I’m creating an annotated corpus of landmark court rulings to use in seminars and for future citations. I want consist…
Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat.
Click the Comment button in the toolbar to display the commenting tools.
Select the annotation tool you want to use, such as Note, Highlight, Text Box, or Draw.
Click on the PDF page where you want to add your comment or annotation.
Type your comment or draw your annotation as needed.
Click away from the annotation or press Escape to save your comment or annotation.
You can use multiple annotation types in one session, such as highlighting text and adding sticky notes for detailed feedback.
This runs in the Acrobat app - there is no separate API for this task.
Highlighting text simply changes the background color of existing text, drawing attention to it without adding new words. A text box comment, however, lets you type new information or thoughts into a separate box on the page. You use highlighting to mark what's already there, and a text box to add your own new content or explanations.
Your comments are usually a separate layer on the PDF. If the person opening the PDF uses a different viewer or an older version of Acrobat, they might not see the comment layer. Also, if the PDF was 'flattened' or 'sanitized' before sending, the comments might have been removed on purpose. Always make sure the recipient has a compatible PDF viewer and that you haven't removed the comments if you want them to be seen.
To draw a circle around an image, you should use one of the 'drawing markup' tools within the 'Comment' section. Look for tools like the oval or rectangle shape. You can select the shape tool and then draw it directly on your PDF page around the image you want to highlight.