Annotate and mark up a PDF

Mark up a PDF with highlights, text notes, and freehand drawing. It is handy for reviewing contracts, marking corrections, or leaving feedback, all without any software to install and without uploading your file.

How to annotate a pdf

1. 1Open the PDF you want to annotate.
2. 2Add highlights, text notes, checkmarks, or freehand drawing.
3. 3Move and adjust your annotations until they read clearly.
4. 4Download the marked-up PDF to share.

When to use this tool

• You're reviewing a contract or draft and want to highlight sections and leave notes before replying.
• A teammate sent a PDF and you need to mark corrections without retyping the whole document.
• You want to circle or underline something in a scanned document to point it out to someone else.
• You're marking up a lease, invoice, or report before forwarding it for approval.
• A supervisor sent back a draft with feedback expected directly on the document instead of a separate email.
• You're studying from a PDF textbook or article and want to highlight the parts you'll want to revisit.

Tips for a better result

• Use highlights for text you want someone to notice, and notes for anything that needs explaining.
• Pick a highlight color that stands out from the page but doesn't hide the text underneath.
• Save freehand drawing for quick circles or arrows; text notes are easier to read for detailed feedback.
• Skim the whole document once after downloading, since annotations can't be edited after that.
• Use a consistent color code, like yellow for important and red for errors, so your markup is easy to scan later.

Privacy: what happens to your file

This runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript, which draws your highlights, notes, and markup onto the page. Your file is never uploaded to a server, and nothing is stored once you close the tab.

Annotate a PDF is one of 34 free fill-category tools on fillable.ca. It pairs well with fill a pdf, sign a pdf and create a fillable pdf for a complete document workflow — see the full tools listfor everything else that’s free to use.