To annotate a PDF by hand on an Android tablet, open it in an app that treats every page as paper for your stylus, then highlight, underline and write in the margins as you would on a printout. In Tavora Notes you import the PDF into a note, and writing on it is free.
This guide covers getting the PDF in, marking it up well, making room for longer thoughts, scanning paper documents, and a review routine that works for research papers and contracts alike.
Bring the PDF into your notes
It helps to annotate inside your notes app rather than in a separate PDF viewer. Your markup then lives next to the notes for the same course or project, and you find it the same way you find everything else.
In Tavora, you import a PDF into a note and every page becomes paper you can write on. The PDF is part of the note, not a separate file you have to find again. A few habits make this work better:
- Give the note a clear name, such as the paper’s author and year, or the contract’s parties and date.
- Keep it in the folder for the course or project it belongs to.
- Keep one document per note, so annotations on different files never get mixed up.
Mark it up
Highlight less than you think
Highlighting feels productive, but a page that is half yellow tells you very little a month later. Two habits keep it useful:
- Read a paragraph or section first, then go back and highlight only the sentence that carries it.
- Give each colour one meaning and keep it, for example one colour for key claims and a second for anything you doubt or need to check.
Tavora’s highlighter blends under the printed text instead of covering it, so what you mark stays readable.
Write in the margins
Margin notes are where annotation earns its keep. Use them for:
- Questions, marked with a question mark so you can find them again.
- A one-line summary at the end of each section, in your own words.
- Links to other ideas, such as “compare with week 3” or “conflicts with clause 7”.
- Working, when a paper or textbook skips a step.
Circle a figure, underline a line, work a problem beside it. When the margin is tight, pinch to zoom in, write small, then zoom back out. A different ink colour for your own thoughts keeps them apart from marks on the author’s text.
Add pages when the margin runs out
Some thoughts are too long for a margin, and cramming them in makes both the note and the page hard to read. In Tavora you can add blank pages between the PDF’s pages for longer answers, sketches and working. Put one straight after a dense section, write the question at the top and answer it underneath.
The same trick works at the end of a document: one blank page for everything you still need to resolve.
Scan paper into a PDF
Handouts, printed readings and signed letters are easier to keep when they sit with the rest of your notes. For a clean scan, lay the page flat on a surface that contrasts with it, use even light without strong shadows, and hold the tablet parallel to the paper.
Tavora scans paper with the tablet’s camera, and its everyday PDF tools run on the device, work offline and never upload your file. They are all free:
- Scan paper with the camera, or turn images into a PDF.
- Merge and split files.
- Organise and rotate pages.
- Protect a file with a password, or unlock one.
- Add watermarks and page numbers.
Once a scan is a PDF, import it into a note and write on it like any other.
Free tools and paid-plan tools
Everything above is free. The paid plans add tools for heavier jobs, in two groups.
On the tablet, the file stays on the device while you:
- Edit a PDF’s text and images, or white out part of a page.
- Sign with your pen and keep the signature for next time.
- Copy text out of photos and scanned pages.
Online, the file you upload and the result are deleted within a day. You can compress and repair a PDF, make a scan searchable with OCR, convert PDF to Word or Office files to PDF, and translate a document while keeping its layout. Each run is a job: Pro includes 50 jobs a month and Premium 200; Plus, offered in some countries, includes 50. You run these online tools from the Android app or the web app, and the 7-day free trial includes them. In the web app, a PDF from your notes opens with its pages and your writing. The pricing page compares the plans.
A review routine for papers and contracts
Whether it is a research paper or a contract, reviewing in passes works better than trying to understand and mark everything at once. This routine suits both:
- Skim first, without a pen. For a paper, read the abstract, headings, figures and conclusion. For a contract, find the parties, dates, amounts and how it can end.
- Read properly, highlighting only key claims or obligations in one colour.
- The moment something is unclear, write a question mark and your question in the margin, then keep reading.
- At the end of each section, write a one-line summary in the margin or on an added blank page.
- Collect every open question on a blank page at the end, so you can look them up, raise them with a tutor or send them to the other party.
- Only then act: write up your notes, or, for a contract you are happy with, sign it.
Whether a signature drawn with a pen is accepted depends on the document and on who asks for it, so check before you rely on one.
For using AI with your reading more generally, see how to study with AI and your handwritten notes.
Get started
Writing on PDFs and the on-device PDF tools are free in the Tavora Notes Android app, which is in early access; you can request it from the download page. The PDF features page lists every tool. If you are new to writing on a tablet, start with how to take handwritten notes on an Android tablet.