How to Annotate PDF on Mac - the Complete Guide

If you need to annotate PDF on Mac, the good news is that it's very easy. macOS already includes a built-in tool called Preview that lets you highlight text, add notes, draw shapes, and sign documents. For users who need more advanced features like better comment management and more annotating tools, there are also dedicated PDF annotation apps for Mac.

In this guide, we'll walk you through the best way to annotate PDF on Mac step by step. You’ll learn how to annotate PDF using PDFelement for Mac, the professional PDF solution, and Preview, as well as explore all the questions about PDF annotation.

Part 1. What Does It Mean to Annotate a PDF on Mac?

To annotate a PDF means adding notes, marks, or comments directly onto a PDF document without changing the original content. Think of it like writing in the margins of a printed document—but digitally. Annotation helps you highlight important information, add feedback, or explain ideas while keeping the original file intact.

When you annotate a PDF on Mac, the annotations are layered on top of the document. This means you can easily review, edit, or remove them later if needed.

Common Types of PDF Annotations

Text Markup Annotations: the simplest types of markup annotations, including text highlight, underline, or strikeout annotations.

Drawing Annotations: drawing rectangles, ovals/polygons/lines/arrows, and connected lines for annotation.

Stamp Annotations: inserting stamps for approving information.

Text Annotations: adding text comments, text box, sticky note, and callout to the page.

Multimedia Annotations: adding sound annotations, movie annotations, and even 3D content to the document.

---

Part 2. Why Do I Need a PDF Annotator for Mac?

It is known that PDF is not an editable document format in general. At one point or another, you may want to annotate or edit the content in a PDF document, just as you do in a physical book. At this time, a PDF annotator helps you solve the issue. Here are some user scenarios for making annotations on PDF documents.

• eBook Reading Annotation - When you read an ebook within PDF format instead of the paper book, you can directly make annotations for the content you think is important.
• Thesis or Paper Annotation - For most students and scholars, making annotations for the thesis or paper to mark the key points is a common scenario.
• Class Notes Annotation- By highlighting key concepts, underlining important definitions, and adding quick comments beside difficult topics, students can organize information more clearly and review it later with ease.
• Digital Magazine Review and Annotation - Generally speaking, the publication of a magazine will undergo some critical review stages and often deal with 100s of PDF pages, which includes printing, annotating, scanning, and sending process. For this case, a PDF annotator can achieve all of them.
• Design and Artwork annotation - Most designers choose to export their designs in PDF to share for review. So other reviewers may make some comments on the design.
• Meeting Minutes Annotation - Team members can highlight key discussion points, add comments to assign tasks, and use notes to record follow-up ideas. This makes it easier for everyone to review the meeting outcomes and ensure that responsibilities and deadlines are clearly understood.
• Contract Review Annotation - For legal teams, managers, or business professionals, annotating contracts is an important step during document review. Reviewers can highlight critical clauses, underline terms that require attention, and add comments suggesting revisions or raising questions.
• Digital Proposals Proofing - A proposal is usually used for businesses, organizations, or the government to take approvals for some projects.
• Print File Annotation - Nowadays, most people are more likely to tend to collaborate with digital documents instead of wasting pages for draft printouts. A PDF annotation tool helps to collect reviews and feedback on all your documents.

---

Part 3. How to Annotate A PDF on Mac with PDFelement

PDFelement is a user-friendly PDF tool, which allows you to annotate PDF files intuitively on Mac . All the annotation tools are displayed easily on the toolbar for you to select. Additionally, you can edit a PDF file on Mac, convert PDF to other formats, combine PDF files, and compare PDFs. It is a simple, professional, yet affordable all-in-one PDF solution. Test out the trial version to see whether it is the right tool for you.

1. Add Comments to PDF

To add comments to your PDF, launch PDFelement and click on the "Markup" tab and select the "Sticky Note" tool. Then click on the PDF page to add a sticky note comment to it. Double-click on the yellow comment area to start entering content. Besides, you can also add text comments, text boxes, callouts to the page.

2. Mark up PDF Text

Click on the "Highlight/Strikethrough/Underline/Squiggly" button under the "Markup" tab. Then choose the text you want to highlight/strikethrough/underline/squiggly. Yellow is the default highlight color. You can change it if you'd like.

3. Add Stamp to PDF

Go to the "Markup" tab and choose the "Stamp" button. A pop-up window will appear. You can choose whichever stamp you'd like.

Step 4. Create a Custom Stamp in PDF

If the stamps provided by this program cannot meet your needs, you can also customize the stamp. For this, please click the "Stamp" icon and then select the "Custom" option. In the pop-up window, you can tap on the "Create" button to start to customize or click "Import" to upload the stamp you've created.

When you choose to create a stamp, you can enter the text as you desired in the Sample Text box. After entering, you can preview the stamp you created in the PREVIEW window. Besides, if you do not need to show the date and time, you can deselect the "Date" and "Time" checkboxes. Furthermore, PDFelement also allows you to choose the shape and color of the stamp. After setting, click "Done" and put the stamp in the right position of the PDF document.

