Annotating

Annotations are marks you add on top of a page: highlights, drawings, text, stamps and comments. They never change the original PDF content. Refr keeps them as editable records in the workspace and writes them into the page only when you export a PDF.

Most tools are in Edit mode. The ones you use most are also in the floating tools.

Text markup

Tool	Result
Highlight text	A translucent band behind the text
Underline text	A line under the text
Strikethrough text	A line through the text

Pick a tool and drag across text. Refr snaps the mark to the words between where you start and where you stop, in reading order. A selection over several lines gets one mark per line.

If there's no selectable text where you drag, for example on a scanned page, drag a rectangle of at least 4 × 4 pt and Refr marks that area instead.

You can also select text with Select first, then click Highlight, Underline or Strikethrough in the selection bar.

Drawing tools

Tool	How
Draw freehand (D)	Drag to draw a stroke
Rectangle	Drag from one corner to the opposite corner
Ellipse	Drag out the box that holds the ellipse
Line	Drag from start to end
Arrow	Drag from the tail to the head

Very small drags are ignored (rectangles and ellipses under 10 × 10 pt, for example), so a stray click doesn't leave a mark.

Text

Choose Add text (T) and click where the text should start.
Type. New text wraps at 220 pt, or at the page edge if that comes first. Drag a corner afterwards to make the box wider or narrower.
Press Return or click outside the box to apply it, or press Esc to cancel.

To change existing text, double-click it with Select, or select it and click Edit text in the selection bar. If you clear all the text and apply, the annotation is deleted.

Text uses the current color and font size. It's drawn in Helvetica, the same font the exported PDF uses, so line breaks match. On a rotated page, the text turns with the page.

Stamps and check marks

Add stamp puts a 150 × 40 pt APPROVED stamp where you click. To change the wording, double-click the stamp, or select it and click Edit text.
Add check mark (in E-Sign mode) places a check mark where you click.

Appearance

The Appearance section in Edit mode sets the style for new annotations:

Color: blue, yellow, red, green, purple or black.
Font size: 4–200 pt, in 1 pt steps. Used by text and stamps.
Stroke width: 0.5–30 pt, in 0.5 pt steps. Used by lines, shapes, ink and the thickness of underline and strikethrough.

If an annotation is selected, changing any of these also changes that annotation, and you can undo the change. When text gets a new font size, its box grows or shrinks to fit.

Selecting, moving and resizing

Choose Select (V) and click an annotation to select it. Refr picks the topmost annotation under the pointer. For lines, arrows and freehand strokes, you need to click near the stroke itself.

To	Do
Move	Drag the annotation, or press the arrow keys (1 pt; hold Shift for 10 pt)
Resize	Drag a corner handle. Text rewraps to the new width. Highlights, underlines, strikethroughs and comments can't be resized.
Recolor	Pick a color in the selection bar or in Edit mode
Edit its text	Double-click it, or click Edit text
See its details	Click Annotation properties, or open Properties
Delete	Press Delete or Backspace, or click the trash icon
Deselect	Click an empty area, or press Esc

Press Esc while you're drawing or dragging to cancel.

Undo and redo

Every change to the document can be undone: adding, moving, resizing, recoloring and deleting annotations, page operations, bookmarks and document properties.

⌘Z undoes and ⇧⌘Z (or ⌃Y) redoes. The status bar says what was undone.
Refr keeps the last 100 changes for each document.
Undo history belongs to the open document. It isn't saved in the workspace and is lost when you close the tab.
If you undo back to the state you last saved, the tab's unsaved-changes dot goes away.

Changing tools, selecting and navigating are not document changes, so they aren't undone.