PDF tools

The floating dial in the PDF viewer. The most-featured screen in Purl by a long margin.

Opening the tools

Hold the floating button for half a second to open the tool settings: how far the dial fans out, how transparent the overlays are, the counter-pill size, and which tools appear in the dial. (The order of the buttons is changed in Settings.)

Tap the floating button on the PDF viewer to open the dial. Tap a tool to use it; tap Done when you're finished with a tool to hide the dial.

The dial is draggable: drag the floating button to wherever it's out of your way (any corner, any edge) and it remembers the spot. Settings → Tool configuration lets you reorder the tools or hide ones you don't use.

The tools

Row tracker

A movable highlight band that follows where you are in the pattern. Tap + Row in the bar that appears to add one; drag the row up or down to position it. Each band shows the row it's parked on: the down arrow moves it to the next row and ticks the number up, the up arrow steps back, and tapping the row number lets you jump straight to any row.

Multi-row support: add as many trackers as you want. The selected row is the one the navigation acts on; tap a row to select it. Lock a row so you can't knock it out of place by accident (the arrows still advance it). Del removes the selected row. While a band is unlocked, faint guide rows above and below help you line it up with the pattern's rows; − + adjust its height.

Row counters

The tracker bar at the bottom holds your row counters. Name several ("Body", "Sleeve") and switch between them from the menu on the left. Tap the row number to jump to any row, set a name, or set a target ("of 60" shows progress as "24 / 60"). A counter can count by 2 (or any step), count down to show rows remaining, tick another counter automatically ("every 6 rows, advance the decrease counter"), and carry reminders that pop up as a banner at a chosen row ("row 24: dec 1 st each end"), one-off or repeating.

Counters persist per pattern: exit and reopen the PDF and they're exactly where you left them.

Chart stitch tracker

For colourwork and lace charts. Turn on the tracker and tap Chart: a box appears over the page. Drag its corners to line it up exactly with the printed chart, tell it how many stitches across and rows tall, and pick which corner is row 1, stitch 1. It then highlights the exact cell you're on; the arrows step stitch by stitch and row by row, with the current row lit across the chart.

Charts can alternate reading direction every row (for flat knitting), show a faint alignment grid, and a pattern can hold several named charts; switch between them from the tracker menu. Tap the row/stitch readout to jump straight to any spot. Reach the last cell and the readout says "Complete".

Ruler

A draggable, rotatable rule. Toggle it on; drag it to where you want it; rotate via the corner handle. When the ruler is on, drawing strokes snap to its line for quick straight marks.

The drawing toolbar

Drawing mode shows one row of icon buttons: pen, marker, eraser, select and ruler on the left; undo, redo and a check mark (done) on the right. A small coloured bar under the active tool shows its current colour. While you're drawing, the app's back and undo buttons step aside so the toolbar has the full row. Tap the check mark when you're finished.

Tool options. Tap a tool once to use it. Tap it again to open its options: colours, size, and, for the marker, opacity.

Pen: opaque line, narrow default. For writing and precise marks.
Marker: translucent line, wider default, with adjustable transparency in its options. At low transparency it IS a highlighter, and the first preset chip comes set up exactly that way (wide, yellow, 35%).

Hold for a perfect shape. Draw, then hold your finger still for a moment: the stroke snaps clean. A line becomes perfectly straight (and locks level when you're close to horizontal or vertical). A rough ring (say, around your size in the size list) becomes a smooth oval. A stroke drawn around a section with corners becomes a neat box. Keep moving while holding to adjust the shape; lift your finger to keep it. Works with both pens; quick scribbles are never affected.

Pen presets. The three round chips at the top of a pen's options each hold a saved pen: tool, colour, size and transparency together. Tap a chip to switch to that pen. Hold a chip for half a second to save your current pen into it (the chip flashes when saved). They come pre-filled with a yellow highlighter, a pink marker and a red pen.

