How to use it· 4 steps
- Drop the PDF into the box above; it opens with the Draw tool selected.
- Draw with your mouse, trackpad, stylus or finger. Each stroke becomes its own object.
- Select a stroke to change its colour, thickness or opacity, move it, or delete it; undo works throughout.
- Press Save edited PDF and download your marked-up document.
Step by step
How to use the draw on pdf
- 1Drop the PDF into the box above; it opens with the Draw tool selected.
- 2Draw with your mouse, trackpad, stylus or finger. Each stroke becomes its own object.
- 3Select a stroke to change its colour, thickness or opacity, move it, or delete it; undo works throughout.
- 4Press Save edited PDF and download your marked-up document.
Pen on paper, without the printer
Some marks are faster to make by hand than with any tool: a tick in a box, a circle round a wrong answer, an arrow scrawled to a margin, a quick diagram explaining a point, initials in a corner. Printing a document to do that and scanning it back is slow and degrades everything else on the page. Drawing directly on the PDF keeps the document's own text and graphics perfectly sharp and adds only your marks.
Strokes follow the pointer closely: the editor reads every intermediate position the browser reports — including the coalesced samples a fast stylus produces between screen frames — so curves come out smooth rather than as visible straight segments. When you lift the pen, the stroke is thinned of points that add nothing to its shape, which keeps a page of handwriting down to a few kilobytes.
Stylus, finger, mouse
On a tablet or a touchscreen laptop, a stylus is by far the best way to write, and the Draw tool works with Apple Pencil, Surface Pen and other pens through the browser's standard pointer support. A finger works for ticks and circles. A mouse is fine for marks and shapes but awkward for handwriting; for written comments, typing them with Add text is usually clearer for whoever reads them.
While a drawing tool is active, dragging on the page draws rather than scrolls, which is what you want while writing. To move around a long document on a touchscreen, switch to Select, scroll, then switch back to Draw — or use the zoom buttons to see more of the page at once.
Making marks people can read
Contrast matters more than colour choice. Blue and red read well against black body text; light colours such as yellow are better as highlights than as ink. A width of two to three points looks like a pen at normal zoom; one point looks like a fine-liner and can disappear on a phone screen. Your last colour and width carry over to the next stroke, so a page of marking stays consistent.
For straight lines and neat shapes, the Line, Arrow, Rectangle and Ellipse tools in the same toolbar are cleaner than freehand. Hold Shift with Line or Arrow to snap to 45 degrees. Everything can be mixed on one page: a freehand circle with a straight arrow to a typed note.
What gets saved
Every stroke is saved as a vector path drawn into the page, not as a picture, so it stays sharp at any zoom and prints cleanly. It looks the same in every PDF reader, because it is part of the page rather than an annotation that some readers hide. The original document is otherwise untouched: its text remains selectable and its images keep their quality.
As with every tool on this site, the PDF never leaves your device — it is opened, drawn on and saved in your browser.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Can I draw on a PDF with my finger or a stylus?
Yes. The Draw tool works with touch, Apple Pencil, Surface Pen and other styluses, as well as with a mouse or trackpad.
How do I scroll while the pen is selected?
While drawing, dragging draws. Switch to the Select tool to scroll, or use the zoom buttons, then switch back to Draw.
Can I erase a stroke?
Yes. Each stroke is a separate object: select it and press Delete, or press Ctrl+Z to undo the last one.
Will my drawing look the same in other PDF readers?
Yes. Strokes are drawn into the page as vector paths, so every reader and printer shows them identically.
Is the PDF uploaded?
No. It is opened, edited and saved entirely in your browser.