Mark up a document

Write, highlight, erase, select, draw shapes, add images and signatures, and manage pages in any PDF or notebook.

When you open a document, Lectra shows the page with a toolbar of writing tools. You can write and draw with Apple Pencil or your finger, highlight text, erase, move your writing around, add shapes, images, sticky notes, and signatures, and add or rearrange pages. Lectra saves your work as you go.

The editor at a glance

• Top bar: Back to the library, the pages panel, the document title, Undo and Redo, search, the Read switch, Share, and More actions (the ellipsis button).
• Toolbar: your writing tools, colors, and sizes. It also holds buttons for Apple Intelligence, recording a lecture, and Insert (+).

Tap the document title for Rename, Copy Name, sharing and printing, History, and Paper.

Choose a tool

Tap a tool in the toolbar to use it. Tap the tool again to open its options, such as style, size, and color.

The toolbar starts with these tools:

Tool	Use it to
Pen	Write and draw.
Highlighter	Mark text with see-through color.
Eraser	Remove ink.
Text	Type text on the page. To learn more, see Add typed text.
Lasso	Select ink to move, resize, copy, or delete it.

You can also add these tools:

Tool	Use it to
Shapes	Draw clean lines, boxes, circles, triangles, and diamonds.
Note	Drop a sticky note on the page.
Laser	Point at the page while you present. Laser marks fade and aren’t saved.

Customize the toolbar

1. Start editing the toolbar

   Touch and hold the toolbar until the tools wiggle.

2. Remove or add tools

   To remove a tool, tap the − badge on it. To add one, tap it in the MORE TOOLS tray. The toolbar keeps at least three tools.

3. Finish

   Tap Done.

Move or hide the toolbar

• Move it: drag the toolbar’s handle (Move toolbar) to another edge, or tap the handle and choose Left Side, Right Side, Top, or Bottom. The handle is available when the editor is wide enough.
• Hide it: tap the chevron (Hide tools). The toolbar shrinks to a small circle in a corner. Tap the circle (Show tools) to bring it back.
• Get it out of the way while you write: by default, the toolbar folds into the corner circle as soon as you start a mark. To keep it on screen, go to Settings > App and turn off Move the toolbar aside while you write.
• Open the tool wheel: touch and hold the page with two fingers. A ring of your tools opens around your fingers. Tap a tool, or tap outside the ring to close it.

Choose colors and sizes

When the pen, highlighter, or shapes tool is selected, the toolbar shows color swatches and five size dots. Each tool remembers its own color, size, and opacity.

Colors

The toolbar offers Yellow, Black, White, Red, Blue, and Green, then any colors you saved, then Custom color.

To pick any color:

1. Open the color picker

   Tap Custom color (the color wheel). You can also tap Custom ink in a tool’s options.

2. Pick a color

   Use Wheel and the VALUE slider, or Spectrum and the Hue slider. To enter an exact color, type a hex code such as #1E6FD9.

3. Save it (optional)

   Tap + (Save this color) under SAVED. You can keep up to 8 saved colors.

Sizes

Tap one of the five dots to set a size. For an exact size, open the tool’s options and use the slider.

Tool	Size dots	Slider range	Default
Pen	0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.5, 5.0	0.2 to 6.0	2.0
Highlighter	4, 8, 14, 22, 32	1 to 40	14
Eraser	1.5, 3, 6, 9, 12	0.8 to 12	6
Shapes	0.5, 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6	0.5 to 6	3

Write with the pen

The pen is pressure-responsive: pressing harder with Apple Pencil makes a stroke slightly thicker. In the pen’s options, choose a style:

• Fountain
• Ballpoint (the default)
• Dashed
• Dotted

Your ink is stored as sharp lines, so it stays crisp at any zoom.

Highlight

Use the highlighter to mark text with see-through color. In its options, set Opacity from 15% to 75%. The default is 35%.

To highlight PDF text exactly along its lines, see Highlight selected text.

