Add Shapes to PDF: Boxes, Circles and Lines

1. 00

   What's great about our PDF shape tool

   • Your PDFs never leave your device. Every shape is drawn right in your browser.
   • Ten shapes, including a circle, a star and a heart, with an outline, a fill or both.
   • Any thickness, solid or dashed, and a strength slider for see-through shapes.
   • Move, resize, Undo and delete any shape before you save.
   • Add shapes to many PDFs at once, with a ZIP download.
   • Free, no limits, no watermark, and it works offline after your first visit.
2. 01

   Add your PDFs

   Choose PDFs or drag them into the preview. The first PDF opens as a vertical list of large pages, which is the easiest place to draw shapes. Use Add More to add others later.

3. 02

   Draw shapes

   • Pick a shape, an outline colour, a fill and a thickness, then drag on the page.
   • Click a shape to select it. Drag it to move it, drag a square to resize it, change its options, or press Delete. Undo steps back.
   • Press Ctrl+A (Cmd+A on a Mac) to select every shape in your PDFs, then change the options to change them all.
   • Press Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V (Cmd+C then Cmd+V on a Mac) to copy the selected shape and paste it where your pointer is on the page.
4. 03

   Add Shapes and download

   Click Add Shapes, then Download. Change anything and the button goes back to Add Shapes, ready for another run. Several PDFs download together as a ZIP.

5. 04

   Loved it?

   • If you're on computer, bookmark this page to your browser.
   • If you're on mobile, add it to your home screen for one-tap access and offline use.
     • Android: Visit this page in Google Chrome > tap three-dot icon (⋮) at top > Install and create shortcut.
     • iPhone and iPad: Visit this page in Safari > tap menu icon in address bar > Share > Add to Home Screen.

How it works

A shape is drawn over the page from a few drawing instructions, the same ones for the preview and the saved file, so they match. Because the page itself is never redrawn, its text, fonts, images, links and forms stay exactly as they were.

After the file is made, it is opened again and compared with your original: the page count, page sizes, rotation, text and links must all match what they should. If anything differs, no file is produced for that PDF.

Frequently asked questions

• Is my PDF uploaded anywhere? No. Everything happens in your browser, on your device. Your PDF is never sent to a server.
• How do I draw a shape? Pick a shape, then press on the page and drag to size it. Every shape except a line fits the box you drag, and a line runs from where you started to where you let go. A circle always stays round, and with Shape Lock on every shape keeps its look when you resize it, so it only gets bigger or smaller: a star stays a regular star, a rectangle or an ellipse keeps the proportions you drew, and a line keeps to steps of 45 degrees. Turn Shape Lock off to stretch them.
• How do I circle something without hiding it? Choose 'Circle' or Ellipse, leave Fill on None, and drag around it. With no fill, only the outline is drawn, so what is inside stays visible.
• Can I fill a shape with no outline? Yes. Pick a Fill colour, then choose the empty square at the start of the Outline colours. It only works once a Fill colour is picked, because a shape needs an outline or a fill to show.
• How do I change a shape after drawing it? Click a mark on the page to select it: it gets a dashed blue outline. Then you can drag it to move it, drag a small square to resize it, change its options, or press Delete. Choosing a different shape changes the selected one.
• Will the page underneath change? No. The shapes are drawn over the page, so its text, images and links stay as they were and the text stays selectable and searchable. A filled shape does hide what is under it from view, but not from the file.
• Can the shapes be removed later? They become part of the page, so they cannot be switched off like a comment. Keep your original file if you might want the page without them.
• Which PDFs are not supported? Password-protected PDFs cannot be processed. Remove the password first with PDF Password Unlock. Digitally signed PDFs can be processed, but rewriting the file invalidates the signature.

What happens to your file

Nothing is uploaded, stored on a server or tracked. Your PDFs stay in your browser's memory until you remove them or close the page. The shapes become part of each page, so they cannot be switched off afterwards.

How to get the most out of it

• Leave Fill on None to circle or box something without hiding it.
• Turn Shape Lock on so every shape keeps its look when you resize it, or leave it off to stretch a shape into any proportions.
• A filled shape only covers text from view. It does not remove it, so use the Redact Tool to hide text for good.
• A filled shape hides what is under it from view only. To remove text for good, use Redact PDF.
• Lower the Strength to make a filled shape see-through, like a highlight.
• Keep your original file. Marks cannot be edited once the PDF is saved.