You’ll soon be able to scribble all over PDFs on your Chromebook

By Anita George December 14, 2018

Tablet And stylus stock photo — PhotoMIX-Company / Pixabay

If you use a Chromebook, you can look forward to a new feature that lets you annotate PDF documents.

According to 9to5Google, Google may soon be adding a new annotation feature to the PDF viewer within its Chrome OS. This developing change to Chrome OS’ PDF viewer was spotted on this Chromium Gerrit source code management page. The new feature is expected to give access to an annotation mode by selecting a pencil-shaped icon. Drawings and notes created in this mode can be saved as a new file if desired and then sent off to wherever it needs to go.

Annotation should be able to support the use of a mouse, stylus, touchpad or touchscreen to create drawings and annotations as well. The basis of the drawings and notes will be Google’s software library, Ink. This software library should support “freehand drawing and handwriting.”

It is unclear at this time if the new PDF annotation feature will roll out to Chrome browsers, but we do know that the feature will likely initially only be released to Chrome OS.

The ability to annotate PDFs is a necessary convenience for those who use the document format often. Being able to draw and quickly jot down notes within a PDF can make things like obtaining signatures much easier to deal with. Which is probably why the Mac and Windows operating systems already offer their own PDF annotation options.

Within MacOS, a PDF can be annotated by using the Preview app’s Markup toolbar. For Windows 10 users, the Microsoft Edge browser comes with its own PDF viewer, and the annotations feature can be accessed by selecting the Add Notes button on the browser address bar.

Google’s endeavor to add the feature shouldn’t be surprising considering many of its new Chromebooks and Chrome OS devices feature touchscreens of their own now. Over the past year, Google has added feature after feature, attempting to make Chrome OS more touch-friendly for these new devices. PDF annotation seems especially important given the addition of the Pixelbook Pen, Google’s own stylus that’s meant to work with the Pixel Slate tablet and the Pixelbook 2-in-1 laptop.

Also, if you want to edit the PDF further, we suggest taking a look at some of the best PDF editors.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Computing Writer

Anita has been a technology reporter since 2013 and currently writes for the Computing section at Digital Trends. She began…

Computing

Best Antivirus Deals: Protect your PC or Mac from just $35

norton 360 deluxe with lifelock deal best buy december 2021 antivirus shutterstock stock image

If you just grabbed one of these desktop deals or laptop deals, then you may want to also consider arming yourself with one of the best antivirus programs on the market. That's especially true since the antiviruses that tend to come with these deals only last 30 days or so and don't even include the full suite of tools. So, if you want protection against everything from viruses to phishing scams, then be sure to check our favorite antivirus deals below.
NortonLifeLock 360 Deluxe -- $35, was $90

Norton products are a firm fixture amongst the best antivirus software for good reason. They're simple to use and typically cover all the devices you could need to protect. In the case of NortonLifeLock, you get so much more than just antivirus protection too. The software package covers up to five devices at once meaning it will happily work on your Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS systems all at once without a problem. That means all your devices will be regularly monitored for any nefarious files or any other potential issues relating to malware or similar. Real-time protection means there's nothing you need to do other than keep an eye out for any alerts from the service. It's great peace of mind but Norton LifeLock 360 Deluxe goes further than that.

Computing

Best Samsung monitor deals: 4K monitors, ultrawide, and more

Press image of the Samsung ViewFinity S9 studio monitor.

Samsung is probably one of the most well-known electronics companies, making everything from some of the best phones on the market to washers and driers, so it has a huge pedigree in the tech field. That pedigree also extends to monitors, as it also makes some of the best monitors and best gaming monitors on the market as well, so if you're looking to buy a new one, grabbing a Samsung on is a pretty smart choice. Of course, there's a huge selection of monitors to pick from, which is why we've gone out and selected some of our favorite Samsung monitor deals and compiled them for you below.

Also, if you're not quite sure what monitor to buy, check out our computer monitor buying guide to get a better sense of what you need. And, if you don't find it among Samsung monitors, you can always check some other great monitor deals as well.
Samsung 22-inch T350 Full HD monitor -- $100, was $120

Computing

The RTX 4090 is more popular on Steam than any AMD GPU

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

Despite being easily the fastest graphics card you can buy right now, the RTX 4090 is a niche product. At $1,600, it's out of the conversation for the vast majority of gamers. Still, that hasn't stopped the GPU from reaching a high ranking in Steam's hardware survey. According to the latest survey, the RTX 4090 is in 0.96% of gaming PCs running Steam -- more than any individual AMD GPU.

Although it's no surprise that Nvidia tops the charts in the Steam hardware survey -- the most recent report says Nvidia is represented in 76.59% of PCs compared to AMD's 15.79% -- it's shocking to see such an expensive GPU rank so highly. Compared to last month, the RTX 4090 even gained 0.11%, despite only being available above list price.