Reviewing a contract, grading a paper, marking key points while studying — these all call for leaving some kind of mark on a PDF. But highlights, freehand annotations, and rectangle boxes aren't interchangeable; picking the right one makes both reading and communicating noticeably more efficient.
Three marking tools, three different jobs
- Highlight: best for flagging "this passage matters, read it again" — a key clause in a contract, a paper's core argument. Highlighting doesn't obscure the original text, so the important parts stand out at a glance.
- Freehand (draw): good for writing a specific comment, like drawing an arrow pointing at something with a note saying "needs supporting data here," or adding a handwritten signature. It's the most flexible, but not great for long blocks of text.
- Rectangle: good for circling a clearly bounded area — boxing a few rows in a table to flag for double-checking, or framing part of an image.
Use colors to encode annotation type
If a document goes through multiple review rounds or several people annotate it, agreeing on a color convention up front helps, for example:
- 🔴 Red highlight = a required correction
- 🟡 Yellow highlight = worth a look, but not mandatory
- 🟢 Green highlight = already confirmed correct
That way, even if different people annotate at different times, whoever picks it up next can immediately gauge how urgent each mark is without asking around.
How it works
In LocalPDF's toolbar, Highlight, Draw, and Rectangle are three separate tools: highlight by dragging over a section of text, draw freely by holding down the mouse, or drag out a rectangle border. All three let you switch color and thickness from the top toolbar, and any mark can be reselected, moved, or deleted afterward.
Try color-coding your review comments with highlights and annotations.
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