[Feature Request]: Add a freehand pen/drawing tool for PDF annotation

Author: Bitowen13Created Sep 15, 2026Updated Sep 15, 2026
Labelsenhancement

Feature Description

I would like to request a freehand pen tool for annotating PDFs directly inside the PDF viewer.

The user should be able to select a Pen tool and draw directly on the PDF using:

  • Mouse
  • Trackpad
  • Stylus
  • Touchscreen where supported

The drawing should follow the pointer/stylus smoothly and appear as an annotation on the page.

Basic controls could include:

  • Pen color
  • Pen thickness
  • Opacity
  • Eraser
  • Undo/redo
  • Clear selected drawing

Why is this feature valuable?

A freehand pen would make Stirling-PDF much more useful for education and document review.

For example, a teacher could open a PDF worksheet or textbook and use a mouse or stylus to:

  • Circle important content
  • Underline something manually
  • Write short notes
  • Draw arrows
  • Mark an exercise
  • Explain something directly on the PDF

This is especially useful when the application is being used in fullscreen/presentation mode.

Suggested Implementation

The pen could be implemented as a PDF annotation layer rather than immediately modifying the original PDF content.

The annotation layer should remain editable until the user saves/exports the document.

A simple toolbar could provide:

Pen | Highlighter | Eraser | Undo | Redo

with controls for color and stroke width.

Additional Information

It would be especially useful if the freehand annotation worked consistently both in normal viewer mode and fullscreen/reading mode.

Example Files

No response

No Duplicate of the Feature

  • I have verified that there are no existing features requests similar to my request.

Source: Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF