Forum Discussion
PDF Inking on Microsoft Edge
Using a digital pen or touch to write directly on PDF files has been one of the top feature asks from Microsoft Edge insiders. We are pleased to announce that inking mode for PDF files has rolled out to all Insider Preview channels. With this new inking mode, users can fill out PDF forms and sign using ink or take notes directly on PDF files and save for later reference.
How to access inking mode
To access this feature, open any PDF file from your computer or from the web. In the toolbar that is seen on the top, you will see two new options – Draw and Erase. You can click or tap on the Draw button to enter inking mode. Once in this mode, you can use a digital pen, touch or even mouse to write on any part on the PDF file. You can use two finger swipe for panning the file or use pinch gesture to zoom in/out if you want to navigate the file while in inking mode.
If you make any mistakes while writing or drawing on the document, you can use the eraser by clicking or tapping the Erase button. To erase ink strokes in the erase mode, just move the pointer across any ink stroke to erase it.
Once you are done marking up the file, you can use the Save button in the toolbar to save your work and all the annotations you made will get saved onto the file. You can reopen the file at any point to see the ink annotation on the file or edit them. You can also print the file along with the annotations in case you want to send out a copy of the annotated form, for example.
What’s next?
This is just the first step for inking support for PDFs. For inking, right now we offer basic support with one pen color and stroke size. We will build on this over time, supporting additional capabilities and quality enhancements. Following is the list of inking features the team is working on:
- Support for the pen back button (eraser button) to erase while in inking mode.
- Ability to select color and stroke thickness for ink
- Selection of additional pens, like highlighter pen
If you have any feedback or suggestions for the current version of inking support in Microsoft Edge, please do write as well. To send any feedback use the Send feedback in the top right corner of the app or leave a comment to this post. We are listening!
120 Replies
I can't use surface pen 4's eraser.
Elliot Kirk When testing this feature, I opened up a PDF from my Desktop and annotated some text. However, clicking Save got me a Save as option. Why can't I just save the file I opened?!
Krysset wrote:Elliot Kirk When testing this feature, I opened up a PDF from my Desktop and annotated some text. However, clicking Save got me a Save as option. Why can't I just save the file I opened?!
This^ is my concern too
- vygadeka Could you guys please look at my post where I detail the issue on animations being present when they are supposed to be off? I also have other posts where I've suggested and reported issues. I've also reported and suggested issues using the feedback tool but I don't get updates on them like if they are being worked on anymore. 😞
- This is not even basic, now the third PDF reader Microsoft are launching Since Windows 8. It took until 1803 to get basic features in the Spartan Edge PDF reader.
List of issues:
Cannot select ink colour
Cannot select ink stroke width
Cannot use surface pen eraser, a device Microsoft charges $130 for
Cannot turn off responding touch ink and only use the pen
There are no highlighter pens like OneNote
Ink colour is low res while pen is down
Ink stroke lags pen position, doesn't appear to use Windows Ink
Other issues:
Cannot turn continuous scrolling off for touch screen left-right swiping between pages.
Cannot scrub through pages using touch screen. Elliot Kirk
Multicolour-Highlighting in PDFs (and ePubs!) was for me the main reason to switch to Microsoft Edge. It is a unique feature that is particularly handy for research or regular reading of eBooks and PDFs.
If you were to adopt this feature for the new Edge (which I highly recommend) I would make sure that (listed by priority):- highlighting (by mouse) is possible in multiple colours, and comments can be added via keyboard
- there is an option to copy when clicking on highlighted text sections. This currently only exists in the old edge while doing the highlighting, but the option disappears afterwards.
- the overview of highlights shows the full highlight and not just the first three lines (as is currently the case). Usually, when I return to a particular document or book, I would only want to read the highlights (in their entirety) as that is the reason why I have highlighted these parts in the first place
- the overview of highlights can be exported / shared
I hope this input is useful. Thanks for all the great work!Elliot Kirk Also great would be the option to choose between saving notes on the opened file or the current "save as" dialog option. Right saving notes on the current file is rather tidious as you sometimes need to move to the right folder and then check the box to overwrite the file.
Gerade_Kurve It is now 11 june 2020 and still there is no option to save instead of "save as"
vygadekaMicrosoft
Erik Grimberg hold on, the support for saving edits back to the file is coming in Microsoft Edge version 84. Which is the next Stable version.
Vyankatesh Gadekar
Program Manager, Microsoft Edge
I like it! Hopefully this is a step to getting inking back on the web page as in the original Edge.
- Hi,
could you please change or add a different eraser mode where we'll be able to erase some parts of an ink instead of all of it?
currently when we hover over the lines with the eraser, the whole line gets deleted, but I want to just erase only for example 1cm of it.
also add a blur too so we can blur out some personal info from PDFs.
Add signing option to digitally sign PDFs.- If you want a point eraser in WinUI (UWP/XAML), please give a thumbs up to the GitHub issue! https://github.com/microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml/issues/1530
(posting reply again because it didn't post the first time)- Thanks 🙂
- vygadekaGreat suggestions! Duly noted.
- Thank you!
Features to add to PDF Inking on Microsoft Edge:
1. Separation of the touch interface from the pen interface so that the left hand can pan-and-zoom using the touch interface, and the right hand can write using the pen interface. This is invaluable for presenting pdf material to an audience (e.g., a classroom). To see how this feature works, see Drawboard PDF. It is available in the Windows 10 Microsoft Store.
2. "Laser pointer": Create a pen that marks on the screen like a regular pen but then slowly erases itself. The "laser pen" is a feature available in Drawboard PDF and is VERY useful for presenting pdf material to an audience (e.g., a classroom) without clattering the pdf with permanent ink (or the need to keep erasing temporary marks). To see how it works, see Drawboard PDF. It is available in the Windows 10 Microsoft Store.
- vygadeka
FrankGJohnson just trying to better understand the need here. For #1, you can use your fingers to pinch zoom in/out or use two fingers to swipe up and down to scroll the PDF. Does that solve your problem or you need an explicit mode where you can switch off inking with touch. Or touch inking should be automatically turned off when inking with pen?
For #2, it is a great suggestion. We will definitely track this in our product backlog.
Elliot Kirk I wish MS would standardize their drawing tools. Seems each app has its own pens and support. Im partial to the Whiteboard toolset, would have been nice if that could be written so it could be added to any app. Then you would have a consistent interface
- I hate Microsoft Whiteboard because it replaced Sketchpad. I shouldn't have to sign in to use it.
(posting again because it failed the first time)
