Markup Annotations

• Jul 21, 2026
• 2 minutes to read

Markup annotations allow users to review and comment on PDF documents. They identify content that requires attention and display comments directly on a page.

The PDF Document API supports the following text markup annotation types:

Annotation	Description
Text	Adds a sticky note.
Free Text	Places text directly on a PDF page.
Caret	Marks text insertion points.
Redact	Removes sensitive information from a PDF document.
Rubber Stamp	Displays predefined or custom stamps on a PDF page.

Create a Markup Annotation

Create a markup annotation, configure its properties, and add it to the page’s annotation collection.

The following code snippet creates a sticky note and adds it to the first page:

// Get the first page in the document.
Page page = pdfDocument.getPages().getFirst();

TextAnnotation annotation = new TextAnnotation(new RectangleF(50, 430, 24, 36));

annotation.setTitle("Brian Zetc");
annotation.setContent("Please review this paragraph.");
annotation.setColor(PdfColor.getLightGray());

page.getAnnotations().add(annotation);

Add Comments

Call the MarkupAnnotation.addReply() method to add a comment to a markup annotation.

The following code snippet adds a reply to a text annotation:

annotation.addReply(
        page,
        "Alice Brown",
        "Thank you!");

Note

The PDF Document API automatically removes replies when you remove the parent annotation.

Add Reviews

Call the MarkupAnnotation.addReview() method to add a review to a markup annotation.

The following code snippet adds a review to a text annotation:

annotation.addReview(
        page,
        "Cardle Anita L",
        ReviewStatus.ACCEPTED);

Use the getReviewHistory(Page page) method to get the review history.

Call the clearReviews(Page page) method to remove all reviews.

Next Steps

• Text Markup Annotations
• Free Text Annotations
• Caret Annotations
• Redaction Annotations
• Rubber Stamp Annotations