How to Draw on a PDF on Windows
In this section, you’ll learn how to draw in a PDF by drawing lines, arrows, shapes, or highlighting text in PDFs with an offline application.
SwifDoo PDF
SwifDoo PDF is an all-around PDF program equipped with a full toolkit for PDF annotation, editing, protection, and conversion. If you need to provide a clearer illustration of something abstract, SwifDoo PDF now provides arrows, lines, shapes, and pencils for users to freely markup the PDF. It also lets you draw strikethrough lines and underlines, and draw signatures in PDFs. Let’s see how to draw on a PDF on Windows 7 to 11 and XP.
Step 1: Download and install SwifDoo PDF on your PC from the official website;
Step 2: Launch the PDF program and load up a PDF document to the workstation;
Step 3: Go to the Annotate tab on the ribbon bar, then a lot of tools are presented. Users can choose Arrow, Line, Shape, or Pencil to draw on the current PDF. For instance, if you need to draw a box in your PDF, just select Shape > Rectangle.
In addition to rectangles, SwifDoo PDF provides ovals, polygons, arrows, and connection lines for users to draw on a PDF.
Some users may feel that a PDF document is not friendly for drawing, here we offer the second method:
Step 1: Open a PDF document using SwifDoo PDF and click on Convert to choose PDF to Image;
Step 2: When the SwifDoo PDF Converter window pops up, ensure the Options, Resolution, Format, and Output Path are correct;
Step 3: Once ready, press the Start button to save this PDF as an image(s).
Step 4: Open the converted image in the built-in image editor on your PC like Paint 3D and start drawing on it.
Choose the method that's much more drawing-friendly from your standpoint. Nevertheless, the reason we put this solution in second place is its inconvenience. Desktop PDF programs are secure, stable and powerful, and they usually integrate commonly used drawing tools to directly markup a PDF.
How to Draw on PDF Files on macOS
SwifDoo PDF Mac version also provides a whole set of annotation tools with which you can draw on a PDF smoothly. It comes with a freehand pencil tool.
Simply click on "Annotate" > “Pencil”. If you need to correct what you’ve drawn, the “Eraser” tool provided by SwifDoo PDF is available to erase anything you don’t need. The software also lets you draw lines, shapes, arrows, and more and adjust the drawing properties. You can change the line color, line thickness, fill color, opacity, etc. Like the Windows version, you can also type text on the PDF.
Preview
For Mac users, Preview is an indispensable tool since it is the default PDF viewer and reader on a macOS device. Though Preview is not a comprehensive PDF program, it can process some easy PDF-related tasks FOR FREE, such as conversion, viewing, and annotation. In the following guide, we’ll learn how to use Preview’s markup tools to draw on top of a PDF for free:
Step 1: Open a PDF document with the default PDF viewer Preview;
Step 2: Once the Markup Toolbar is hidden, click on the Show Markup Toolbar button. When all the markup tools show up, use the needed one to draw on the PDF. Preview enables Mac users to sketch or draw a shape using a single stroke, add shapes to the PDF, change shape style & color, and fill in the shapes with multiple colors.
Step 3: When finished drawing, click File > Save or Export To to download the PDF to the desired location.
To add a shape, Mac users just need to select the “Shape” icon which mainly includes lines, arrows, round-cornered rectangles, circles, speech bubbles, stars, and polygons. Additionally, Preview lets users change the shape’s style, color, as well as the fill color.
As we mentioned above, Preview can only meet the basic needs with those handy annotating tools. Still, if you have a Mac or iPad and you need to draw on a PDF file, Preview is the most convenient choice with great performance. At least, Mac or iPad users don’t have to download and test every PDF application, which can save too much trouble.
How to Draw on an Adobe PDF Online
If you have ever thought using web-based drawing tools, this part is for you. Exactly, if you are not a regular user of PDF, a professional program is too much, especially when you have no idea of any features provided by an unknown third-party program. Online tools can fulfill your basic need. In this section, we will introduce an easy-to-use online PDF tool to draw on your documents.
pdfFiller
pdfFiller is a powerful online PDF tool that incorporates 25 features to solve all your PDF problems. It enables users to add shapes, insert text, and embed e-signature into a PDF document. With an intuitive user interface, most users can easily find what they need. Following, see how to draw on a PDF document with pdfFiller:
Step 1: Type the URL on the search bar, click Browse for a Document on Your Computer;
Step 2: When your PDF is opened in pdfFiller, click Draw on the menu bar to freely markup this PDF;
Step 3: If in want of adding lines, arrows, or shapes to the current PDF, choose Line, Arrow, or Circle;
Step 4: When dealing with unwanted annotations, just put the cursor on the hover box and select the Delete icon (displayed as a rubbish icon) to remove the content.
Final Thoughts
For most users, drawing tools provided by a professional PDF tool are adequate to meet basic needs. SwifDoo PDF is a nice choice as it offers a longer 7-day free trial for every newly registered user. If all you need is an easy-to-use PDF program, this is a comprehensive PDF program that you can trust.