Mark up a photo or PDF
Add notes directly to a photo or an uploaded PDF with drawing, text, arrows, boxes, and circles. You can also erase marks and undo or redo changes. Photos can be rotated or flipped before saving.
Where to find it: On the web, open a photo or uploaded PDF from a job, property, asset group, or purchase order, then choose Edit. Photos in inspection reports and work acknowledgments also support markup — on an inspection report, click the photo to open it, then choose Edit. On mobile, open a visit photo or uploaded PDF and choose Markup photo or Markup PDF.
Mark up and save a photo
Open the photo you want to change.
Choose Edit or Markup photo, depending on the page.
Pick a tool and add your marks. Use Undo and Redo if needed.
To change the photo orientation, open Rotate & Flip, make the change, and choose Done.
Choose Save.
The marked-up photo replaces the version shown in Essential. Its file name, attachments, and visibility stay the same, and Essential keeps the unedited original so you can restore it later. In an inspection-report or work-acknowledgment photo field, Essential updates that same field photo in place.
On mobile, keep an internet connection while saving changes to an existing visit file. If the request fails before anything is saved, the editor stays open so you can try again without losing your marks. If the file changed after you opened it, Essential tries to load the latest version instead of overwriting it. When that refresh cannot finish, markup stays unavailable for the stale preview until fresh file data is loaded.
View or restore the original
Photos edited from a file preview show as Edited where that status is available and can be restored there.
Open the edited photo and return to the markup editor.
Choose Original to compare it with the edited version.
While viewing Original, choose Revert to restore it.
Reverting removes the marked-up version from view and makes the original photo current again.
For job, property, asset-group, comment, and report attachments, the timeline also retains the before and after files from each new markup edit or restore. Select View changes on the attachment event to open those copies read-only. Asset-group attachment history is available on the asset group and its property; back-office files keep their existing access restrictions.
Mark up a PDF page
PDF markup is available on the web and in mobile visit files.
Open the uploaded PDF and choose Edit on the web or Markup PDF on mobile.
On the web, add drawing, text, arrows, boxes, or circles. On mobile, fill existing form fields or use Add text and Draw. Use Undo, or open More for Redo, Delete selected, and zoom options.
Use the page navigation arrows to move to another page, and mark it up too if you want. You don't need to save or reopen the PDF in between pages.
Choose Save.
One Save uploads your changes across all the pages you edited. Existing PDF text stays searchable and selectable; mobile form values and added text remain editable when you reopen the PDF. Rotate and flip are photo-only tools.
On the web, an edited PDF also shows Edited and Original when that status is available. Open Original and choose Revert to restore the complete original PDF.
On mobile, choose More > View original for a read-only comparison and Return to draft to keep editing. Restore original makes the original PDF current after confirmation and retains your unsaved draft on this device.
On mobile, tap an existing form field to enter a value, or use Add text and Draw, then Save. See Mark up a photo or PDF on mobile for the full workflow and draft recovery.
When markup is unavailable
Markup is available for PDFs and supported photo formats, including JPEG, PNG, HEIC, and HEIF. Web inspection-report photo fields also support GIF and WebP: saving markup makes a still JPEG, and Revert restores the original file, including any animation. Other file viewers do not offer GIF or WebP markup. Markup is not offered for videos or generated inspection-report and work-acknowledgment documents.
Purchase-order files can be marked up when Inventory is enabled for your business. The files and photos you can open still follow your normal feature access, role permissions, and file-visibility settings.
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