Annotating screenshots make it easy to refer to them later and focus only on the important information. You can also draw or use the highlighter to mark key areas. You can take help of annotation tools to draw or add more details on an image, PDF or ebooks. Check out some of the best screen annotation tools for Windows 10.
Screen annotation tools help mark a specific object in an image, fill out PDF forms, and even sign documents on the go. Flagging images makes your message clear and makes it easier for your audience to understand what you want to convey. At Guiding Tech, we use annotation tools a lot. Check out some of the reliable and useful screen annotation tools we use.
1. Acrobat Reader
Adobe Acrobat is probably the most used PDF reader in the world. It can be downloaded for free on almost all operating systems and is very feature rich. One of these features includes marking up and annotating PDFs. The annotation tool in Adobe Acrobat Reader is hidden in the Comment tool.
Select the Comment tool from the sidebar. A bar shows options like pencil, shape creation, text box, and more, below the main title bar. You can choose a number of options to annotate your PDF. After making your changes, you can use the Share option to directly share the PDF with others.
You can export the PDF and then convert a PDF to PNG for better compatibility.
2. gInk
Annotating a PDF is one thing, but when you have a situation where you need to take a screenshot, annotate there, and post it, gInk comes into play. This is a small open source program that is free to use. It resides in the icon tray of Windows 10 and helps make screenshots with marked objects easier.
gInk can be downloaded from GitHub. An added advantage of this is that you can file a bug report directly with the developer, if any.
Using gInk is very simple. After installing the 350kb program, it sits in your system tray. When you need to take a screenshot, press the G button and a tray with pen options will appear. Now you need to mark the image, click on the camera icon and explode. The screenshot is automatically saved in your ‘Pictures’ folder and is ready to be shared.
3. Take and Draft
Snip & Sketch might be one of the best screen annotation tools for Windows 10. It’s built right into the operating system, requires no installation, and is system-wide ready.
To use Snip & Sketch, press Win + Shift + S to open the snipping toolbar. Here, you can choose to take a full-screen screenshot, something a little more freeform, or a specific area of the screen. It’s then copied directly to your clipboard, which you can share when you don’t need to add notes.
If you want to add text or arrows or even draw on the screenshot you just took, open the notification bar and click on the notification from Snip & Sketch. Here you can draw on the picture, highlight something and much more. After that, click the Clipboard button at the top right, you can even save it for future use.
4. PDF Explainer
PDF Annotator is much more than a simple PDF annotation tool. It is a feature-rich PDF editing tool that lets you add comments, signatures and designs, making PDF annotation super easy.
Besides editing PDFs, one of the advantages of PDF Annotator over Adobe Acrobat is editing images. Another added benefit of PDF Annotator is the ‘document version’ feature. If you need to revert to a specific version in the future, it preserves the versions of the edits you make to the PDF, just as Google does with Google Docs. Also, this software can convert files like docx, ppt and even xls to PDF.
PDF Annotator can be purchased for $70. The company also offers a 30-day free trial for you to try.
5. Ink2Go
Ink2Go is a mix of screen annotation tools and screen capture software. This software allows you to save your annotations as image files and even share the record of the entire annotation process.
The tool’s annotation features are simple. You can use a highlighter or a configurable pen to draw on an image. Ink2Go is available for $19.9, and the company also offers a free 15-day trial.
Annotate Images and PDFs on the Go
Screen annotation tools can be helpful in many situations, from making notes to jotting down recipe details. Which of the mentioned screen annotation tools have you tried? Let us know in the comments section below.
Next: Want to save content in Windows 10? Read the post below to know the seven best screen recorder apps for Windows 10.
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