PDF guides6 min read
How to take a PDF screenshot and annotate it
Grab just the part of a PDF page you need, mark it up, and save it as a PNG, a JPEG or a sharp PDF.
Hitting the screenshot key on a PDF captures whatever your monitor happens to be showing, and that's rarely what you wanted. You get the page at screen size with part of the toolbar in the shot, and when you paste it into a slide it looks soft. The PDF has far more detail in it than your screen was showing.
A better way is to draw the area you picked again, straight from the PDF, at the size you need. A table captured this way at 2400 pixels wide still looks sharp on a projector, because it never went through your screen. Nothing is stretched. The page is simply drawn again, bigger.
There's also a third option most people don't think of. If the capture is going into another document, and not a slide or a chat, you can save it as a PDF that keeps the original text and lines. The text stays selectable and searchable, and it's sharp at any zoom. No image screenshot can do that.
Once you've got the area, you can mark it up with highlights, freehand drawing and text labels before you save it.
When you might need this
- You want to share one chart, clause or paragraph instead of the whole document.
- You need a capture sharp enough to print, not just screen quality.
- You want to point a reviewer to the exact figure with a highlight or a note.
- You want a clean clip for a slide, ticket or chat without toolbars in it.
- You want the clip to keep real, selectable text when it goes into another PDF.
How to do it
- Open the PDF screenshot tool and choose a PDF. Once it loads, you can pick the page and output settings.
- Use Previous and Next to get to the right page, then drag a box around what you want to capture.
- Click Edit selected area to open the editor with your capture in it.
- Pick a tool from the toolbar. Highlight paints a see-through band, Pen draws freehand, and Text adds a label using the text, font and size set under the toolbar.
- Switch to Move and resize to shift anything you've drawn, or drag the small square at its bottom right corner to change its size. Delete or Backspace removes the selected mark.
- Choose the file type and, for PNG or JPEG, the width in pixels. Then download it.
Free, with no account. Open it in a new tab and follow along.
Open PDF screenshotTips
- Set the color and line width before you draw. They're used when you make a mark, so changing them later only affects the next one.
- Leave a little space around the content when you drag the box. A capture that cuts off the edge of a table by two pixels looks like a mistake.
- For a slide or poster, set the width well above the size you see on screen. The page is drawn again at that width, so the extra detail is real.
- Choose JPEG for photos when file size matters, and PNG for text, lines and flat colors that should stay crisp.
- Choose PDF when the capture is going into another document. It keeps the original page content, so the text stays selectable.
- The zoom in the editor only changes how big the capture looks while you work. It doesn't change the saved size.
Common mistakes
- Using your computer's screenshot key and then trying to sharpen the result. You can't get back detail that was never captured, so draw the area again from the PDF instead.
- Selecting an area so small it doesn't pass the minimum size check. Drag a box at least a few pixels each way before the edit button turns on.
- Expecting accented or non-Latin text labels to work in a PDF export. The built-in fonts cover basic Latin letters only, so save those as PNG or JPEG.
- Asking for a huge width on a phone. Browsers limit how big an image can be, and anything over that limit is scaled down.
- Expecting your marks to carry over to the next capture. Each new capture starts with a clean editor.
How this compares to Smallpdf, iLovePDF and Adobe
Smallpdf and iLovePDF treat this as a conversion job. You upload the file, turn a whole page into an image, and then crop it somewhere else. That's an extra copy of a private file on their server, plus a full-page image you still have to trim by hand.
Adobe Acrobat has a real snapshot tool, and it works well. But it's in the paid desktop app, and it captures the area at whatever zoom you happened to be using, not at a size you pick.
Our tool draws the area you picked again from the original page, at the width you ask for, and it can also save it as a PDF. It uses your device to do this, so very large sizes take longer on older computers.
| Criterion | Smallpdf | iLovePDF | Adobe Acrobat online | Easy File Tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where your file is processed | On their servers, after you upload it | On their servers, after you upload it | In Adobe's cloud, after you upload it | In your browser, on your own device |
| Account or sign-in | Asked for early, and needed once you pass the free allowance | Optional for small jobs, needed for bigger ones | Most online tools need an Adobe ID | Never needed |
| Usage limits | A few free tasks, then an upgrade prompt | Daily task and file limits on the free plan | The free web tools are mostly a preview of the paid plan | No task counters and no daily limits |
| File size ceiling | The free plan limits upload size | The free plan limits upload size | Cloud upload limits apply | We don't set one. Your device's memory is the practical limit |
| Works without a connection | No, their server does the work | No, their server does the work | No, the cloud does the work | Yes for the browser tools, once the page has loaded |
| Cost | Paid subscription for full access | Paid subscription for full access | Paid Acrobat subscription for full access | Free. Every tool is open to everyone |
Other services change their plans and limits often, so treat this as a rough picture and not a price list. Check their websites for the current details.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the PDF leave my device?
- No. It's opened, marked up and saved in your browser, so no copy is uploaded.
- Can I capture only part of a page?
- Yes. Drag a box around any area and only that area is captured and saved.
- Is the image limited to my screen resolution?
- No. The area is drawn again from the PDF at the width you choose, so it can be much sharper than your screen.
- Can I mark up the capture?
- Yes. You can add highlights, freehand lines and text labels, and move, resize or delete each one before you save.
- Which file type should I pick?
- PNG for text and diagrams, JPEG for photos when size matters, and PDF when you want the text to stay selectable and sharp at any zoom.
- Why did my PDF export show a font problem?
- The PDF export uses built-in fonts that only cover basic Latin letters. If a label uses other characters, save as PNG or JPEG instead.