- Why Whiteout is safer and easier than using Markup
- How Live Text powers instant highlights and redactions
- The quickest ways to annotate images or PDFs in the app
Taking a screenshot and scribbling over it in Markup works in a pinch, but it’s hardly ideal. Highlighting text with your finger is clumsy, and can leave sensitive information partially visible. If you need something faster and more reliable, Whiteout is a much better tool for the job.
Whiteout uses Apple’s Live Text technology to identify text inside images and PDFs, so you can highlight or redact real text instantly instead of painting over it. A recent update even added PDF support, making it a handy lightweight alternative to a full PDF editor.
Live Text has been around for a while, but Apple only opened it up to third-party apps a couple of years ago. Whiteout was quick to take advantage, and using it feels like a natural extension of iOS.
Getting started
Most of Whiteout’s core tools are free – including redaction and highlighting – though exported images come with a watermark. A subscription removes the watermark, hides ads, and unlocks extra options.
Open the app and, after a short demo, choose an image from Photos or a PDF from Files. You can also snap something directly using the built-in camera.
Whiteout is also available through the share sheet. From any app, tap Share, pick Edit with Whiteout, and you’ll jump straight into editing without manually opening the app.
Editing text with Live Text
Once your image or PDF is loaded, tap and hold on any block of text to select it, just as you would in Notes or Safari. Pinch to zoom if you need a closer look. With text selected, use the toolbar at the bottom to choose what you want to apply.
Free tools include Redact, Highlight, Underline, Strike, and Undo. You can also switch to different highlight or redaction colors from the toolbar.
A subscription adds Pixelate and Blend, giving you more subtle or stylized ways to hide text when a flat black bar won’t cut it. And if you need to doodle something extra, the standard iOS drawing tools are tucked behind the button in the bottom-right corner.
When you’re finished, tap the Share icon in the top-right to save your image or export it elsewhere.
Whiteout is simple, but it solves a surprisingly common annoyance. It’s a faster, cleaner way to annotate text – and a much safer way to hide it. For more visual callouts like arrows or emphasis, Annotable is a great option, but Whiteout’s Live Text magic sets it apart.