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
Elliot Kirk Bring back the one note features that were available on the old edge, those included changing thickness, color, and a better touch/pen to ink experience.
Major improvements in the latest version - still two critical features missing:
1) Pressure sensitivity - included in all Office 365 programs, the absence is the only major disadvantage compared to third-party PDF editing programs
2) Inking in normal websites, as we could use it in the old Edge
- Spoiler
thenke wrote:Major improvements in the latest version - still two critical features missing:
1) Pressure sensitivity - included in all Office 365 programs, the absence is the only major disadvantage compared to third-party PDF editing programs
2) Inking in normal websites, as we could use it in the old Edge
Yes that has another discussion here:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Discussions/Inking-on-Web-Pages-Discussion/m-p/1006005
Elliot Kirk I loved the highlighter for pdf. However, can you incorporate it in the toolbar (currently we have to right-click to find highlighter)? Additionally, after highlighting pdf, I am not able to save the pdf. Every time it is showing save as option. Another thing, (future request) If we annotate typed annotation in the pdf then it would be great value addition.
Elliot Kirk Only one color? Seriously? 😞
The "whats next announcement" in the context of incing with different pens/thicknes oder erasor use is now more than 2 month old - any progress on this? as i found out in the dev or beta version there is no pdf inking support at all Elliot Kirk
Doepat wrote:The "whats next announcement" in the context of incing with different pens/thicknes oder erasor use is now more than 2 month old - any progress on this? as i found out in the dev or beta version there is no pdf inking support at all Elliot Kirk
Hi,
check out this thread to see how it looks like
Integrating pressure sensitivity would be very senseful - the entire windows enviroment (OneNote, Whiteboard, etc.) provides this feature, for both PDFs and Webpages it should be added.
Elliot Kirk Stop Google from doing this to Microsoft Edge Chromium
Google is trying to ruin experience for users of Microsoft Edge browser. Every time I open google.com, it shows a persistent notification asking me to switch to chrome.
Microsoft, please block this notification inside Edge. I would classify it as an annoying ads. It's persistent - shows up every time even after dismissing it and it's designed to unfairly block other browsers from gaining market share.
We don't need to use an ad blocker for this, that means it will block all other ads Bing would want to show us. Make this notification not show up in Edge or let it show once and disappear forever once dismissed. Am tired of dismissing this notification since the stable version was released.
I hope you'll fix this in your next update.
- Microsoft should stop that stupid Google chrome banner by adding it to their tracking prevention list.
it's the obvious example of intrusive ads, Google is really annoying and unethical. Henry-Williams1889 I'm not sure this is the correct thread for this topic. Also, what you're wanting is for Microsoft to change how it presents itself to web sites via the user-agent header information. All web browsers have one and that is how Google is targeting non-Chrome browsers. In fact, the browser header gives up quite a bit of information about a user's environment. It might not entirely be under Microsoft's control or interest to limit a popup for a competing web browser on the competitor's own site or service.
For what it's worth, the notification didn't bother me once I clicked "No thanks" in the Beta and Dev channels. Perhaps if you're updating something other than the Stable channel of Edge, this is being reset and keeps reappearing.
https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/what-http-headers-is-my-browser-sending
adamsmith34 It doesn't have to be blocked through changing user agent, Edge can have an inbuilt ad blocker specifically targeting this annoying ad. Google Chrome has an inbuilt ad blocker that blocks intrusive ads that do not conform to Better Ads Standards and they rolled it out in Feb 2019.
Google's annoying ad does not conform to Better Ads Standards and Edge should use this as basis to block it.
Google does not respect your decision when you tell it, No Thanks, I don't want another browser, they will ignore your decision and keep pestering you to use their browser. In other words, use our browser to search on Google or we annoy you and ruin your experience. That's not right. What if Microsoft decided to change Windows PC settings through an update to ruin experience of all people who use Google Chrome because they have a large OS market share in desktop, would that be right?
Microsoft, kill that ad. It should not show up in Edge
https://help.getadblock.com/support/solutions/articles/6000199984-how-can-i-block-the-switch-to-chrome-notification-on-google-s-home-page-
Elliot Kirk Aun se extrañan todas las capacidades que teníamos en el Edge tradicional, hacía mucho la diferencia frente a Chrome y demás navegadores. Yo he dejado de lado Acrobat pero ahora al faltar tantas herramientas debo pensar en volver. Esperemos que pronto tengamos las mismas habilidades, incluso las notas web, eran fantásticas.
As someone already wrote, like in other apps (OneNote, Edge legacy...) touching with a single finger should scroll/pan the page, while using a pen should write/erase ink. As in other Windows Ink apps, a dedicated button should be present for writing with touch as well (disabled by default). The actual behavior could be activated automatically only on devices that do not support an active pen.
- "Using a digital pen or touch to write directly on PDF files has been one of the top feature asks from Microsoft Edge insiders." Really? So is Edge targeted for tablet users only? Because this feature makes only sense if you have a tablet. I guess the majority of Windows Users don't have a digital pen to write on their display. Where can I see the statistics? Because if Microsoft is targeting tablet users primarly I better think twice before I switch to it. Where do I have to vote so that basic features like text highlighting with annotation support is implemented?
vygadekaMicrosoft
smartens222 We are working on features which you mentioned which would be useful for all users like text highlights. In fact, the feature is already live in Canary and Dev. Our effort is that PDF annotations should be accessible with any input mode.
Please add save functionality ( not a "save as" ), bookmarks/Content and some keyboard shortcuts for:-
1. Pen/Draw tool (Alt+P)
2. Eraser tool (Alt+E) (currently Alt+E does the same job as Alt+F : "..." menu)
3. Page entering text box/Page Goto box (or whatever it is called.)
