Draw, annotate and use Scribble in Pages, Numbers and Keynote

With an Apple Pencil on iPad, draw, annotate and turn handwriting into text, or use your finger to draw and annotate on iPad or iPhone.

Turn handwriting into text with Scribble

With Scribble, you can turn handwriting into text with an Apple Pencil on a supported iPad.* When you pair an Apple Pencil with an iPad, Scribble is on by default. To check the status of the Scribble setting or to turn it off, go to Settings > Apple Pencil on your iPad.

  1. Tap Apple Pencil in the body of a word-processing document in Pages, a spreadsheet in Numbers or a slide in Keynote where you want to write. Or tap in a text box, shape or table cell.
  2. Tap the Scribble tool in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, then start writing.
    Drawing toolbar showing the Scribble tool emphasised

As you write with Apple Pencil, you can also delete words, insert text and more:

  • To delete a word, cross it out.
  • To insert text between words, tap and hold in a text area, then start writing when a space opens.
  • To join or separate characters, draw a vertical line between them.
  • To select text, circle it or draw a line through it. Drag the selection handles to change the selection.
  • To minimise the toolbar, drag it to the corner of the screen. To show the whole toolbar, tap the minimised toolbar.
  • To scroll the page when using Apple Pencil, swipe with one finger. If you’re using your finger, swipe with two fingers.

The toolbar also has buttons to indent, format and align text, as well as to insert page breaks, bookmarks and more.

* You can change to another supported language in the toolbar if you've added the keyboard for the language in Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards. Check which languages and regions Scribble supports.

Add a drawing

To draw with Apple Pencil in a page layout document in Pages, a spreadsheet in Numbers or a slide in Keynote on a supported iPad, tap your Pencil on the page. In a word-processing document in Pages, tap again where you want to add the drawing area.

To use your finger to add a drawing, or if you have a pencil but you've turned on Select and Scroll:

  • On iPhone, tap the Insert button , tap the Media button , then tap Drawing.
  • On iPad, tap the Media button , then tap Drawing. If you don't see the Media button, tap the Insert button  first.

The drawing tools (pen, pencil, crayon or fill tool) appear in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Use the drawing tools

  1. Tap one of the four drawing tools at the bottom of the screen: the pen, pencil, crayon or the fill tool.
    Drawing toolbar
  2. To draw with a different stroke size or opacity, tap one of the drawing tools twice, then tap a new stroke size. Or drag the slider to adjust the opacity.
  3. You can draw in a different colour:
    • On iPhone, tap the coloured circle, then choose a preset colour at the bottom of the Colours screen. Or use the controls to mix your own colours, then tap the Add button  to save the colour as a favourite.
    • On iPad, tap a preset colour or tap the colour wheel to choose a custom colour. Use the controls to mix your own colour, then tap the Add button  to save the colour as a favourite. To remove a favourite, touch and hold its colour dot, then tap Delete. 
  4. To erase, tap the eraser, then tap it again to choose one of the erasers:
    • To erase pixels, tap Pixel Eraser, then tap or drag on the drawing.
    • To erase a whole stroke, tap the Object Eraser, then tap the stroke or object fill you want to erase.
  5. To undo the last action, tap the Undo button . 
  6. When you’ve finished, tap Done.

Resize and move your drawing

After you’ve added the drawing, you can resize and move it:

  • To resize the drawing, tap the drawing with your finger, then drag the handles of the box.
  • To move the drawing, tap the drawing with your finger, then drag it.

Edit parts of a drawing

  1. Tap the drawing, then tap Edit Drawing from the pop-up menu.
  2. Tap the selection tool in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, then tap or drag around the part of the drawing you want to edit. An outline will appear around the selection.
    Drawing toolbar with the selection tool emphasised
  3. Tap an option in the pop-up menu:
    • To resize a selection, tap Resize, then drag the handles of the box around the drawing.
    • To make one drawing into two drawings, tap Separate in the pop-up menu.
    • You can also cut, copy, paste, delete and duplicate a selection.
  4. When you’ve finished, tap Done.

Animate a drawing

To animate a drawing in Pages or Numbers:

  1. If you're in drawing mode, tap Done. Otherwise, go to the next step.
  2. Tap the drawing to select it.
  3. Tap the Format button , then tap Drawing.
  4. Turn on Animate Drawing, then adjust other options such as duration.
  5. To play back the animation, tap Play or Play Drawing.

