Why Annotate PDFs?
Annotation lets you mark up contracts for review, highlight key passages in research papers, add sticky notes for collaborators, or draw attention to diagram areas — all without printing a single page. PDFXINET's Annotate PDF tool runs entirely in your browser and embeds annotations permanently into the output file.
Opening the Tool
Go to Tools → Annotate PDF (in the Enhance & Analyse section of the mega-menu) or navigate directly to /pdf/annotate.
Uploading Your PDF
- Drag your PDF onto the drop zone, or click Browse File to open a file picker.
- PDFXINET renders each page as a high-resolution image (1.5× zoom) with a transparent canvas overlay on top. All pages appear stacked vertically so you can scroll through the whole document without switching tabs.
The Annotation Toolbar
- Highlight — drag a rectangle over any area to apply a semi-transparent colour fill (35 % opacity). Perfect for marking sentences and paragraphs.
- Text — click anywhere to place an inline text input. Type your label and press Enter to commit. The text is rendered at the chosen font size in the chosen colour.
- Note — drag a rectangle to define the sticky-note bounds. A prompt asks for the note body; the text is word-wrapped inside a yellow rounded box.
- Rectangle — drag to draw a stroked border around any region. Useful for calling out diagram elements or table cells.
Colour and Font Size
Six preset colours are available in the toolbar (yellow, green, blue, pink, black, red). Click any swatch to make it active — a dark border confirms the selection. For text annotations, choose a font size from the dropdown (9–24 px).
Applying and Downloading
- When you are happy with all annotations, click Apply & Download.
- PDFXINET re-uploads your original file along with the annotation data, applies each annotation as a reportlab/pypdf overlay, and returns the annotated PDF.
- A success banner appears with a Download button and a share link valid for 24 hours.
Tips
- Your original file is never modified — Apply & Download always creates a new output file.
- Use Clear All to remove every annotation and start over.
- Annotation placement is stored as page fractions (not pixels), so it stays accurate even if you zoomed in on the page while drawing.
- The annotated PDF is saved to your dashboard file history and counts as one conversion.