How to highlight, draw on and comment on a PDF

Why mark up a PDF

Feedback on a document is much clearer when it points to the exact place. Instead of writing "the second number on page 4 looks wrong", you can circle it and add a note right next to it.

Students use highlights to study, teams use arrows and comments to review drafts, and many people mark the parts of a contract they want to ask about.

The tools and when to use them

Highlight marks text you want to stand out, the way a highlighter pen does on paper. It is best for key sentences, numbers and dates.

Draw lets you write or sketch freehand with a mouse, trackpad, stylus or finger. It is handy for circling something, underlining by hand or writing a quick initial.

Arrow and rectangle draw attention to an area without covering it. Use an arrow to point at a figure and a rectangle to frame a table or paragraph.

Text adds a typed comment anywhere on the page. Keep comments short and put them in the margin when you can, so they do not cover the content.

Check and Cross place a ✓ or ✗, which is quick for marking items in a list as done, approved or rejected.

Giving feedback that is easy to act on

Use one colour for problems and another for questions, and say so at the top of the first page. The reader immediately knows what needs fixing.

Be specific in comments: "Change 30 days to 14 days" is better than "check this". If the same issue appears many times, mark the first one and add a note that it repeats.

Before sending, scroll through every page once to make sure no note covers text the reader needs.

Saving and sharing

Click Done to download the marked-up copy. Your notes are saved into the page, so they look the same in every PDF viewer and on paper. The original file stays unchanged, so you can keep a clean version.

Everything happens in your browser. Draft contracts, exam papers and internal reports are not uploaded anywhere while you work on them.