5. Draw Shapes in PDF

If you want to add shapes, here are seven types of shapes: rectangle, oval, polygon, connected lines, cloud, line, and arrow. You can choose any of them to draw as you desire.

6. Add Handwritten Signature to PDF

To sign a PDF, go to the "Markup" tab and choose the "Signature" icon. You should click on the "Create Signature" button in the pop-up window. From there you can choose a signature you've already created or you can free-hand draw a new signature. Here are two options for you to write a signature, that is using Mouse or Trackpad to draw your signature. After drawing, click the "Done" button and put the signature in the right position.

7. Show/Hide Comments

In the right sidebar panel, you will now see an ‘eye’ icon.

Clicking this icon will hide or show all comments on the PDF that’s currently open.

When on Hide mode, the annotations will still be there but not visible or clickable.

When on Show mode, you can see all markups on the document and in the sidebar panel.

Step 8. Insert Symbol

This new text annotation feature allows you to insert a symbol that points to a text markup. Using such a feature is often more efficient than adding a text box because the former won’t block the content of the PDF, thereby making it more readable.

To enter a symbol for a comment, click the Insert icon in the annotation toolbar.

Click the document where you want the comment symbol to appear.

Add your comment in the text box provided and click outside it to confirm.

To see the comment, simply click on the symbol where you placed it.

Clicking anywhere else will revert the comment to a symbol display.

---

Part 4. How to Annotate PDF with Preview on Mac

Did you know that you can annotate your PDFs on Mac through the Preview tool? This is very easy to do; you just have to do the following steps to complete this task:

Step 1: Open the PDF file

Open the PDF file you want to annotate. Remember that Preview is the default app that opens PDFs on Mac, so you make sure you don’t open the document with a downloaded app.

Step 2: Click the “Show Markup Toolbar” option

Click the toolbox icon on the upper right part of the screen. This action will make visible some icons that will let you edit and add text to your PDF document.

Step 3: Add text

There are some features that you can use to edit your file. Click the “add text” icon to make annotations. You can add the amount of text you want and place it anywhere in the document; in the same way, you can edit the size, color, and font if you like to make more specific annotations.

Step 4: Add shapes

If you want to cross out or circle text, you will do it through the shapes feature. Click the icon with a square and circle and select the shape you want to add to the content. You can also edit the filling and outline color; thanks to this feature, the forms are seen with greater prominence and according to the sense of the annotation.

Did you notice how easy it was to annotate through Preview? And the best part is that you don't need to download or pay for an application to do this simple task. If you don't need to make professional annotations, this native Mac tool will be more than enough to achieve your purpose.

---

Part 5. FAQs about Annotating PDF on Mac

How do I annotate a PDF on Mac for free?

You can annotate a PDF on Mac for free using Preview, the built-in PDF viewer in macOS. Simply open your PDF with Preview, click the Markup Toolbar (the pencil icon), and choose tools like highlight, text notes, shapes, or signatures. After adding your annotations, save the file to keep your changes.

Why can’t I annotate my PDF in Preview?

There are several reasons why you may not be able to annotate a PDF in Preview on Mac.

• The document has editing or annotation restrictions. Some PDFs are protected by the creator to prevent changes, which disables annotation tools.
• The Markup Toolbar is not enabled. If you don’t see annotation options like highlight or text notes, click the Markup button (pencil icon) at the top of the Preview window to display the tools.
• The PDF is opened in Quick Look instead of Preview. Quick Look only allows viewing, not editing or annotating.

What is the best way to annotate PDF on Mac?

The best way to annotate PDF on Mac depends on your needs. If you only need basic annotations like highlighting or adding notes, Preview is usually enough. However, if you frequently review documents, collaborate with others, or need advanced tools such as OCR and comment management, using a dedicated PDF editor can be more efficient.

Is there a good annotate app for Mac?

Yes, there are several annotate apps for Mac that provide more features than Preview. Popular options include PDFelement, PDF Expert, and Preview itself. These tools offer various annotation features such as highlighting, sticky notes, drawing tools, and comment management, making them useful for both personal and professional workflows.

Can I draw on a PDF on Mac?

Yes. Most PDF tools on Mac allow you to draw directly on a PDF using markup or drawing tools. In Preview, you can use the Sketch or Draw tool in the Markup Toolbar to add freehand drawings, arrows, or shapes to the document. This is helpful for marking diagrams, emphasizing sections, or providing visual feedback.

Conclusion

Annotating PDF documents is a beneficial task that thousands of users perform daily. Although quite a few applications offer this feature, through Preview, it may be more than enough to do it. As you may have already realized, this Mac tool gives you the basics for making annotations, so it can quickly become your leading option for doing this task with easiness and efficiency.

Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!

Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!

Buy PDFelement right now!

Buy PDFelement right now!

---