How to Annotate a PDF for Review
A review that says "looks fine except section 3" wastes a round trip. An annotation on the exact sentence wastes nothing. The difference is two minutes of marking up.
What annotation is for
Annotation adds a layer on top of the page without changing the content underneath. The original text stays exactly as it was; your marks sit above it.
That makes it the right tool for review, and the wrong tool for correction. If you want to actually change a word, that is editing. If you want to say "change this word", that is annotation.
The tools that matter
- Highlight: mark the passage you are commenting on. Yellow is conventional; use it sparingly or the page becomes unreadable.
- Text box: for the comment itself. Place it in the margin so it does not cover the text it refers to.
- Rectangle or ellipse: encircle a figure, a number or a clause.
- Freehand: for diagrams, plans and anything where a straight box does not fit.
- Stamp: a date, "approved", or a signature block.
Annotate well
- Put the comment beside the thing, not on top of it. A note covering the sentence it criticises is useless.
- Number your comments if there are many, and refer to the numbers in your covering email.
- One comment per issue. A note that raises three points will have two of them missed.
- Use colour meaningfully, if at all. Two colours — one for must-fix, one for suggestion — is enough.
- Check the last page. Reviewers routinely stop early and miss the schedule at the end.
Flatten before sending
Annotations are a separate layer. Most readers show them, but some print without them, and a few strip them entirely when converting.
If the marks must survive, flatten the document — bake the annotations into the page — before sending. Otherwise say in your email that the comments are in the annotation layer and should be viewed, not printed.
Privacy
Review copies are often more sensitive than the final document, because the comments reveal what the reviewer thinks is wrong — a weak clause, an inflated number, a risk nobody has raised yet.
A browser-based annotator draws the marks locally. The document and the comments never leave your machine.