PDFViewerAnnotate a PDF online
Annotate a PDF online by dropping it here: the toolbar shows Highlight, Draw, Text, Image, Signature and Sticker, and the file never leaves your browser. Pick a tool, click on the page, then press Download to get a copy with the notes saved in. Two or three clicks, no account.
How to annotate a PDF online, step by step
- Drop the PDF onto this page or click Open a PDF and pick the file. It opens in the tab; nothing is sent to a server.
- Choose a tool on the toolbar: Highlight for text, Draw for freehand marks, Text for typed comments, Image for a PNG or JPG, Signature to draw and place your signature, Sticker for a quick stamp.
- Click or drag on the page to place the annotation. Use the page thumbnails on the left to jump to the next page and keep going.
- Made a mistake? Press Ctrl+Z to undo, or pick Eraser and click the annotation to remove it.
- Press Download. The viewer writes a new PDF with every annotation embedded; the original file on your disk is untouched.
That is the whole flow. There is no export step, no watermark and no sign-up wall between you and the file.
Which tool for which kind of note
| You want to | Use | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Mark a sentence for later | Highlight | Seven colors: yellow, green, blue, red, orange, purple, black. See highlight a PDF. |
| Circle something, underline by hand, sketch | Draw | Freehand pen with the mouse, trackpad or a finger on a touchscreen. See draw on a PDF. |
| Leave a readable comment or fill in a blank | Text | Typed text, including Cyrillic and Arabic. See add text to a PDF. |
| Put a logo, photo or scanned stamp on the page | Image | PNG or JPG files. |
| Sign a contract | Signature | Draw it once, then place it where the signature line is. |
| Cover a line you do not want shown | Whiteout | An opaque box over the content (the text underneath stays in the file). |
All of these are annotations in the sense explained on the what is a PDF annotation page: marks placed on top of the page, not edits to the original text.
What the annotations look like in Acrobat, Preview and Chrome
Download saves the marks into the PDF itself with pdf-lib, so they are part of the file, not a layer only this site can show. Open the downloaded copy in Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview on a Mac, Microsoft Edge, Chrome or a phone reader and the highlights, drawings, text and images are there.
Typed text in Cyrillic, Arabic or another non-Latin script is embedded with a real font (fontkit), so it does not turn into empty boxes on someone else's computer. You can email the file, drop it into Google Drive or attach it to a ticket; the recipient needs nothing special to see your notes.
Limits and gotchas when annotating online
- Existing text cannot be edited. You can cover a word with Whiteout and type a new one on top, but the original text layer is not rewritten. The edit text in a PDF guide lists programs that do real text editing.
- Form fields are shown but not editable as fields. Use the Text tool to type into the boxes instead; see fill out a PDF form.
- Password-protected files will not open. If the PDF asks for a password before it displays, the viewer tells you to remove the password elsewhere first.
- Large scans on phones. Hundreds of scanned pages can run out of memory on an iPhone or Android phone; a laptop handles them fine.
- Keep the original. Download writes a new file. If you want to annotate a second time, open the downloaded copy, not the old one.
Other ways to annotate a PDF
If you prefer an installed program, these cover the same ground:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (Windows, macOS): the Comment toolbar has highlight, sticky notes, drawing and stamps; the free reader is enough for annotating.
- Preview on macOS: the Markup toolbar handles highlight, shapes, text and signatures.
- Microsoft Edge and Chrome: both open PDFs natively and have basic highlight and draw tools in the viewer.
- Google Drive: the preview lets you add comments on a PDF, which is handy for team review.
- Xodo and PDF-XChange Editor: fuller annotation sets, with mobile apps in Xodo's case.
- Smallpdf and iLovePDF: online editors that work well, with one caveat: your file is uploaded to their servers for processing. Here the PDF stays in your browser tab.
Frequently asked questions
How do I annotate a PDF without Adobe?
Open the PDF in a browser viewer like this one or in Preview on a Mac, pick a highlight, draw or text tool, mark the page and save. Adobe is not required; the annotations are standard PDF content that any reader shows.
Can I annotate a PDF on a Chromebook?
Yes. The viewer runs in Chrome on ChromeOS with no install, so you can highlight, draw, add text and sign, then download the result to the Files app.
Does annotating change the original file?
No. The viewer never writes to the file you opened. Download produces a new PDF with the annotations embedded, and the original stays as it was.
Can I annotate a PDF for free without signing up?
Yes. There is no account, no trial and no watermark. Drop the file, annotate, download.
Will the person I send it to see my annotations?
Yes. The marks are saved into the PDF with pdf-lib, so they appear in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome, Edge and phone readers.
Can I remove an annotation later?
Before you download, use Eraser (click the annotation) or Ctrl+Z. After downloading, open the new file in the viewer again and erase the mark the same way.