Editing/marking up pdfs on an iPad with ipencil

quad_red

Hi folks,

I have to review a lot of documents in my job and I’m old enough that if something was very complex I’d print it out and get the ol highlighter and pencil out.

This obviously isn’t an option in the same way in the COVID19 working from home world.

I’d love a digital paperless option of the same thing and have been mulling over an iPad/ pencil combo. Does anyone on here do the same thing? If so I’ve a few questions:

* do you find it effectively replicates the paper experience?
* which iPad are you using?
* a lot of report pdfs are often in pdfs that can’t be edited - does this mean you can digitally scribble on them or highlight text on them?

All observations/advice appreciated.

Pc

Doodah7

You might some helpful information here:

https://www.imore.com/best-pdf-apps-ipad

Plenty of apps that should do what you want. I would have thought that the biggest limiting factor would be screen size. A dreadful experience on an iPad mini but probably quite pleasant on a large iPad Pro!

baby and crumble

I've switched to entirely paperless for my PhD so all my pdf annotation and note-taking is done on my ipad pro 11inch, with the apple pencil 2.

For me, I find it fantastic. I use an app called goodReader, which works well with my workflow but may not be best for non academic purposes. I've also used apps like notability, pdf expert (v good) and the stock pdf viewer to notate simple thing - they all work really well.

I also scan chapters from books using my ipad and then notate them in the various apps. It's not as seamless in those instances due to the lack of character recognition but it's still great.

Honestly I wouldn't hesitate. I love my set up. I've rounded it out with the Zagg keyboard case which personally I LOVE because the case is practically infinitely adjustable, and i can find a great angle for reading and annotating that doesn't hurt my wrist or wreck my neck over long reading sessions, and the keyboard itself is lovely to type with.

If you're primarily using the ipad for reading/ note taking and you don't mind a slight downgrade in the screen clarity I would really recommend a screen protector that mimics paper. There's a branded one called paperLike which gets very good review but i got this one for a fraction of the price and it works fantastically. It makes it feel and sound much closer to paper than anything else.

shanec1928

use pdf expert myself. Bought it when it was on offer 5 years ago. i know they have changed models from when it was first launched, it does all that i need it to do which is usually combining pdfs and redacting documents.