To animate a drawing in Keynote:

  1. Choose the slide with the drawing, then tap or click the drawing to select it.
  2. Tap the drawing again, then tap Animate from the pop-up menu.
  3. Choose Add Build In or Add Build Out. 
  4. In the pop-up menu, choose Line Draw, then tap Play to preview the animation.
  5. When you've finished, tap Done.

Share or save a drawing

You can share or save a drawing from your document as a PNG image file. In Pages and Numbers you can share an animated drawing as a movie file (M4V).

  1. If you're in drawing mode, tap Done. Otherwise, go to the next step.
  2. Tap the drawing to select it, then choose Share. If you’ve animated the drawing, choose Share as Image or Share as Movie (in Pages and Numbers only).
  3. Choose how you want to send your image or film, such as with Mail or Messages. Or choose Save Image (or Save Video for animated drawings) to save to the Photos app.

Work with drawings on a Mac

If you’ve added a drawing in a Pages, Numbers or Keynote file on iPhone or iPad, you can animate the drawing, share it or save it to Photos as an image or movie file when you open that file on a Mac.

Add an annotation in Pages

You can add annotations to text, objects or table cells in a Pages document. Annotations will move with the text or objects as you edit.

  1. To add an annotation with Apple Pencil, tap anywhere on the page, then tap the annotation tool in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. To use your finger, or if you've turned on Select and Scroll, tap the More button , then tap Smart Annotation.
  2. Tap the annotation tool again to choose which annotation tool you want to use:
    Drawing toolbar showing the annotation tool chooser
    • Tap Pen to add marks.
    • Tap Highlighter to highlight text.
  3. Add your annotations.
  4. You can also annotate with a different colour:
    • On iPhone, tap the coloured circle, then choose a preset colour at the bottom of the Colours screen. Or use the controls to mix your own colours, then tap the Add button  to save the colour as a favourite.
    • On iPad, tap a preset colour or tap the colour wheel to choose a custom colour. Use the controls to mix your own colour, then tap the Add button  to save the colour as a favourite. To remove a favourite, touch and hold its colour dot, then tap Delete.
  5. To erase, tap the Eraser tool in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, then tap the annotation. To erase all annotations, tap the More button  in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, then tap Erase All Smart Annotations.
  6. When you’ve finished, tap Done.

You can delete an annotation after it's been added. Tap the annotation, then tap Delete. If you delete the text or object that you've annotated, you also delete the annotation. 

If you just want to hide annotations:

  • On iPad, tap View options , then tap Hide Smart Annotations.
  • If you don't see the View Options button in the toolbar on iPad or if you're on iPhone, tap the More button , tap Smart Annotation, then tap Hide Smart Annotations.

Export a document with annotations

When you export your Pages document as a PDF, JPEG, PNG or TIFF file with annotations turned on, annotations will appear on the exported file. When you export as a Word, RTF, EPUB, TXT or Pages ’09 file, annotations won’t appear on the exported file.

Work with annotations on a Mac

If you're using iCloud to keep all your Pages documents up to date across all your devices, annotations appear in your document on all your devices. On a Mac, you can remove, show or hide annotations when editing a document.

  • To delete an annotation, select the annotation, then press Delete. 
  • To remove all annotations, choose Edit > Remove Smart Annotations.
  • To show or hide all annotations, choose View > Show/Hide Smart Annotations.

Select and Scroll with Apple Pencil

By default, you can use Apple Pencil to start drawing or annotating. You can set Pages, Numbers or Keynote to use your Apple Pencil to select objects and scroll in your documents instead:

  1. In Pages, Numbers or Keynote, tap the More button , then tap Settings.
  2. Under Apple Pencil, turn on Select and Scroll.

If your Apple Pencil supports it, you can turn on Double-Tap to Switch. With Double-Tap to Switch, just double-tap the lower part of Apple Pencil to turn Select and Scroll on and off.

To add a drawing or annotation with your pencil when Select and Scroll is turned on, tap the Media button , then tap Drawing. If you don't see the Media button, tap the Insert button  first.

Pages, Numbers and Keynote each have their own setting for Select and Scroll. For example, if you turn on Select and Scroll in Pages, it doesn't affect Keynote or Numbers.

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