Approval stamps, a reviewer's note in the margin, a red box around the clause that needs attention, a signature image on the last page. This tool places text, shapes, highlights, lines and images on top of PDF pages and saves a new file, all inside your browser.

It draws over the page and never edits what is already printed on it. A typo in the original text stays a typo; you can cover it with a box and write the correction beside it, but the underlying words are not changed. Nothing you load or add is uploaded anywhere.

Placing items on a page

Load a PDF, then pick the page from the thumbnails or type its number. The page is drawn large below the controls. Choose what to add, then click on the page to place text or an image, or drag out the area for a rectangle, highlight or line. A plain click with the rectangle or highlight tool drops a default size you can then drag into position.

Every item you place can be dragged to a new spot, and the list under the page names each one with its page number and a Remove button. There is also an Add to centre button for anyone working from the keyboard, which places the current item in the middle of the page.

What each annotation type does

Text uses the built-in Helvetica font at the size and colour you set; press Enter in the text box for a second line. Rectangles are outlined or filled in any colour, with an adjustable border width. Highlights are a translucent yellow drawn with multiply blending, so the words underneath stay readable instead of being painted over. Lines take a colour and thickness.

Images must be PNG or JPEG. Click to place one at a default width or drag to set the width, and the height follows the image's own proportions. A PNG with transparency keeps it, which is what makes a scanned signature sit cleanly on the page.

How the saved file is built

On save, the original PDF is opened again and each annotation is written into its page's content stream as ordinary PDF drawing commands. The other pages, the fonts, links and bookmarks already in the file are left as they were, so the output is the same document with a little more drawn on top.

Positions are converted from the on-screen preview to the page's own coordinate system, taking any stored page rotation into account. An item placed on a landscape scan that is stored sideways lands where you put it, not turned by ninety degrees.

Limits worth knowing before you start

Existing text cannot be edited, moved or deleted; this is an overlay tool, not a word processor. Text you add is drawn with Helvetica, which covers Latin letters, digits and common punctuation only. Characters from other scripts, such as Devanagari or Arabic, cannot be drawn and the save will tell you which page has the problem.

Added items are flattened into the page and not stored as PDF comment annotations, so a reader such as Acrobat will not list them in its comments pane or let you delete them later. If you need to make changes, keep the original and annotate again.

Frequently asked questions