works on both paper and screens

It isn't only for paper books. It reportedly works on monitors and tablet screens as well. It reads handwriting and supports more than 100 languages, so there's a good chance it works with Korean books too. That said, we won't know how good the Korean recognition is until real-world reviews appear.

It sends everything to the apps you already use

Collected sentences sync to Notion and Readwise. The important part is that you aren't locked into yet another app. There's also a feature to import records from the note apps you already use, so you don't have to start from scratch.

You can tell they cared about build quality

It has a unibody structure made by double-injecting aluminum and ABS. The maker describes it as "the shape of a highlighter with the heft of AirPods." From the photos, it has a neat look with buttons and engravings kept to a minimum.

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🤔 What Gives Me Pause

You can't buy it in Korea yet

This is the biggest problem. Shipping is limited to the US and Canada, and the start date is Q3 2026. Even with a freight-forwarding service, the product doesn't exist yet.

Nobody has actually used it yet

It's at the pre-order stage, so there are no hands-on reviews. Scan accuracy, Korean recognition, and app polish all rest on the maker's claims alone. Refunds are said to be available, but hardware startups often run behind schedule.

It's iOS-only and heavily app-dependent

The app is iOS-only, and most of this device's value lives in the app. If the company disappears, the device loses its use along with it. Notion and Readwise integration reduces that risk but doesn't eliminate it.

Your phone can already do this

There are plenty of apps that extract text from a phone camera photo. The reason to spend another $159 isn't accuracy but not breaking your flow. It's priced right only for people who feel that difference strongly.

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📋 Product Traits (Subjective Ratings)

• Idea: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
• Practicality: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (needs real-world reviews)
• Availability: ⭐☆☆☆☆ (North America only, not yet released)

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🛒 Before You Buy

✅ Recommended for

• People who read paper books often and underline a lot
• People who collect reading notes in Notion or Readwise
• People who gave up on taking notes because it kept interrupting their reading
• People with an address in the US or Canada to receive it

❌ Not recommended for

• People who need something to use right now
• People who mostly read e-books (their underlines are already digital)
• People who only use Android
• People who only buy proven products

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🎯 Final Verdict

Mark II is aimed squarely at one problem: "the good sentences in paper books disappear somewhere." I like the idea of finishing the job with the motion of holding it like a highlighter and sweeping, and I also like that it exports your notes to Notion and Readwise instead of locking them in its own app.

For now, though, it's something you can't buy. It's at the pre-order stage, and shipping starts in North America. In Korea, you'll have to wait for freight forwarding or an official launch after release.

So this isn't the stage for deciding whether to buy, but rather the stage for knowing that products going in this direction are coming. Once the real product is out and reviews about recognition rates and Korean support build up, it's worth another look.

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Source: Mark official page · Pre-order page