User Manual

Everything you need to know about reading, annotating, signing, and exporting your PDFs with PDFScrawl.

Getting Started

Opening a Document

• Drag & Drop - Drag a .pdf or .scrawl file anywhere onto the landing screen.
• Select File - Click the "Select PDF or Scrawl" button to browse your files.

Viewing Your Document

Page Navigation

• Arrows - Click the < and > buttons in the toolbar.
• Keyboard - Use Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys.
• Spread View - On larger screens, pages appear side-by-side like a real book.
• Single View - On smaller screens, the view switches to a single page automatically.

Annotation Tools

Select a tool from the toolbar to start annotating.

↖ Pointer / Cursor

The default tool. Use it to interact with existing annotations:

• Move - Hover over a text or signature annotation and drag the blue Move handle (top-left) to reposition.
• Resize - Drag the gray Resize handle (bottom-right) to adjust width and height.
• Delete - Click the red ✕ (top-right) to remove the annotation.
• Press Escape to return to Pointer mode at any time.

✎ Text Note

• Select the Text Cursor icon, then click and drag on the page to create a text box.
• Type your notes inside the box.
• Tip: Choose a color from the Color Picker before creating the note.

▧ Highlighter

• Select the Color Block icon, then click and drag over the area to highlight.
• The highlight is semi-transparent - text remains readable underneath.

✓ Stamps (Check & Cross)

• Select the Checkmark (✓) or Cross (✕) icon.
• Click once on the page to stamp. Great for grading or marking checkboxes.

✒ Signature

• Select the Pen icon, then click or drag on the page to place your signature.
• A signature pad opens with three modes:

↩ Undo

• Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) to undo.
• You can also click the Undo button in the toolbar.
• Supports up to 50 undo steps per session.

🎨 Color Picker

• Appears when using the Text or Highlight tools.
• Choose from Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink, or Red.

Saving & Sharing

Save as .scrawl (Editable)

• Click the Download icon (↓) in the toolbar.
• Downloads a .scrawl file containing your PDF and all annotations.
• Anyone can reopen this file in PDFScrawl to continue editing.

Export as PDF (View-Only)

• Click the FileDown icon (page with ↓) in the toolbar.
• Downloads an _annotated.pdf with all annotations baked in.

Print

• Click the Printer icon in the toolbar.
• A new window opens with all annotated pages and the browser print dialog appears automatically.

Email

• Click the Email icon (envelope) in the toolbar.
• Choose a format:
  • .scrawl - Recipient can open and edit annotations at pdfscrawl.com.
  • .pdf - Recipient can only view and print.
• The file downloads and your email client opens with a pre-filled message.
• Attach the downloaded file to the email manually.

Loading Saved Work

• Open PDFScrawl and drag and drop your .scrawl file onto the screen.
• Your document opens with all annotations intact.

Auto-Save

• Progress is automatically saved to your browser's Local Storage as you work.
• Always download a .scrawl file to be safe.

FAQ