How can I draw lines, arrows and shapes?

There are several shapes you can create and customize with the Annotation Toolbar.

TIP: The Annotation Toolbar will shrink and expand depending on screen orientation or device. If you press and hold on any tools that have a small caret next to the icon, a fly-out menu will be displayed and you can access additional tools.

Setting a Shape's Style

After selecting a shape tool, touch or click the Style Palette icon in the Annotation toolbar to customize the colors, opacity, line thickness, line style, and other attributes of the shape:

Drawing the Shape

Once you have your style selected, use your Apple Pencil, finger or mouse to touch / click and drag your shape to the right size and dimensions.

Modifying the Shape / Additional Shape Features

With your shape created, touch or click the shape (or two-finger tap on a Mac trackpad) for a palette with additional options.

Move — touch or click and hold the shape to drag it elsewhere on the page;
Resize — drag the bounding points;
Cut / Copy — to cut or copy the shape; touch or click anywhere on the page to display the Paste command to move or copy the shape to this location;
Select More… — add other shapes to a group for a batch command;
Inspector — for style adjustments;
Save — to make the shape a Saved Annotation;
Layer — to move or copy this shape to a different Layer:
Note — to add an Attached Note;
Trash — to delete this shape.

Adding Notes to Shapes

Touch **or **click (or two-finger tap on a Mac trackpad) the shape to display the palette and select the Note icon:

After typing, copy / pasting, using Siri or Scribble to enter your note, tap Done:

On the shape, there's now a Note icon that contains your note:

To open the note, touch or click the annotation to display the palette. Then, touch or click the Note icon.

TIP: The contents of Attached Notes are also searchable in the Annotation Outline.

What's Next

How do I use the Style Palette?

What are Saved Annotations, and how do I use them?

How do I Free Write or Draw?

Updated on: 15/08/2025

Was this article helpful?

Thank you!