Image annotation iOS not working

[Tcellguy 71]

Is this a known issue? I'm trying to annotate a .PNG on my iPad and all it will let me do is make an arrow. All the other annotation options result in no changes to the image. Also if I accidentally hit add text there is no way to get out of the interface without force closing the app. Several times the app just stopped responding entirely. 

 

This is an M1 iPad Pro so should be fast and have enough RAM to handle this task. 

[PinkElephant 8,091]

No pen based annotation, except the arrow and the line/underline tool. The annotation is based on the tools of the Skitch app, which is pretty (out-)dated.

To annotate with a text, you need to select the text tool ("a"), place the text mark and type your text. iOS Scribble does not work with the EN annotation tool.

For pen based annotation use another app, and send the resulting file into EN.

[Tcellguy 71]

Interesting. I can’t get anything other than an arrow to show up. Oddly the pen tool also doesn’t work with touch input either. 

[PinkElephant 8,091]

You can flip through the tools by tapping on the tool symbol bottom right.

Sometimes there are more tools behind it, to pick from. they will show from the original symbol to the left.

Bottom left is a color circle - behind it is the formatting selector, if the tool has any formatting options.

[RJ2 0]

I find that I can annotate somewhat using iPad/apple Pencil. It does the job but it's usually better to just annotate an image in the native iOS photo app and upload to EN. On my pc with my Wacom bamboo pen? Forget it. Annotation tools are completely useless. Sometimes I can make a line... maybe... and not consistently. Very unreliable and unpredictable and they should just delete it as a "feature" because it is truly that useless.

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Works for me, so far as it means basic annotation. It was never a very graphical approach - for something with a pencil or other stylus an app like GoodNotes 5 or similar is far better. But to insert a few arrows, boxes and type some text it does the job.

The best solution is on the Mac, where the Preview app is automatically opened when selecting "Open" on a PDF. It is not only a viewer, it has many of the PDF editing capabilities otherwise found in expensive programs. But as on a Mac, no native stylus support (although you can use the iPad via sidecar as a second screen, and this will support the pencil).

As often, EN offers an internal solution that is basic, leaving more specialized jobs to software written for it.

[RJ2 0]

Yeah, I have best luck with Apple products and annotating. On the Microsoft version it’s a complete disappointment. Detailed annotation I just do elsewhere, but sometimes I want to make the quickest of small edits inside the Microsoft Evernote app (since that’s where I use it most) without the hassle of exporting and reimporting the image, but even this has unpredictable and generally disappointing results. I’m not asking for elaborate drawing technology, just the ability to highlight or circle a word every now and again. EN should be able to at least accomplish that, one would think. 

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Currently EN builds the apps to support the general features of a "typical" device in a category. Since "Pencil" is still only supported by a minority of desktop devices, the versions for windows and Mac fall short to support a stylus.

Similarly support for the special features of the iPad are missing. 

Basic annotation works. Putting a box around something, highlighting, all this is ok. But going further not. I would try not to be optimistic that EN will invest a lot of developers hours into lifting these functions. They just integrated the Preview function on the Mac - it is far superior to anything EN could build. But it is at the same time one reason less to invest effort into the own annotation tool.