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Getting started with Notch

Create a workspace, add a drawing set, and find your way around the editor.

Notch runs in the browser, so there's nothing to install to get going — and when you want it on a device, there are Notch apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac too. This guide takes you from a fresh account to your first marked-up sheet.

Create your workspace#

Sign up at notch.build with your email, or continue with Google, Microsoft or Apple. A few quick questions set up your workspace — where your team and drawings live — and a sample drawing to try things on. You can invite teammates later from Team members in the sidebar.

Add a drawing set#

From the workspace home, drag a PDF anywhere onto the page, or use Upload. Multi-sheet sets stay together as one document, and you can file documents into projects — drag a file onto a project to file it. See Adding documents for every other way in: cloud drives, email, blank documents and conversion.

Find your way around the editor#

Open a document and you land in the editor:

  • Tool rail (left) — navigation tools on top (pages, search, select, hand, zoom, screenshot), then the tool families (pen, shapes, text, measure), then the Tool chest button, which opens the built-in libraries of ready-styled preset tools alongside your team's own stamps and saved tools. Click a family to open its flyout.
  • Sheet navigator (left panel) — thumbnails of every page; click one to jump there. Organize at its top is where you reorder, insert, rotate and delete pages.
  • Right sidebar — Layers, Measurements, Tools (the Tool chest), Bookmarks, Overlays, Properties, Discussion, Assistant, and History panels. Properties opens automatically when you select something on the canvas.
  • Status strip (bottom) — the page, its scale, Snap, Grid and Rulers, the sheet's Display, the Worksheet, and zoom.

Make your first markup#

Pick a shape from the Shapes flyout, drag on the sheet, and it's saved — every edit persists as you make it. Select the markup to restyle it in the Properties panel, or press Delete to remove it.

Ctrl+Z undoes anything.

Next steps#