Draw straight lines with the ruler

In the pen or highlighter options, turn on Ruler. While the ruler is on, every stroke becomes a straight line that snaps to 15° angles. Turn it off to write freely again. With a keyboard, press ⇧ ⌘ U.

Erase

In the eraser’s options, choose how it erases:

Mode	What it does
Precision	Erases exactly what the tip touches.
Standard	Erases in a soft circle around the tip.
Stroke	Erases a whole stroke when you touch it once. This is the default.

Set the size with Eraser size. The eraser removes ink only. To remove a text box, image, or sticky note, see Edit text boxes and Add images.

Draw shapes

You can turn a rough drawing into a clean shape in two ways.

• With the pen or highlighter: draw the shape, then hold the tip still for a moment without lifting it. The shape snaps clean. Keep dragging to resize it before you lift.
• With the Shapes tool: draw the shape and lift. It snaps clean when you lift. To draw freehand with this tool instead, turn off Snap to shape in its options.

Lectra recognizes lines, arcs, arrows, circles, ellipses, triangles, rectangles, squares, diamonds, pentagons, and hexagons.

Select, move, and copy ink

1. Choose the lasso

   In the toolbar, tap Lasso.

2. Circle your ink

   Draw a loop around the strokes you want. They’re selected when you lift.

3. Change the selection

   • To move it, drag inside the selection.
   • To resize it, drag a corner handle. The proportions stay the same.
   • To rotate it, drag the rotate handle. It snaps to 15° steps.
4. Use the selection bar

   Tap Copy, Cut, Duplicate, or Delete. Tap Done when you’re finished.

The lasso selects handwriting, highlighting, and shapes. It doesn’t select text boxes or images.

To paste, open the lasso options and tap Paste Drawing, touch and hold an empty part of the page and tap Paste Drawing, or press ⌘ V. Ink you copy also pastes into other apps as a picture.

Use the touch-and-hold menu

Touch and hold the page with your finger to open a menu for what’s under it. The items depend on what you touch:

You touch	Menu items
A selection	Copy, Cut, Duplicate, Delete, Deselect
A stroke	Copy, Cut, Duplicate, Select More, Delete. If the recordings drawer is open, also Play From Here.
An image	Copy, Cut, Duplicate, Crop, Replace, Delete
A text box	Copy, Cut, Duplicate, Edit, Delete
A word in the PDF	Select Text, Select All Text
An empty part of the page	Paste Drawing, Paste Image, or Paste Text (whichever matches what you copied), Paste as Note (when you copied text), Insert Image, Take Photo, Select All Ink (when the page has ink), Select All Text (when the page has text)

The menu opens only when your finger isn’t drawing. If your finger draws on the page, either use Apple Pencil once so Lectra knows you have one, set Draw with Finger to Never, or switch to Read first. To learn more, see Use Apple Pencil.

Select and highlight PDF text

1. Start a text selection

   Touch and hold a word in the PDF with your finger, then tap Select Text. To select every word on the page, tap Select All Text.

2. Adjust the selection

   Drag the handles at each end.

3. Choose an action

   Tap Copy, Highlight, Look Up, Find in Document, or Deselect.

Highlight draws highlighter ink along each selected line. It uses the highlighter’s current color if the highlighter is selected, and yellow otherwise.

Text selection works on PDFs that contain text. A scanned page or a photo has no text to select.

Add sticky notes

1. Choose the Note tool

   In the toolbar, tap Note. If you don’t see it, add it to the toolbar.

2. Choose a paper color (optional)

   Tap Note again and pick one of the five paper colors.

3. Drop the note

   Tap the page where you want the note, then type.

To move a note, tap it, then drag its handle. Notes use the same formatting options as text boxes. If you copied text, you can also touch and hold the page and tap Paste as Note.

Point with the laser

Add Laser to the toolbar, then choose Dot or Line in its options. Point at the page while you present. The line fades after a moment. Nothing you do with the laser is saved.

Add images

1. Open Insert

   In the toolbar, tap +.

2. Choose an image

   Under IMAGES, tap Choose a photo or Take a photo.

