Arrow can be a useful element in a PDF document, and it’s easier to add than you might think. Perhaps you want to make a flowchart, or maybe you just want to demonstrate where to click for interactivity and point to something. Whatever your reason for inserting an arrow, you can accomplish your goal by simply inserting in different ways.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to add arrow to PDF using 7 ways. Throughout this article, we’ll use Adobe Acrobat, built-in tools for macOS or Windows, and online free tools.

Also, you can watch this video to learn the steps in detail and quickly:

How to add arrow to PDF in Adobe Acrobat?

If you’ve used Adobe Acrobat, you know how easy it is to add text, image, link, shape, line or others, and how helpful it can be. Editing PDFs is one of its most helpful features, because it lets users add anything to your PDF in professional look, you can add, remove or replace texts, insert, delete or resize images, embed external or to-page links, add fillable fields, boxes, buttons, embed video or audio file for playback, it is much powerful than you might expect. When adding arrow in Acrobat, you can decide the properties yourself and add a comment to it, also you can just draw an arrow as you like.

What you can do in Adobe Acrobat:

  • Edit text, image, link, filed, media or any object in a PDF
  • Create and convert PDFs
  • Organize PDF pages
  • Combine and split PDFs
  • Protect PDF
  • Prepare a form and fill in a form
  • Sign and request signature
  • Scan and OCR
  • Markup a PDF
  • Review, compare and share a PDF

To illustrate how easy it is to add an arrow to PDF using Adobe Acrobat, let’s add one in the following PDF:

  1. Open PDF on Adobe Acrobat.add arrow to pdf acrobat 1
  2. Select Drawing tools from the toolbar and select Arrow to draw an arrow. Or you can use the Draw option to draw an arrow.add arrow to pdf acrobat 2
  3. Adjust the color, line thickness first, then drag your mouse to add an arrow, you can add a comment to it as well.add arrow to pdf acrobat 3
  4. Hit Save button.

How to add arrow to PDF in Mac Preview?

Here we are assuming that you will be working on a iMac or MacBook. macOS has Preview, which lets Mac users markup on a PDF, including adding arrows.

This is how we can add arrow to PDF in Preview:

  1. Open PDF in Preview.add arrow to pdf preview 1
  2. Show Markup toolbar, select Arrow from Shapes.add arrow to pdf preview 2
  3. Adjust the arrow color and thickness.add arrow to pdf preview 3
  4. Head to File> Save.

How to add arrow to PDF in Windows Microsoft Edge?

Windows has a built-in browser via which you can add arrow to your PDF, that’s Microsoft Edge. Since it’s not a versatile PDF editor but only a PDF viewer with markup feature, you’ll find fewer editing and customization options. Also, you can only manually draw an arrow.

Now that it’s settled let’s see how to add arrow to PDF on Windows for free:

  1. Open the PDF in Microsoft Edge on Windows PC.
  2. Click on Draw icon, select color and thickness.add arrow to pdf win 1
  3. Then manually draw an arrow in the PDF.add arrow to pdf win 2
  4. Save the file.

How to add arrow to PDF with open source (free) tools?

There are open source to add arrow to PDF for free, if you have no PDF tool and want a free way. You can simply use WPS, LibreOffice or PDFgear. However, open source tools have disadvantages, your file may not look exactly like the original PDF file that you have.

1# WPS

WPS is a great office suite to edit Word, Excel, PPT and PDF. Though the free version has limits, it is still versatile to edit a document, and adding shapes like Arrow is super easy in this app.

  1. Open PDF in WPS.
  2. Head to Comment> Shapes> Arrow.add arrow to pdf wps 1
  3. Adjust the arrow style.add arrow to pdf wps 2
  4. Save the PDF file.

2# Libreoffice

LibreOffice is similar to WPS, allows users to edit documents like Word, PDF, Spreadsheet and Slide, though it is not as user-friendly as WPS, it is an open source tool and 100% free to use. Also, it can customize the arrows in a PDF.

  1. Open the PDF in LibreOffice.
  2. Head to Shape> Insert> Lines and Arrows> Line Ends with Arrow.add arrow to pdf libreoffice 1
  3. Then adjust the color, width, rotation or other properties.add arrow to pdf libreoffice 2
  4. Finally, save the file.

3# PDFgear

PDFgear has became a popular free PDF editor this year, because it is few among those editors that let users edit the texts in a PDF for free. And it has a lot of other tools as well, including convert, comment, OCR, etc. Adding arrow in a PDF is quite straightforward in this app.

  1. Open the PDF in PDFgear.
  2. Head to Home> Shape, choose line, then select arrow icon.add arrow to pdf pdfgear 1
  3. Add an arrow to your PDF, and you can change the arrow appearance.add arrow to pdf pdfgear 2
  4. Finally, Save the file.

How to add arrow to PDF online free?

Online PDF tools are the best option for a quick solution for adding arrows. You don’t need to download or install any application. Simply upload the file, add an arrow or other shape, then download it back to your local folder. There are many different sites that provide such a PDF tool. You can always check other sites that you feel comfortable with. We will be using PDFescape for demonstration in the below steps:

  1. Navigate to https://www.pdfescape.com/online-pdf-editor/ in your web browser.
  2. Upload the PDF.
  3. Head to Insert> Arrow, choose line width and arrow color.add arrow to pdf online
  4. Drag to draw an arrow, then click Save or Download button to apply the changes.

Add the arrow

Adobe Acrobat is a versatile tool. The ease with which it lets you go about working on your PDF, whether it’s a simple arrow insertion or editing with format, is a delight in itself. And with features like share and review, scan and OCR, export and submit, you can be certain that your documents have a bit of a personal but professional touch.