PDF Annotator, no clouds, 2024 edition

October 22, 2024 1:09 PM

I'm looking for a simple PDF annotation tool, that doesn't create a copy of my documents in the cloud. Should work with a Surface Pen!

My previous annotator, Drawboard PDF is now creating PDFs that Adobe can't read.

I'd like to open up a PDF, and annotate it with my Surface Pen. Many of the documents I deal with contain personal information, so they can only be stored on my work OneDrive due to PII regulations. When I'm done, I want to flatten the annotations, so they can't be undone, and save in the same spot. (or as an update of the same file).

I'd love:
* Multiple Pen colours, types and thicknesses. OneNote gives me a good option of colours, but I need to import in PDFs and export out, which is clunky.
* Ideally, a menu bar with many pens to choose from.
* To be able to erase with the back of the pen.
* to be able to add in a blank page.
* At the end, I need to send stuff out to people, so it needs to be openable in Adobe. (RIP Drawboard)

I'm happy to pay a (reasonable) fee if all my needs are met.

For context, I teach Math and do admin at my post-secondary, so some of this is creating solutions to tests, some is grading, some is just note taking.

posted by Valancy Rachel to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: I am also a post-secondary educator, and I have been using Xournal++ for these tasks for years. I use it with a Wacom tablet to grade student homework, which I imagine is similar to your pen situation, and it works wonderfully.

It is a beautiful piece of free software, available on every major OS. It has all of the features that you listed, and more. It is the only non-Adobe PDF annotater I am familiar with that is capable of filling out Adobe-style forms in a way that is strongly compatible with Adobe software.

I hope it treats you well!
posted by gunwalefunnel at 1:47 PM on October 22 [6 favorites]

You could try PDF Xchange:

https://pdf-xchange.eu/pdf-xchange-editor/
posted by jacobean at 2:19 PM on October 22

Okular, available for Linux, Windows and macOS.
posted by k3ninho at 3:22 PM on October 22 [2 favorites]

I cannot recommend inkodo highly enough

I also teach math and this is the best option I've found!
posted by Acari at 7:01 AM on October 24 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ok! Some amazing answers. But Xournal++ lets me open a pdf directly, and export back to an annotated pdf, without any weird intermediate formats. It also has a LaTeX component, which is obviously perfect. Thanks all!
posted by Valancy Rachel at 1:02 PM on October 24