3. Place it

   Drag, pinch, and rotate the image into place, then tap Add image.

You can also touch and hold an empty part of the page and tap Insert Image or Take Photo.

To change an image later, tap it:

• Drag it to move it.
• Drag a corner to resize it. The proportions stay the same.
• Drag the rotate handle to turn it.
• Use the buttons under it to crop, duplicate, or delete it.

To swap an image for another one, touch and hold it and tap Replace.

Add a quick symbol

Under ELEMENTS in Insert, tap Star, Arrow, Check, Flag, or Question mark. The symbol is drawn in your current ink color in the middle of the page, already selected so you can move it.

Sign a document

Lectra can remember your signature so you can place it on future PDFs.

1. Sign with the pen

   Write your signature with the pen.

2. Save it

   When Lectra asks Save this signature?, tap Save. To skip it, tap Not now.

3. Place it on another PDF

   In the toolbar, tap +, then tap Place saved signature.

To turn this off, go to Settings > Account and turn off Enable saved signatures. If you tap Not now twice, Lectra also stops asking.

Lectra offers to save a signature until you’ve saved one, and you can’t delete a saved signature yet.

Undo and redo

Method	Undo	Redo
Top bar	Tap Undo.	Tap Redo.
Fingers	Tap the page with two fingers.	Tap the page with three fingers.
Keyboard	⌘ Z	⇧ ⌘ Z or ⌘ Y
Apple Pencil	Set Squeeze to Undo.	Set Squeeze to Redo.

Undo covers ink, text boxes, images, and page changes, up to 100 steps. Undo history lasts while the document is open. To go back further, use version history.

Manage pages

Open the pages panel

Tap Pages in the top bar. On a narrower screen, tap Page Overview, or tap More actions > Page Overview. With a keyboard, press ⌥ ⌘ S.

In the panel:

• To go to a page, tap its thumbnail.
• To reorder pages, drag a thumbnail.
• To copy a page, touch and hold its thumbnail, then tap Duplicate Page.
• To delete a page, touch and hold its thumbnail, tap Delete Page, then confirm. You can undo this in the editor.

Insert a page

1. Go to the page before the new one

   Go to the page that the new page should follow.

2. Tap Insert

   In the pages panel, tap Insert.

3. Choose the paper

   In New page, tap Blank, Lined, Grid, Dotted, or Cornell. The new page uses the current page’s color and size. To insert every page of another PDF or image instead, tap From Files….

On iPad, you can also swipe past the last page to add a blank page. A message says New page added. Tap Undo in the message to remove it.

Change a page’s paper

1. Open Paper

   Tap More actions, then tap Paper.

2. Choose the paper and color

   Under Paper, pick a style. Under Color, pick a color.

3. Apply it

   Tap Apply to Page.

The change applies to the current page. If you change the last page, pages you add after it use the same paper.

Use the document outline

If a PDF has a table of contents, tap More actions > Document Outline to see it. Tap an entry to go to that page.

Zoom and move around

• Zoom: pinch with two fingers, up to 5×. To go back to the full page, double-tap with one finger.
• Turn pages: on iPad, swipe left or right. Pages sit side by side, one page at a time.
• Scroll while your finger draws: use two fingers.
• Read without marking: tap Read in the top bar. Your fingers and Apple Pencil scroll instead of drawing. Tap Read again to go back to your last tool.

With a keyboard, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Saving

Lectra saves your work automatically. Each stroke is saved as soon as you finish it, and the whole document is saved when you go back to the library, share, or print. The top bar shows whether the document is Saving or Saved.

If a save can’t finish, for example because your iPad is out of space, Lectra tells you. To learn what to do, see Troubleshooting.

Limits

• Links inside a PDF don’t open when you tap them.
• PDF form fields can’t be filled in. To fill in a form, type over it with the Text tool.
• You can’t rotate pages or add bookmarks.
• Pencil tilt doesn’t change your strokes.

Related

Use Apple Pencil

Set up squeeze, double-tap, and finger drawing.

Export and share

Send your marked-up pages anywhere.