When you are reviewing a complex PDF report or an intricate architectural diagram, simply highlighting text is often not enough to convey your feedback. You may need to draw a large red circle around a specific building or point a bright yellow arrow at a critical data point in a chart. Rather than printing the document and drawing on it with a physical marker, you can use the advanced vector shape tools built directly into the macOS Preview app.
How to Access the Shapes Menu
The shape tools are located within Preview’s advanced markup interface.
- Double-click your image or PDF file to open it in Preview.
- Click the Markup Toolbar icon in the top right corner of the window (the circle containing a pencil tip).
- A new horizontal toolbar will appear below the main menu. Click the Shapes icon (a small square overlapping a circle).
- A drop-down menu will appear displaying various geometric options, including squares, circles, lines, stars, and polygons.
Adding and Customizing Basic Shapes
Click on the Rectangle or Circle icon in the drop-down menu. The shape will instantly drop into the exact center of your document.
- Resizing: Click and drag the blue dots (handles) on the outer edge of the shape to resize it.
- Making it Transparent: By default, Preview might fill the shape with a solid color, completely blocking the image underneath it. To fix this, keep the shape selected, click the Fill Color icon in the toolbar (the solid square), and select the white box with a red diagonal line through it. This makes the inside of the shape completely transparent.
- Thickening the Border: To make the shape stand out, click the Border Color icon (the hollow square) and select a bright color like Red. Then, click the Shape Style icon (the icon with horizontal lines) and select a much thicker line weight.
You now have a thick, highly visible red circle that you can drag over any part of your document to highlight it.
Drawing and Bending Arrows
Adding an arrow is just as simple. Click the Shapes icon and select the Arrow. Drag the ends of the arrow to point exactly where you want.
What makes Preview’s arrow tool incredibly powerful is its flexibility. Look for the Green dot located precisely in the middle of the arrow’s shaft. If you click and drag that green dot, you can bend the straight arrow into a perfect curve, allowing you to route the arrow around other text or objects in the document without obscuring them.
When you are finished annotating, press Command + S to permanently save the shapes to the file.