The iPad with an Apple Pencil is one of the best annotation tools ever made, yet marking up a PDF still trips people up. Some apps lock the best pens behind a subscription, others flatten your notes awkwardly, and importing a document can feel like a chore. A reliable shortcut is to annotate a PDF on iPad by first converting its pages to images, then writing on those images with the built-in Markup tools that ship with iPadOS.
This guide shows how to turn a PDF into annotatable JPGs, mark them up in Photos and Notes, and keep your annotated pages organized. The conversion happens in Safari with our PDF to JPG tool, and every annotation tool used here is free and already on your iPad.
Why Annotate Images Instead of the PDF?
iPadOS includes a polished Markup engine, the same pens, highlighters, and shapes you see when you screenshot. That engine works beautifully on images in the Photos app and inside Notes. By converting PDF pages to JPGs, you route your document through this free, native toolset instead of relying on a third-party PDF editor. Your annotations sit on a normal photo you can share anywhere, and there is no app to learn.
The trade-off is that the page becomes a flat image, so you cannot select the original text. For underlining, circling, sketching diagrams, and handwriting notes, that is rarely a problem and often a benefit.
Step One: Convert the PDF to Images
Annotation starts with turning the document into pages you can draw on:
- Open Safari. Go to the PDF to JPG converter.
- Upload with Choose Files. This reaches PDFs stored in the Files app.
- Select your document. Pick the PDF you want to annotate.
- Render every page. Each page becomes its own JPG.
- Download the result. Single pages come as JPGs, longer documents as a ZIP.
If you need a refresher on moving files around the tablet, our full guide to converting a PDF to JPG on iPad covers the upload and download flow in detail.
Step Two: Get the Pages Into Photos
To annotate in Photos, the pages need to be in your camera roll. Long-press a single JPG and tap Add to Photos. For multi-page documents, open the ZIP first using the steps in our guide on opening a PDF ZIP in the Files app on iPad, then add the images. The full long-press routine is also covered in saving PDF pages to Photos on iPad.
Annotating in the Photos App
Photos has everything you need for quick markup.
Opening Markup
Open a page, tap Edit, then tap the Markup icon, the pen tip in a circle. The familiar toolbar appears with a pen, highlighter, pencil, eraser, and color picker.
Tools You Will Use Most
The highlighter is perfect for emphasizing a clause, the pen for handwriting margin notes with the Apple Pencil, and the text box and shapes for clean callouts. Tap Done to save, and your annotated version replaces the page, though you can always revert to the original in Photos.
Annotating in the Notes App
For more involved work, the Notes app gives you room to spread out.
- Insert the page. Create a note and add the converted image from Photos or Files.
- Draw on top. Tap the Markup button and write directly over the page with the Pencil.
- Combine pages. Drop several pages into one note to annotate a whole document in a single scroll.
- Add typed notes. Mix handwriting with typed paragraphs around the image for a study sheet.
Notes also syncs through iCloud automatically, so your annotated document follows you to other devices. For images you keep in Photos rather than Notes, our guide on syncing PDF images with iCloud on iPad explains how to keep them available everywhere.
Choosing a Resolution That Holds Up to Ink
Annotation rewards a slightly higher resolution so your strokes sit cleanly on crisp text:
- 150 to 200 DPI: A good range for annotating; text stays sharp under your highlights.
- 300 DPI: Worth it if you plan to print the annotated page afterward.
- Very low DPI: Avoid, since soft text makes precise markup harder.
Higher resolution means bigger files, so if storage gets tight, compress the source first. Our article on compressing a PDF for iPad shows how the Compress PDF tool slims a document before conversion.
JPG or PNG for Annotation?
For annotation over text-heavy pages, the lossless PDF to PNG format keeps the underlying letters crisp so your notes do not compete with compression fuzz. For pages with photos or color, JPG is fine and lighter. If your document is mostly fine print you will write on, lean toward PNG.
Sharing and Reusing Annotated Pages
Because your annotated pages are images, sharing is trivial: drop them into Messages, Mail, or any app. If you need to send the marked-up set back as a single document, you can recombine the pages. Our guide on merging PDF images on iPad shows how to gather annotated images into one file using the Merge PDF tool. And when you simply want to read the document without marking it, the relaxed flow in reading a PDF as images on iPad pairs nicely with this annotation routine.
Choosing Between Photos and Notes
Both the Photos app and the Notes app can annotate a converted page, and knowing when to reach for each saves time. They share the same underlying Markup engine, so the pens feel identical, but they suit different jobs.
When Photos Is Enough
For a quick markup, highlighting one clause, signing a single page, circling a figure, Photos is the faster route. You open the image, tap Edit and Markup, make your strokes, and you are done, with the original always recoverable. This pairs naturally with pages you saved using our guide on saving PDF pages to Photos on iPad.
When Notes Wins
For anything involving several pages or a mix of handwriting and typed text, Notes is the better workspace. You can stack the pages of a whole document into one note, scroll through them as you annotate, and add typed paragraphs around each image to build a study sheet or a review. Because Notes syncs through iCloud, the finished annotation follows you to other devices, which complements the broader sync setup in our guide on syncing PDF images with iCloud on iPad. If you started from a high-quality export using the PDF to JPG tool, your notes will sit cleanly on sharp pages either way.
One last habit worth forming is to keep an unmarked copy of each page alongside the annotated one. Because converting flattens the page into an image, your notes become part of the picture once you tap Done, and reverting is not always possible if you have moved the file around. Saving the clean export from the converter first means you can always start fresh, re-mark a page differently, or send the original to someone who wants it without your highlights and handwriting in the way.
Conclusion
Annotating a PDF on an iPad is easiest when you convert the pages to images first, then lean on the free Markup tools in Photos and Notes. Pick a resolution that keeps text crisp, choose PNG for dense print, and your Apple Pencil does the rest. Ready to start marking up? Open the free PDF to JPG tool or browse every converter on the pdf-to-ipad-converter.com homepage and turn your document into pages you can write on.