PDF Drawing Tool

How to use the pdf drawing tool

1. Choose a PDF; the first page is rendered for you.
2. Pick a colour and pen width, then draw.
3. Move through the pages, then save the annotated file.

About this tool

The page is rendered, you draw on it with a mouse, a stylus or a finger, and the strokes are written into the file. It is the quickest way to circle the paragraph that matters, mark up a drawing, or put a correction where words would be slower.

Strokes are written as runs of short line segments with round ends and joins. That detail is what makes a freehand curve read as a curve: without round caps each segment ends square, and a drawn line looks faceted at anything above a hairline width.

What this produces is page content, not PDF annotation objects. A real annotation can be selected, moved and deleted in a reader; a drawn line is part of the page. That suits sending someone a marked-up copy and does not suit a document a team will annotate further, and saying which you are getting is more useful than implying they are the same.

The coordinate conversion is shared with the highlighter and tested there: a stroke drawn on a rendered page has to cross both the render scale and PDF's upward y axis, and doing one without the other puts the ink on the mirror image of the line you drew.

Common uses

• Circling the clause that matters before sending a contract on.
• Marking up a drawing or a plan by hand.
• Adding a handwritten correction to a printed form.

Frequently asked questions

Can the drawing be removed afterwards?

Not in a reader. The strokes become page content rather than annotation objects, so keep the original if you may need a clean copy.

Does it work with a stylus?

Yes. It uses pointer events, so a pen, a finger and a mouse all draw the same way.

Is this the same as signing a PDF?

It can place a handwritten mark, which is what most documents ask for. It is not a cryptographic signature, and the signature tool explains that distinction.