Can I annotate a scanned PDF?

Yes. Annotations sit on top of whatever is on the page. A scanned page is just an image, and annotations can be added over it the same as any other PDF. The underlying scan is not modified.

Will the other person be able to delete my comments?

No. All annotations are flattened into the page content before download, so they become part of the page itself, the same as printed text or a drawn shape. Nobody, including you, can edit or remove them afterward without editing the underlying page content.

Do annotations affect the file size?

Freehand ink drawings and image stamps increase file size meaningfully because they store vector or raster data. Text comments and sticky notes add a small amount. The increase is typically under 1MB for a reasonable number of annotations.

What annotation tools are available?

The PDFHaul viewer includes text boxes, sticky notes, freehand drawing, shapes (rectangles, circles, and arrows), image insertion, stamps, and highlights. You can change colours and stroke weights for most tools.

Is it really free to annotate PDFs?

Yes, completely free with no daily limits and no watermarks on the output. No subscription required.

What is the file size limit?

Each PDF can be up to 50MB on the free tier.

Annotate PDF Online Free

Add text boxes, sticky notes, shapes, freehand drawings, and highlights to any PDF. All annotations are flattened into the file so they are visible in any PDF viewer. No software to install, no account required.

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Up to 50 MB

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How to Annotate PDF

1
Upload your PDF
Click the upload area or drag and drop your PDF. Any PDF version is supported.
2
Add your annotations
Use the toolbar to add text boxes, sticky notes, shapes, freehand drawings, highlights, and stamps anywhere on the document. Change colours and sizes as needed.
3
Download your annotated PDF
Download the finished PDF with all annotations permanently flattened, visible in any PDF viewer without any plugins.

Why use PDFHaul
to annotate PDFs?

Full annotation toolkit

Text boxes, sticky notes, freehand drawing, rectangles, circles, arrows, image insertion, and stamps: everything you need to mark up a document thoroughly.

Annotations flattened permanently

Annotations are baked into the PDF on download, visible in Adobe Reader, Preview, and any browser PDF viewer without special software or PDFHaul.

Touch and mobile support

Freehand drawing works with a finger on a touchscreen. Use PDFHaul on tablet or phone for natural hand annotation on the go.

Files deleted in 2 hours

Your documents are automatically purged from our servers within 2 hours. Not stored, not analysed, not sold.

Who annotates
PDFs?

Annotation is one of the most common collaborative document tasks: reviewing, correcting, and commenting on a document before it is finalised.

Contract and document review

Mark up a contract with comments, questions, and suggested changes before sending it back to a counterparty or lawyer. Use different colours to distinguish open questions from approved sections.

Academic and research feedback

Add detailed margin comments, corrections, and questions to a student paper or research draft. Freehand drawing lets you mark up equations, diagrams, and handwritten content naturally.

Design and creative review

Mark up design proofs, layouts, and visual documents with arrows pointing to specific elements, text notes explaining changes, and shapes highlighting areas that need revision.

Field inspections and site reports

Annotate site diagrams, inspection forms, and floor plans on a tablet in the field. Add notes directly to the relevant locations on the document rather than writing separate notes.

How PDF annotations work

PDF annotations are stored as a separate layer on top of the document content. They are not part of the page itself. When you add a comment, sticky note, or drawing, the viewer renders the annotation over the page at display time. The original page content is never modified.

PDFHaul always flattens annotations on save or download: the annotation visuals are merged permanently into the page content, becoming part of the PDF itself rather than a separate interactive object. A flattened annotation cannot be edited or deleted by any tool afterward; it is indistinguishable from printed text or a drawn shape.

This means the document you send is final: the recipient sees exactly what you annotated and cannot modify or strip your comments, which is what most people want when sharing marked-up documents. The tradeoff is that PDFHaul does not currently offer a separate interactive annotation layer for workflows that need annotations to stay editable or removable after the fact.

Annotation types supported: text sticky notes, freetext (typed directly on the page), highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, shapes (rectangles, circles, lines, arrows), freehand ink drawings, and file attachments.

PDF annotations follow the ISO 32000 standard. Annotations created in Acrobat, Preview, Edge, or any other ISO-compliant viewer will display correctly in PDFHaul, and vice versa. Some vendor-specific annotation types (Acrobat drawing markups with custom appearance streams) may render differently in viewers that implement the standard loosely.

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about annotating PDFs online

No. Annotations are always flattened into the page when you download or save, becoming part of the page content itself rather than a separate interactive layer. There is currently no option to export them as editable, removable annotations.