Your guide to drawing on a PDF on a Mac.

A man draws on a PDF using a Mac laptop.

Regardless of the type of project, you can easily draw on a PDF to indicate markups and move your project closer to completion.

Drawing on a PDF with a Mac.

Sometimes you want to add clarity to your edits by circling text or adding arrows. You don’t need an app or special software to draw on a PDF. You can do it on a Mac or any other device using Adobe Acrobat online services, which you can find and access for free in your web browser.

Why drawing on a PDF with a Mac is useful.

One of the many tools available is a freehand drawing tool. You can use a touchscreen, touchpad, or mouse to draw anywhere on a PDF and save your edits, making it even easier for your collaborators to understand your corrections and suggestions.

Steps to drawing with Mac Preview

Another option for editing a PDF on Mac is the built-in Preview app. If you haven’t added another default, this program will open any PDF file that you click on twice.

  1. Open the file in Preview by default, or control-click the file and choose Preview.
  2. Click Show Markup Toolbar.
  3. Click the Draw icon.

Follow these steps to draw on a PDF on a Mac.

  1. Navigate to the Edit PDFs with comments tool using Acrobat online services.
  2. Click the blue button labeled “Select a file” or drag and drop your file into the drop zone.
  3. Sign in to a service such as Adobe, Apple, or Google to begin editing.
  4. Select the drawing icon from the vertical toolbar on the left.

When you annotate a PDF on Mac you can make arrows, circle paragraphs, or draw something more elaborate. With adjustable features, you can change the thickness and color of the lines you create.

In addition to the drawing tool, you can use other editing options to:

Once you’ve finished, you can download the file. You can also share the PDF on Mac via the Share menu if you need to send the document to collaborators for further review or to make the final PDF changes.

See what else you can do with Acrobat online services.