

But for everyone else, PDF Expert 7 is a better option.Īpple Pencil isn’t the only input method that you can use on your iPad. If you need to make your way through a 100-page research document on your iPad Pro, LiquidText will feel like a godsend. You can take notes, make drawings, then link them to a particular part of the PDF. The app has a unique interface where you can select text from the PDF and drag it to the research area. This is the big-daddy of PDF viewing and editing apps. If you already use GoodNotes 5 for handwritten notes, you can try using it for annotating PDFs as well. There is a standard set of items like those found in other apps: comments, text. This helps PDFpen feel much more native to the iPad than other options we tested.
Pdf expert vs notability for free#
Enjoy advanced reading layouts, powerful PDF editing and classical annotation tools. PDF Expert simply provides more tools for free and has better stability and performance across the app. While GoodNotes 5 has a feature-rich Pen and Marker tool, the highlight tool is missing altogether (and the Draw in Straight Line option isn’t a good alternative). Download a free trial of PDF Expert - the best PDF software for your Mac. GoodNotes 5 is considered the most powerful note-taking app on iPad but only a few of the features translate to highlighting and annotating PDFs. There’s no freeform doodle feature either.

Highlighting with Apple Pencil is not seamless, plus you can only add notes to parts that you highlight. If you simply want to highlight PDFs, you can use the built-in Apple Books app, but we found the app a bit too cumbersome to use.
