Annotate a PDF
Open the PDF with every annotation tool at hand — highlight, comment, note, draw — and keep or strip the annotations when you download.
Drop a PDF hereLet go to start
or paste with Ctrl/⌘+V
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What it does
Annotate PDF, explained
To annotate a PDF, open it in an editor with review tools and add marks on top of the content — highlights, comments, sticky notes, shapes, arrows and freehand ink — without changing the original text. PDFBetter starts with the highlighter selected and keeps the full annotation toolbar visible.
Read more
Annotation tools do different jobs. Highlight marks what matters while reading. Comments start a conversation that others can reply to and resolve. Sticky notes leave a single pinned message. Shapes, arrows, strikeouts and ink point at exact fixes, which is the markup workflow. Choosing the right one keeps a reviewed document easy to act on.
A practical pattern: read and highlight first, then go back and add comments only where you need an answer, then use markup for concrete corrections. Teachers use this for grading, legal teams for contract review, and students for study notes.
Annotations stay separate from the page until you decide. Download with annotations kept, flattened into the page, or removed for a clean copy — the working document keeps them either way.
How to do it
Annotate a PDF in 4 steps
1Your PDF
2Mark it up
3Notes on the page
- 1
Upload the PDF
The editor opens with the highlighter active and the review panel listing annotations by page.
- 2
Pick the right tool
Highlight for reading, comment for questions, note for reminders, shapes and arrows for corrections.
- 3
Review the list
Jump between annotations from the panel; resolve comment threads as they are handled.
- 4
Share or download
Share for others to comment, or download with annotations kept, flattened or removed.
Example
Before and after
A 25-page journal article a graduate student must present in seminar.
Key findings highlighted in yellow, two methodology questions as comments, a sticky note summarizing each section, and the main figure's outlier circled in red — exported as an annotated copy and a clean copy.
Settings & formats
What you can control
- Tools
- Highlight, underline, strikeout, comment, sticky note, rectangle, ellipse, line, arrow and pen.
- Download
- Keep annotations editable, flatten them into the page, or exclude comments and notes.
Input
Output
Good to know before you start
- Annotations do not change the document's content. To fix text, use Edit PDF; to remove sensitive information, use Redact PDF.
- Text-based tools (highlight, underline, strikeout) need selectable text; use shapes or area highlights on scans.
- How unflattened annotations look and print depends partly on the reader the recipient uses.
Annotate PDF: questions people ask
Which annotation tool should I use?
Highlight to mark important text, comments for questions that need answers, sticky notes for reminders, and shapes or arrows to point at corrections.
Can I annotate a scanned PDF?
Yes. Shapes, arrows, notes, comments, ink and area highlights all work on scans. Text-aware highlighting needs OCR first.
Can I remove all annotations before sending?
Turn off comments and notes in the download options, or delete marks you no longer need; your working copy is unchanged.
Will annotations made in other apps show up?
Annotations already in the uploaded PDF display with the page. New annotations you add are managed in PDFBetter.
Can several people annotate the same file?
Share it with comment permission so reviewers add comments to the same document; each comment is attributed to its author.
Do I need an account to annotate?
No. You can annotate as a guest; a free account is needed to download the annotated file.