Documentation

Markup Toolbar

Rectangle, ellipse, cloud, text, freehand, highlight, and cutout tools for marking up PDF construction drawings.

Markup Toolbar

All core PDF annotation tools. Press the keyboard shortcut or click the icon to activate a tool.

Figure 1 shows a drawing with a few markups in place: each markup you draw appears on the sheet and as a row in the markup sidebar on the right, carrying its subject, status, and page. From the sidebar you can search, filter, and export markups, or hand them to the Khatam actions (Style audit, Organize layers, and more).

A floor-plan drawing with three colored rectangle markups on it, and the markup sidebar listing the three markups with their subjects, statuses, and dates. — **Figure 1.** Markups appear on the sheet and as rows in the sidebar, each with a subject and status.

Select [S]

Click a markup to select it. Drag to move. Use handles to resize. Delete or Backspace removes selected markups. Double-click a text markup to re-enter edit mode.

Tip: While in any drawing tool, clicking on an existing markup automatically switches to Select and selects it.

Rectangle [R]

Drag to draw a rectangle. Holds its stroke and fill colours from the Format toolbar.

Ellipse [E]

Drag to draw an ellipse. The bounding box is dragged, not the radii directly.

Line [L]

Drag from start point to end point. Useful for marking dimensions or leaders.

Freehand [F]

Hold the mouse button and draw freely. Release to complete the path. Freehand drawings are stored as vector paths and can be moved, resized, or deleted as a single object. Best used for sketch annotations, circling items, or handwritten notes.

Tip: Freehand works like a pen tool — press, draw, release. The entire stroke becomes one selectable object.

Text [T]

Click to place a text box. Typing begins immediately. Click elsewhere to finish. Double-click to re-edit. Font size is controlled in the Format toolbar.

Cloud [C]

Drag to draw a revision cloud annotation. The cloud boundary is defined by the drag rectangle. Arcs bulge outward from each edge.

Highlight [H]

Drag to draw a translucent highlight rectangle at 40% opacity. Useful for calling attention to sections of the drawing. Fill colour set in Format toolbar.

Stamp [P]

Click the stamp button to open the stamp picker. Select a built-in stamp (APPROVED, REJECTED, REVIEWED, etc.) or choose from your custom stamps. Then click on the PDF to place the stamp. Stamps appear as bordered text boxes that can be moved and resized.

Tip: Create custom professional seals via Tools → Stamp Library. Perfect for architect/engineer stamps required on construction documents. See the Signatures & Stamps section for full details.

Typewriter [Y]

Click anywhere to place text without a bounding box. The text flows freely and can be moved as a single object. Useful for quick annotations.

Eraser [X]

Click or drag over existing markups to erase them. The eraser has a 10 px radius — any object within this distance will be removed. Works on all markup types including freehand paths, rectangles, text, and stamps. Supports undo (Ctrl+Z).

Tip: For precise erasing, click directly on the centre of the object you want to remove.

Cutout [K]

Drag to create a white rectangle that masks underlying PDF content. Unlike other markups that draw on top, cutouts appear as white holes in the document. Useful for redacting sensitive information or hiding sections of a drawing.

Tip: Cutouts are always white and opaque. They sit above the PDF background but below other markups, so you can still annotate over a cutout area.