How to highlight and annotate a book on iPad with Apple Pencil
Reading with a pencil in hand works on iPad too. Here is how to mark up and annotate a PDF with Apple Pencil using the system itself, and how to keep the passages to reread later.
In a PDF, with the Files app
- Open the PDF in the Files app.
- Tap the Markup button, the one with a pen tip.
- Choose the highlighter, the color and the width, and draw Apple Pencil over the line.
- To write in the margin, use the pen; to erase, the eraser.
- Tap Done. The marks are saved in the PDF itself.
In the Books app
In Books, touch and hold a word, drag to cover the passage and choose a highlight color, or «Add Note». Highlights and notes are gathered in the book's list.
So a highlight is not lost
- Mark little: one sentence per page is worth more than a whole paragraph.
- Write in the note why the passage matters, not only what it says.
- Come back to your marks now and then. A highlight nobody rereads is lost.
In Lareia
In Lareia, highlights in colors and notes in the margin work on everything you keep: books, articles and PDFs. On iPad, you highlight by drawing Apple Pencil over the passage.
Each day, Lareia brings back three of your own passages, to reread what you marked. And if you get stuck on an idea, ask an AI about the open text: the answer is kept as a note, right where you asked.
Reading, highlighting and notes in the margin need no subscription. Asking an AI is among the things that have a cost, through the Leitura plan, which has a 7-day trial, or with lumes.
Written in November 2026.