Use your iPad or iPhone to sketch in or mark up Mac documents

With Continuity Sketch and Continuity Markup, you can use your iPad or iPhone to easily insert sketches into your Mac documents or perform live mark up of PDFs and images on your Mac.

Set up your devices

Continuity Sketch and Continuity Markup work when your compatible devices are near each other and set up as follows:

These features work with any Apple or third-party app designed to support them, including Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Mail, Messages, Notes and TextEdit.


Use Continuity Sketch

With Continuity Sketch, you can use your Mac to request a new sketch from your iPad or iPhone, then insert the sketch into your Mac document.

  1. Open a document on your Mac.
  2. From either the File menu or Insert menu (depending on your app), choose Insert from iPhone or iPad > Add Sketch.
  3. On your device, a sketch window will open, ready for you to create a sketch with your Apple Pencil or finger:
    Continuity Sketch on iPad Pro
  4. When you've finished sketching, tap Done on your device. The sketch will then appear in your Mac document:
  5. Keynote document with Continuity Sketch


Use Continuity Markup

With Continuity Markup, you can use your Mac to request document markup from your iPad or iPhone. As you start adding markup on your device, you'll see it happening live on your Mac. It's a great way to sign documents, correct essays, circle important details and more. 

  1. In the Finder on your Mac, locate the PDF or image you want to mark up. Then take one of these actions:
    • Select the document, then press Space bar to open a preview window. Click the markup button  at the top of the window. 
    • Or Control-click the document, then choose Quick Actions > Markup from the shortcut menu.
  2. From the markup toolbar at the top of the preview window, click the annotate button  or click  and select a device  :
    preview window with device selection drop-down menu open in markup toolbar
  3. A markup window will open on your device. You can now use an Apple Pencil or your finger with the sketch tools, or tap the plus sign  and use the markup tools for adding text, a signature, a magnifier or shapes and arrows.
    iPad open with sketch and markup tools
  4. As you work on your device, the changes will appear live on your Mac:
    Preview window on Mac showing the changes made on iPad
  5. When you've finished marking up the document, click Done on your device.
  6. To save the changes, click Done on your Mac.
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