How to draw or write on a PDF

Regardless of whether you are use an iPad or  tablet , Windows PC, or Mac, we are going to show you the simplest ways you have so that you or your children can write or draw in a PDF document helped by free programs and software . 

Conventional PDF reader programs do not facilitate the fact of having to draw or write freehand on documents. Many, including Adobe's Acrobat Reader, make it easy to highlight text or add your signature. Others will allow you to edit the document. 

But sometimes, all you want is, for example, to draw in some areas of the document, either because you want to highlight some aspect, or because your children are doing homework on their digital book. 

Check here our special on the best PDF editors of the year.  

So here are the ways to convert your PDF documents into a form that you can easily edit. Many of them are based on the same essential principle: turn the PDF document into one or more images to edit on. 

In this article we wanted to select completely free applications, but if you have a software or license for Photoshop, Acrobat, or a mobile application like Procreate, it is also easy to use.

We will start with the method used for iPad before moving on to another type of tablet or Windows and Mac computers. 

Draw or write with your iPad in a PDF

The first step is to convert your PDF into an image or series of images. If your PDF is single page, the easiest way to do it is to take a screenshot. To do this, simply press the up button and the home button, if your iPad has one, or the 'Volume Up' button if it doesn't (like the latest iPad Pro models).

If your PDF has multiple pages, it is probably easier to go through each page and take a screenshot.

It is also possible to use a site like to convert your PDFs to JPG format, but you will have to download each JPEG by hand or download a ZIP file, and using ZIP files on iOS is painful as you cannot extract all files from just one time. 

Once you have your images stored on disk, you will need an art application. We recommend Autodesk Sketchbook as it's free, has a great set of tools, and just as importantly, it's easy for adults and kids to use. 

With it it is possible to add notes to a document or letters or numbers to a worksheet. And if you want to be more artistic, Sketch has a great set of art tools for creating visual effects. 

Draw or write with your tablet in a PDF

The workflow will be the same as with an iPad: Screenshot of each page (see how to do it depending on the model), then use the free Autodesk Sketchbook application for Android and be able to draw or write on the images. 

If you are using an Amazon Fire tablet, you will need to use a different application, as Autodesk does not have a version of Sketch for that platform. Instead, an app like ArtFlow is good enough to be able to pull it off. 

Draw or write with a Mac or PC on a PDF

The easiest way to achieves what you want if you are using a Mac or PC is to use Adobe Photoshop, as you can open PDF files directly in that application, choose which pages you want, or even open all of them as different layers or documents. 

Now, Photoshop will cost you about € 10 per month after a 30-day trial. The subscription also includes the iPad version of Photoshop, but this cannot open PDF files.

Instead, as with iPads and tablets, the screen capture process can be your best way to create images that you can then draw on with the help of an art application like the ones we have seen above. 

If you have a PDF with a multitude of pages, you can convert it for free into successive JPEG files with the help of the tool . Once you have your screenshots, you will need an art app to write or draw on it. 

Once again, the free Autodesk Sketchbook application in its version for macOS or Windows, will be your best ally to finish your work or take notes.

Techcrunchpro    thepinkcharm  themarketinginfo   worldmarketingtips  technologybeam