✏️ Review Pen v1.1.0
Updated in v1.1.0: palm rejection for stylus users. Once Review Pen sees an Apple Pencil or other stylus, only the pen and mouse draw, so your palm no longer draws, scrolls, or cuts your pen strokes off. Re-install the bookmark on each device: drag the new button below to replace the old one, or, on iPad, paste the newly copied code into your Review Pen bookmark.
Draw on any website and pin numbered sticky notes, then export a change list and a screenshot. It runs only in your browser, on top of the page you're viewing. It never changes the site. Free, with no account and no tracking.
✏️ Review Pen
⬅ Drag this button to your bookmarks bar.
Copied ✓
Mac: Chrome
- Press ⌘⇧B to show the bookmarks bar.
- Drag the red ✏️ Review Pen button onto the bar.
- Open the site you're reviewing and click Review Pen in the bar.
Mac: Safari
- Press ⌘⇧B to show the Favorites bar.
- Drag the red ✏️ Review Pen button onto the Favorites bar.
- Open the site and click Review Pen.
If nothing happens in Safari, turn on Settings → Advanced → “Show features for web developers,” then check Develop → “Allow JavaScript from Smart Search Field.”
iPad: Safari
You can't drag a bookmarklet on iPad, so you save it once by editing a bookmark:
- Tap Copy bookmarklet code above.
- Bookmark this page: tap the Share button, then Add Bookmark. Name it Review Pen and save it to Favorites.
- Open Bookmarks, tap Edit, tap the Review Pen bookmark, clear its address, and paste the code. Tap Done.
- To use it, open the site, tap the address bar, and tap Review Pen under Favorites. You can also type “Review Pen” and pick the bookmark.
Draw with Apple Pencil, and rest your palm on the screen. After the first Pencil stroke, Review Pen switches to ✍️ Stylus only, so finger and palm touches are ignored. To draw with a finger, tap the button so it reads ✋ Finger draws. While the pen is On, the page doesn't scroll by touch. Tap On to switch to Off and scroll.
Cheat sheet
| ● On / ○ Off | On: you draw or drop notes. Off: the page scrolls and clicks normally, and your markup stays on the page. Esc turns it Off. |
| ✏️ Pen | Freehand drawing. Pick a swatch or any color with the color well. The three dots set the pen width. |
| ✍️ Stylus only / ✋ Finger draws | Palm rejection. In Stylus only, finger and palm touches are ignored, and only a pen (Apple Pencil) or mouse draws or drops notes. It turns on by itself the first time a stylus is used. Tap it to let fingers draw again. |
| 📌 Note | Click or tap to drop a numbered sticky note and type your change. Drag the number to move a note. Tap it to fold the note away. × deletes it. |
| ↶ Undo | Undoes the last stroke, note, deletion, or clear, in order. ⌘Z works too while the pen is On. |
| 🗑 Clear | Removes all markup on this page after you confirm. Undo can bring it back. |
| ⤓ Export | Copy list or Download .md gives a numbered change list with the page URL, the date, and where each note sits. PNG: what I see captures the visible screen with your markup, after you choose “this tab” and Share. PNG: full page renders the whole page. |
| ⠿ / ✕ | Drag the dots to move the toolbar. ✕ closes Review Pen. Clicking the bookmark again hides or shows it. |
| Saving | Markup is saved automatically in this browser for each page address. It's still there after a reload. Export each page you review. |
Good to know
- PNG: what I see uses the browser's screen-share prompt. Chrome offers “this tab.” Safari asks for a window or screen. iPad can't do this, so it renders the full page instead.
- PNG: full page loads the free html2canvas library from jsDelivr. A few sites block outside scripts. On those sites you get a PNG of only your markup. Take a normal screenshot with ⌘⇧4 on Mac, or Top button + Volume Up on iPad.
- Notes are pinned to page positions. If you resize the window a lot, the page may reflow under them. The change list also records the nearby text, so each note still makes sense.
- Nothing is sent anywhere. Review Pen has no server, no analytics, and no account.