Drawboard PDF Reviews & Product Details

I rarely recommend products, but I've found Drawboard PDF to be an incredibly useful app. So much so, that within a few days of using it, I ended the trial early and signed up for the full paid product.

Quick context. I'm in the middle of building a house, and the architect & other consultants routinely send me PDFs and ask for detailed markup. I'd been struggling through Kami, Adobe (both paid licenses) and looking for a better option. I tried Canva. All were limited. What I wanted was something that had the power of a vector drawing program, with layers, snap to, reusable object libraries, shapes, different fill types, etc. and -- amazing, hard to find - actual copy/paste. Trying to edit on top of a PDF much like I would in PowerPoint or Google Presentations. I also used Kami a lot for adding signatures / other basic editing, as well as merging / cutting up PDF files.

Drawboard PDF does *all* of this. It is by far the most full-featured program I've found (and I've tried dozens). So much better than Adobe's own product in the space that I'm scratching my head why. Using it is very easy. Features make sense, and when you try something it generally works like you'd expect. This product has vastly improved my workflow with my design and build team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I haven't yet discovered hot keys. Also, something that allows cropping a PDF similar to cropping an image would be greatly appreciated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use drawboard pdf on a near daily basis to markup documents, and for notetaking. I have been using it since it first was introduced and have been extremely happy with it. I recently had a problem with drawboard freezing intermittently after an operating system update. I contacted drawboard support. They were courteous and quick. They had the problem resolved within a couple of days. I am a very happy customer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

No downsides. Everything is great and the product is constantly improving. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Drawboard PDF offers a smooth and professional experience in annotating and editing PDF documents; it's very versatile and easy to take notes, draw free-form shapes, underline and even write directly and accurately on my PDFs with the stylus on my tablet's touch screen. By having a neat interface it's possible to access any of its tools or move my annotations around with ease without overwhelming me or affecting the flow of my activities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There were times when it presented small lags in its performance especially when working with large documents and many annotations, but this issue was resolved with an update that improved the speed and stability of Drawboard PDF. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Textual annotations using highlighter, text boxes, and the freedom to draw with a pressure-sensitive stylus in Drawboard PDF creates a near-authentic experience to apply marks on an actual piece of paper. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is no option for editing fillable forms in PDFs which are included as fillable forms in Drawboard PDF. This is a constraint for me, especially since many times I am involved in many form sign and complete from different purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It provides an excellent graphical user interface and high user controllability for those who work with PDF documents. It encompasses many functionalities such as combining several files and preparing color and style standards and templates. We can use different pens and brushes and our work will be instantly saved. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are no problems when using the whiteboard. It’s okay when you make modifications on PDF frequently because it is easier to use than other options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Drawboard allows us various editing options including writing notes, adding comments, annotating with multiple colors and highlighting text. Most of the essential features are available in the free version of the software. The UI is great and it also supports dark mode. The feature of adding blank pages to an existing PDF is very useful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The downside is that the software lags a bit when drawing and highlighting text. The highlighting tool is not very precise and sometimes marks some other text rather than the desired text. The pen tools are limited and some features are not available even in the paid version and we need to pay extra for them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The GUI, the GUI, the GUI. Really, this application looks so good. Sure, there are a few features in here that are not available on Adobe Acrobat, but the GUI here is so much more pleasant. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This is a strange complaint, but the pen icons don't really look like they are pens, and do you have to do a double take when trying to use it for the first time. I hate to say this, but the pen icons almost look like the poop emoji in different colors. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It can handle large pdf files quickly as compared with other software. Easy to give Markups on drawing in pdf format. Lots of pdf editing & markup features are available. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing as such to dislike. Best application. I use its free version & have lots of options. If they can add a test editing option, it would be excellent for users Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like drawboard because it's very user friendly, does all the things I need and it works. Every single time I use it, it works! That's kind of a big deal with a free/or inexpensive app/program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is really nothing that I dislike. There are a few pieces that you have to get used to, like lining up the text box on a line that you are filling out, but that only takes a few tries for the user to get the hang of it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As an "Essential" level user, I see a lot of benefits from the variety of mark-up tools (and digital signature) features built into the software. Beyond mark-ups, features replace the basic PDF viewing and fillable form needs. Drawboard makes a near-perfect go-to software for these tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only downside experienced in the software is the lack of a view pane for reviewing a list of comments/notes in the document. As someone who has marked up extensive documents in my career and reviewed mark-ups by others, having a list of notes/comments (linked to the note's position on the page) is essential to a productive workflow. I highly recommend this feature to be developed ASAP to make this software the must-have application on my computer. For the Pro version, offering up an "accept/decline/reply" feature in the notes would make a fine addition. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.