I work with construction plans, 24" x 36" PDF pages. Normally, there are 10 - 20 pages in a single PDF file. My new iPad Pro (baby size) will be here Friday with Apple Pencil 2. I want to markup the drawings as construction proceeds. Make notes, draw lines, hand write notes, and highlight areas. I want to be able to open the PDF a week later after making an annotation and erasing a previous markup. i.e. I want this to be just like paper.
Any idea what I can use on the iPad to get this done? I am not sure if PDFPen would or not.
PDF Expert is a great option. Really solid annotation options, and there is an easily accessed mechanism to clear all annotations.
Other options you might consider (I wouldn’t rank these better or worse than PDF Expert, just different options to consider!)
Notability or GoodNotes. Both of these have the option of creating “Stationary”. So if you are using the same plan over and over, you could use that as stationary. Rather than deleting annotations and re-drawing, you can just create a new document using that stationary/template and you’ve got a fresh… well, stationary!
A free option that is very similar with respect to the quality and variety of annotations is PDF Viewer from PSPDF. They have a pro subscription that might offer options that are useful, but most of them are geared towards collaboration and some enterprise stuff that you may not find necessary.
Ok. I don’t have an iPad, but I used one with Revu once a long time ago. I love Bluebeam Revu on the Mac and Windows so I was hopeful that it would be good on the iPad.
Bluebeam is working on a new iOS app called Drawings. I am signed up for the beta. I’ll try it on my iPhone. Maybe I can find someone with an iPad so I can try it out.
Recently, I’ve gone back to using the Files app. They’ve dramatically improved the number of options for pen/ink type and it is now enough for my needs. It also speeds up my workflow because I don’t have to keep moving files to/from iCloud and I still have PDF Expert on my MacBook for any editing needs.
If you need more than annotating though PDF Expert is a great app.
But can I erase just the “i”? On the Mac the answer is now. The each group of markups is erased. Still, I am going to give this another go. My iPad came today so tonight I will be testing. Will report back.