Select, move and style markup

Pick tools from the sidebar or keyboard, set color and size, and move, resize, copy or delete any annotation.

⌘A⌘Z⇧⌘Z

Every arrow, shape, label and stamp you add stays a separate object. You can select it later to move it, resize it or change its color, until you export a flat image.

Choose a tool

Click a tool in the sidebar on the left, or press its key while the canvas is active. Some sidebar buttons hold a group of tools. When you click one, the sidebar slides over to show the group’s options. Choose an option, click ‹, click the canvas or press Esc to slide back.

Tool Key Tools menu
Select V ⌥⌘V
Arrow A ⌥⌘A
Text T ⌥⌘T
Rectangle R ⌥⌘R
Rounded Rectangle U ⌥⌘U
Ellipse O ⌥⌘O
Line L ⌥⌘L
Pen M ⌥⌘M
Highlighter I ⌥⌘I
Stamp P ⌥⌘P
Pixelate X ⌥⌘X
Frosted Glass B ⌥⌘B
Solid Cover E ⌥⌘E
Crop K ⌥⌘K

Hover over a sidebar button to see its name and key. Drawing tools show a crosshair pointer with a small preview of the tool in the current color.

The tool sidebar slid over to show shape options: Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse and Line, then outline or fill

Set color and size

The two circles at the bottom of the sidebar hold the current color and size.

  • Color: click the color circle and pick one of the 11 preset colors, or choose More Colors… for the macOS color panel.
  • Size: click the size circle. For most tools it sets the stroke width: 2, 4, 6, 10 or 16 points. For text and stamps it sets the font size: 18, 24, 32, 48, 64 or 96 points.

A new color or size applies to the next annotation you draw. If annotations are selected, it changes them too.

Select and change annotations

Choose the Select tool (V), then:

  • Select: click an annotation. Shift-click to add or remove others. Edit › Select All Annotations (⌘A) selects all of them on the page.
  • Move: drag a selected annotation. Press the arrow keys to nudge it 1 pixel, or Shift and an arrow key for 10 pixels.
  • Resize: drag the small white square at the bottom-right corner of a single selected annotation.
  • Restyle: with annotations selected, choose a color, size, fill or stamp in the sidebar. The sidebar shows the style of the selection.
  • Delete: press Delete, or choose Edit › Delete Annotation.
  • Edit text: double-click a text label or a stamp. See Add text and stamps.

Copy, paste and undo

  • Copy (⌘C) and Cut (⌘X) work on selected annotations. Paste (⌘V) adds them slightly offset, in the same window or another one.
  • With nothing selected, Copy copies the whole image.
  • Undo (⌘Z) and Redo (⇧⌘Z) step through your changes. Each window has its own history.

Clear markup

  • Edit › Clear All Annotations removes every annotation on the current page and keeps the image.
  • Clear Canvas (on the bottom bar or in the Edit menu) removes the image and all pages. Press ⌘Z to bring them back.

Good to know

  • Hold Shift while you draw to keep shapes square and lines at 45° steps.
  • On a page with text, clicking an annotation always selects the annotation. Clicking text with no annotation on it selects the text. See Copy text from images and PDFs.
  • Single annotations can’t be rotated. Rotating the page turns its markup with it. See Crop, resize, rotate and flip.
  • Sizes are in points, so a 6-point line looks the same on a Retina capture and a regular one. See Hi-Res and Retina images.