Learn To Use the New Markup Tools in iPadOS

Hi this is Gary with MacMost.com. On this episode let's take a look at the new Markup Tools in iPadOS. 

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So Apple has once again improved the Markup Tools for the iPad. In iPadOS they work better than ever. Let's take a look.  So ways to get to the Markup Tools are all over iPadOS. For instance here in Safari you could just go to the Share button and you'll see Markup right here. Sometimes you'll see this Markup tool. Look for that little pen in the circle tool. Sometimes you'll see it right at the top and other places. When you go into it you're basically creating a PDF or if you're already looking at an image, like you're in Photos or Mail and you want to mark up an image, you'll still be marking that image. So you'll either be marking up a PDF or an image.

So this is a PDF version of that webpage since I was in Safari and I wanted to use the Markup Tools. Now I can see the little markup tool there. I tap on that button and get the tools here at the bottom. You can see it looks very different in iPadOS than in previous versions of iOS for iPad. You have a little handle here at the top and you can drag that to move it to the top or even to the sides. You can move it around to where you want. The tools start with a pen tool here. So I can tap on that and then I can simply draw with the pen. Now I can also use a highlighter here and draw with the highlighter and have kind of a marker there. It's a little dimmer. So I can choose between these three. All of these three here I can choose colors as well. So I can choose one of these main colors but I can also tap here to choose from a wider color palette and then I can start drawing using that color.

Now these tools have options. All you need to do is tap them again once they're selected. So I have the pen tool selected. I'll tap it another time and you see I've got several different brush styles and I can select a level of transparency. The same for highlighting here. I can tap that a second time and I have a level of transparency and the thickness of the highlighter. For the marker here I can also do the same.

For erasing I've got this eraser tool here. If I tap on that a second time you can see Pixel Eraser or Object Eraser. Object Eraser will allow me to basically just slash out an object. So I just kind of slash through something to get rid of it. But if I were to go to Pixel Eraser then I would actually be drawing through. So you can see how I erased that part there. This actually created multiple pieces. So now if I were to go and tap again here and go to Object Eraser each piece is it's own individual thing.

You also have a Selection Tool. So let's draw some more here. I can use this selection tool here and basically circle something and select all of that. So even though there's two objects in there it selected them all. Then I can tap on it and I can Cut, Copy, Delete, or Duplicate. I can also use three fingers and pinch inward with three fingers like that to Copy. Once to Copy and twice is Cut. The Ruler tool helps you draw straight lines. Now you've got this ruler here and I can position it where I want. I can use two fingers on the ruler and rotate it and it locks to zero degrees and ninety degrees and even forty-five degrees. Then when I use another tool, like the pen tool here, and I do it close to this edge, it will actually lock to that edge and I get a nice edge there. Notice I can tap and drag the ruler around if I haven't selected the ruler tool. This is basically just like an On Off switch.

You have the ability to add other things as well. So you have this Plus button here. Tap that and you can add Text and now you can move the text around. Notice there's a button here. You tap that and now you can choose a font for the text. You can increase the size and the justification for it. Also tap it here and edit it. It goes into text editing mode. I can also, when I tap it, I can delete it and duplicate it. Other things you've got are the ability to add signatures as before. So the signatures you can create one, cause I haven't created one here, and then once I create one then I can add it. So now I hit the Plus button there. Hit Signature and you can see I can Add or Remove. But I can also use the X here and add it in.

You can add a Magnifier which is this little circle here which you can put over an area. You've got a green button where you can increase the magnification and the blue dot there where you can increase the size. You can also add various shapes. So you've got a rectangle there and you have options for the rectangle. So I can increase the thickness or make it a solid shape. I can drag it around. I can tap and drag the corners to move that around as well. Of course you can change the color for the entire thing. You've also got a circle and you've got a little bubble there with options for that just like the rectangle. You've got these green buttons here that you can drag and increase the size of the pull away part there and the width of it as well.

You can also add arrows and you've got a lot of options for arrows because you can move the front and back of the arrow. You can tap here and you can see you have different styles of arrows. You can just do a plain line. You can do a double ended arrow like that. You can also grab the green dot there to curve the arrow. This More button here with the three dots. The only option for that is to auto minimize. You turn that on and what happens is the tools just go into this single little circle there. Tap on it to expand. You select a new tool and then as soon as you start using that tool, you can see, it auto hides again. So you may want to do that if you want the extra space.

You can use Markup all over the place. For instance here in Photos I can go to Edit and then under Edit I can hit the three dots there, choose Markup, and now I can markup a photo, add text, captions, arrows, all that stuff. Likewise notice here in Mail, I'm composing a Mail message, I've attached an image. I can tap on that image and I have the ability to hit the Markup Tools there. Now I can markup the image and the marked up version of the image will be attached to the email.

If you take a screen grab and then you go to look at it you're able to use the Markup Tools right away. They just come up right away in the screen grab. So I pressed the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time to go into screen grab mode. Now I can mark it up before I Save it. 

So you may see these Markup Tools in more places that just Apple's apps. That's because Apple makes them available to developers. So look in your favorite third party tools to see if you can find either the option to markup or that little pen with a circle icon in it and then you can use those tools there as well.