Dropshare User Guide

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Tools Reference ​

Annotate ships with 14 tools in a single horizontal toolbar at the bottom of the editor. Tap a tool to select it, then drag on the canvas to draw with it. Most tools have additional style options in the inspector panel (sliders icon in the toolbar) - stroke width, fill, color, shadow, opacity, and tool-specific options.

Selection / Pointer ​

The default mode after each annotation. Tap any existing annotation to select it (handles appear); drag to move; pinch its handles to resize. Tap empty canvas to clear the selection.

Crop ​

Drag the canvas edges or corners to define a crop rectangle. Tap Apply to commit, Cancel to discard. The crop is non-destructive - tap Undo to bring the original canvas back.

Blur ​

Drag to drop a rectangular blur region over any part of the canvas. Use the inspector's Strength slider for light / medium / strong blur intensity. Combine with Auto-Redact to blur sensitive content automatically.

Pixelate ​

Same drag-to-place workflow as Blur, but uses a pixelation effect instead of a Gaussian blur. Useful for clearly conveying "this was hidden" rather than just softening detail. Strength controls the pixel size.

Auto-Redact ​

With the Blur or Pixelate tool selected, open the inspector to find the Auto-Redact button. Tapping it scans the canvas with Apple's Vision framework and places redaction regions over detected sensitive content (emails, IP addresses, phone numbers, and other patterns), using the same effect as the active tool. Review and adjust the redactions like any other annotation.

Text ​

Tap on the canvas to drop a text annotation, then type. The inspector offers font, size, alignment, text color, and an optional background fill (useful for caption-style labels).

Number ​

Tap to drop a numbered badge - small circular labels with sequential numbers (1, 2, 3, …). Great for step-by-step diagrams or "see footnote N" annotations. The badge size and color are configurable.

Stamp ​

Tap to place an SF Symbol as a stamp. A search field lets you find any symbol from Apple's catalog - arrows, checkmarks, warnings, hearts, etc. Style options include color, size, and an optional fill or hierarchical rendering mode.

Rectangle ​

Drag to draw a rectangle. Inspector options: stroke width, stroke color, optional fill, fill color, corner radius, shadow, and opacity.

Oval ​

Same as rectangle, but for ellipses / circles. Hold the canvas locked while dragging to constrain to a perfect circle (snapping helps too).

Arrow ​

Drag to place an arrow. The inspector lets you configure both the tail and the tip independently - choose from standard arrowhead styles for each end. Arrows respect snapping when dragged whole, and the resize handles snap to peer arrows for clean parallel layouts.

Pen ​

Freehand drawing with smoothing. The pen produces clean, consistent strokes. Use Apple Pencil for pressure sensitivity. Inspector options: stroke width, color, opacity.

Marker ​

Freehand drawing with a marker / highlighter feel - wider strokes, slight transparency, suited for highlighting rather than fine drawing.

Loupe ​

Drag to place a circular magnifier that shows a zoomed-in view of whatever's underneath. Useful for pointing out fine detail without cropping. Configurable magnification factor.

Backdrop ​

Wraps the canvas in a styled border - solid color, gradient, or a glass-style frame. Two fit modes:

  • Pad - the backdrop grows the canvas around the existing image.
  • Fit - the backdrop keeps the canvas dimensions and shrinks the image inside to make room.

Image ​

Drop another image into the canvas as a movable, resizable annotation. Useful for adding a logo, a separate screenshot, or any reference image on top of your main canvas. Pick from Photos, Files, or Clipboard.

Style options that apply across most tools ​

  • Stroke width - thickness of the outline.
  • Fill - toggle filled vs outlined shapes; pick the fill color.
  • Outlines - adds a contrasting outline around filled shapes so they stay visible on busy backgrounds.
  • Shadow - Off / Soft / Strong drop shadow.
  • Opacity - full transparency control via slider.
  • Arrowheads - for arrows, mix and match tail and tip styles independently.

Layers ​

Each annotation is its own layer. Open the Layers panel to:

  • See every annotation in stacking order
  • Reorder via drag-and-drop
  • Toggle visibility
  • Delete one or many

Selecting an annotation in the layers panel selects it on the canvas, and vice versa.