How to annotate a PDF on Mac
Every mark Verso can put on a page, and how to check your own pass before you send it on.
Annotating is how a document becomes a conversation. The marks you make live in the file itself rather than in a private layer, so the person you send it to sees exactly what you saw.
Markup is part of Premium, so it carries a small lock in the document actions panel and in the menu bar. The lock is a label rather than a barrier — you can open the feature and see what it does before deciding to unlock it. Reading and every page operation stay free.
What you can put on a page
| Mark | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Highlight | The lines that matter. In whatever colour you choose. |
| Underline | Emphasis that does not obscure the text underneath. |
| Strikethrough | This should go. |
| Note | A comment anywhere on the page — a question, an instruction, a reminder to yourself. |
| Pen, marker, pencil | Freehand. Precise, sweeping or soft, each in fine, regular or bold. |
| Lines and arrows | Pointing at the thing you are talking about, which saves a paragraph. |
| Rectangles and ovals | Framing a region without covering it. |
| Text box | A block of text anywhere — a label, a caption, an answer in a space never designed to be filled in. |
| Image | A photo, a logo or a screenshot dropped onto the page. |
| Measurement | Real-world distances on a page drawn to scale. |
Mark up a document, step by step
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Pick a tool
The tools sit in a pill along the bottom of the window. Choose the highlighter, the pen, the shapes tool or the note, and it stays selected until you choose something else — so a whole pass of highlighting is one choice and then reading.
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Choose a colour
Set the colour and, for drawing, the weight and opacity. The colour picker keeps the swatches you have used, so the exact green you highlight with is one click away next time instead of something you mix again from scratch.
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Make the mark
Select text and highlight, underline or strike it. Drag to draw. Click to drop a note. Drag out a rectangle to place a text box or an image.
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Adjust it
Every mark can be moved, resized, recoloured or removed after the fact. There is an eraser for quick removal, and undo works throughout.
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Review the pass
Open the annotations list in the sidebar. It shows everything you have put on the document in one place, so you can step through your own comments before sending rather than hunting for them.
Colours that mean something
A document marked in four colours at random is harder to read than one marked in one. If several people are reviewing the same document, agreeing what each colour means before you start — one for factual errors, one for questions, one for suggestions — turns a set of marks into a set of instructions.
Notes versus text boxes
They look similar and do different jobs. A note is a comment about the document: it sits on the page as a marker and opens when clicked. A text box is content added to the document: it appears on the page and prints with it. Use a note for “this figure is out of date” and a text box for the figure that replaces it.
Sending a marked-up document on
Save and send it as you would any file. Your marks travel inside the document, so anyone opening it in any reasonable PDF app sees them.
Annotations are objects on top of the page, so whoever receives the document can move or delete them. If that matters — a signed copy, an archival record — flatten the document first. Flattening fixes the marks permanently into the page. Know the cost: flattened pages become pictures, so their text stops being selectable and searchable. It is the right move for a final copy and the wrong one for a document you will keep working on.
Measuring on a page
For plans, site drawings and anything printed to scale, the measuring tool reads distances on a page in real-world units once you set the scale to match the drawing. It is a small feature that replaces a ruler and a calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How do I annotate a PDF on a Mac?
Open the document in Verso, pick a tool from the pill along the bottom — highlighter, pen, shapes, note or text box — and mark the page. Every mark goes into the document itself.
Do my annotations show up for other people?
Yes. They are stored in the document rather than in a private layer, so anyone opening the file in a reasonable PDF app sees them exactly as you made them.
What is the difference between a note and a text box?
A note is a comment about the document: a marker that opens when clicked. A text box is content added to the document: it appears on the page and prints with it.
Can I remove an annotation after making it?
Any mark can be moved, recoloured or deleted afterwards. There is an eraser for quick removal and undo works throughout — unless the document has been flattened, which fixes marks into the page permanently.
How do I see all my comments in one place?
The annotations list in the sidebar shows every mark in the document, so you can step through your own pass before sending it instead of scrolling looking for them.
Is annotating a PDF free?
Reading is free permanently. Markup is part of Premium, and every Premium feature is labelled with a small lock before you use it rather than after.
Can I annotate a scanned document?
Yes. Drawing, shapes, notes and text boxes work on any page. Highlighting and underlining need selectable text, so run Make Searchable over a scan first if you want those.