PDF annotators

Introduction

The purpose of this page is to collect notes on tools that allows annotating pdf files. We consider only tools that are free.

Jarnal

General notes

• requires Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run
• cross-platform
• not very fast, but useable
• main concept: the tool loads a pdf file as a background image, then allows simple drawing on another layer on top of the background
• allows exporting the result as another pdf, combining the original pdf and the new layer
• further info can be found at Jarnal home page: http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm

Installation

• on Windows:
  • install JRE if needed. A quick way to do that is to download from http://filehippo.com/download_java_runtime/ and run the installer.
  • download http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal-install.zip
  • unpack it to C:\jarnal (you can choose another location if you want)
  • to start the tool, open c:\jarnal\jarnalannotate.cmd
• on linux:
  • a JRE must be installed first if needed (not described here)
  • download http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal-install.zip
  • unpack and install:

<geshi lang="bash"> sudo mkdir -p /opt/jarnal cd /opt/jarnal unzip /path/to/jarnal-install.zip </geshi>

• • After installation, to start the tool run sh /opt/jarnal/jarnalannotate.sh
• on MacOSX:
  • the same as on linux; MacOSX has JRE installed by default

Usage

Please put here questions and answers on jarnal's usage; if you have a question but don't know the answer, put it here too, someone else might answer it

• Start the application, then select File/Open Background to open a PDF file
• To put some text:
  • click on Text tool
  • click on the place you want to write text
  • type the text in
• To put some hand-drawing:
  • click on the relevant tool (pen, highlighter, or eraser)
  • drag the mouse to make the desired change
• To move some drawn text around:
  • click on Select tool
  • click on text and drag it to another place
  • N.B.: every time you want to move some text (or another piece of drawing), you must click on the Select tool first and then drag the relevant object.

The icon set may look too crowded, but they are only of a few types:

• text: to put text notes
• pen: for free-hand drawing: works as a pen on board
• highlight: to highlight some area
• eraser: to erase things that have been drawn before

NoteLab

It seems that it cannot be used to annotate pdf, since it just allows hand-writing but not importing background image.

Xournal

Similar (but somewhat less) functionality as Jarnal, available for linux only.

PDF-XChange Lite

Windows only, allows adding comments, markups etc. to be tested