Add Text to a PDF To Integrate Class Notes With Reading Materials

Printing reading materials isn’t convenient: you need a printer, after all, or to use a printing service.

It's also not free. “If you print per page at school, it could average around 10 cents a page,” notes personal finance expert Melanie Lockert.  

There's also no denying that printing an average of 350 pages per semester is bad for the environment. 

Luckily, printing isn't a necessity—at least not for reading research articles and adding text to them. You can do both using a PDF editor. A PDF editor allows you to view and add text to a PDF, all the while saving money and preserving the environment.

With PDFpen, a PDF editor for Mac and iPad/iPhone, adding text to a PDF is as easy as selecting the Text tool, then clicking on the area of the page where you want to type in text. You can:

• Add text around or over original content to integrate class notes with reading materials
  
• Change the appearance of text and text boxes (or imprints) to make text additions stand out or blend in
  
• Make text preferences “default” to save time adding text
  
• Adjust text imprints to make them the right size

Best of all, you can do this from your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. 

“PDFpen (...) has a plethora of pro editing tools in its arsenal.”
- appsntips

“There's not much to getting started with it: Download the app, open it, pick a PDF to fill out, then grab the pen or text tool and get to work.”
- Adam Pash, Lifehacker

“It only takes a couple of steps to create a text imprint and fill it out.”   
- Michael E. Cohen, Take Control of PDFpen

The Learning Strategies Center at Cornell University recommends incorporating notes taken in class to the required reading. You look at your notes, then go back to the required reading to fill in gaps and clarify information.

You can easily incorporate notes into a PDF document using PDFpen’s Text tool. You can also customize their appearance to make them best suit your needs.

To try the Text tool and other handy PDFpen features,download a 30-day FREE trial. 

Note: Smile offers discounts for students. Check out our Education Store.