This category shows all annotation tools. Looking for something specific? Skip to Annotate Audio, Annotate Image/Video, Annotate Text, Annotate Web. Or see the Collaborative Annotation Tools comparison.
Genius: collaboratively annotate a text and embed it on your site. Add videos from YouTube, audio from SoundCloud, or images. All annotations are public, unless you have an educator account. Genius for education is very much in beta mode, so you should approach this tool with the spirit of experimentation and flexibility! FREE
Draft: a tool for collaboratively writing documents, Draft gives you incremental control over suggested changes, parallel viewing of your revision history, a “to do” list maker, and the ability to add images. Import documents from your computer, Drive, Box, Dropbox, or Evernote; all changes will automatically sync to your cloud account. Publish directly from Draft to …
Annotation Studio: an open-source platform being developed by MIT, designed specifically for pedagogical use, the Annotation Studio allows students to develop close-reading skills by digitally annotating texts using words, images, and/or videos, either individually or collaboratively. Students can then use their annotations to compose and revise papers. FREE
eMargin: Upload or import documents into eMargin and then annotate them either individually or in groups with specified roles. Annotate with highlights, comments, and tags. Supported file types include PDF, Microsoft Word, plain text, HTML, and other text-based formats. FREE.
SocialBook: Annotate text, images, or video. Create private or public discussions around a text. FREE
ThingLink: Create media rich tags, or touch points, to any image or video (video and VR/360° images are premium). ThingLink is one of our Featured Tools, so see a demo in our blog post, How to Annotate Images with ThingLink. Educator accounts are available. FREE/Premium
Medium: a sleek blog-publishing platform designed for optimizing interactions between author and readers with marginalia comments, which can be made private or public (the latter, with the approval of the author). Comments can be enabled in fully published mode or in draft mode (whose visibility is limited to individuals with the unlisted link). Great platform …
Prism: by using differently colored highlighters that correspond to themes, this app allows you to collaboratively create thematic visualizations of a text. Best for when you want to show thematic patterns and similarities/differences of readers’ perception. However it does not allow you to write about a text. FREE
iAnnotate: an annotation app for your iPad or Android device. Available for purchase on the App Store.