Eraser

Two modes, switchable in the eraser's options (tap the eraser twice):

Whole stroke: tap any mark to remove all of it. One tap, one mark gone.
Part of stroke: erase through a line and only the part under your finger disappears; the rest stays.

Select (lasso)

Draw a loose loop around some drawings and they select together inside a dashed box. Drag the box to move them all at once, or use Delete to remove them. Done (or switching tools) keeps the result. One undo step covers the whole move or delete.

Tap the select tool again for its options: Freehand (draw any loop, precise, follows your finger) or Box (drag a rectangle, quick for tidy areas).

Undo / Redo

Standard undo and redo for drawings: each stroke or eraser pass is one history step.

Clear

Lives in the eraser's options (tap the eraser twice). Because Clear can wipe a lot of work, it asks first: This page only or All pages. "This page" filters strokes by the visible page's vertical range: anything that touches the page goes; strokes on other pages stay.

Find & navigate

For big patterns. Open it from the floating dial and a navigation bar appears with three things:

Page thumbnails: a filmstrip of every page. Your current page is outlined; tap any page to jump there.
The page counter: tap "Page 3 / 12" to type a page number and go straight to it.
Search: find any text in the pattern: "sleeve", "size M", a stitch count. Every match is listed with a bit of surrounding text; tap one and the viewer scrolls there and pulses a marker where the match sits. Accents don't matter: "Jarbo" finds "Järbo".
Night reading: the moon button inverts the pattern: dark pages, light print, easy on the eyes for evening knitting. Your drawings and highlights keep their normal colours. The app remembers the choice across patterns.

Pin a snippet

The chart key never has to leave your screen again. Open Pin a snippet from the floating dial, frame the part you want (the key, a size table, a decrease sequence) and tap Looks good. That region floats in a little window that stays put while you scroll anywhere in the pattern.

Drag the window by its header. Resize it from the bottom-right corner. The arrow in the header collapses it to a slim pill when it's in the way; the cross closes it. You can pin up to four at once, and they're still there next time you open the pattern.

Tap the header (without dragging) to jump back to the spot the snippet was framed from. The app asks first so a stray tap can't lose your reading position.

While framing, the page underneath still pans and pinches: only the corner handles and the centre grip grab your finger, exactly like placing a chart box.

Sticky notes

Tap the sticky-note tool, then tap on the PDF where you want a note. Type the note, save. The note shows as a small marker on the PDF; tap the marker to edit. Drag any note to reposition.

A note can also show its text directly on the page instead of as a marker: open the note and choose Text on the page. The text scales with zoom like ink, with a soft white backing so it stays readable over charts. Choose Pin to switch back.

A sticky note with empty text is treated as a bookmark: a position marker you might come back to without needing text.

The bookmarks + notes sheet (also under the tools dial) lists every note for the PDF; tap any entry to jump to it. Edit text inline.

Terminology

Opens the glossary in the PDF's craft. Useful for "what does 'sl1, k2tog, psso' mean" mid-row.

Calculator

Opens the inline four-function calculator. Quick arithmetic without leaving the PDF.

Done

Closes the drawing tools; the dial collapses.

Drawings persistence

Your drawings, sticky notes, bookmarks, row trackers, counters, and scroll position are all saved automatically. Close the PDF and reopen it: everything is back exactly where you left it.

Page navigation

Scroll with your finger.
Pinch to zoom; pinch out for an overview of several pages and tap the one you want.
Triple-tap anywhere to reset the zoom back to fit-width.
Find & navigate (in the dial) for thumbnails, go-to-page, and text search.

Customising

Settings → Tool configuration controls:

Tool order + visibility: drag tools to reorder; toggle off the ones you don't use.
FAB position memory: where you parked the floating button is remembered.
Pen colour palette: pick the colours that show in the swatch row.
Default pen + marker sizes.
Counter defaults: pre-set names for new counters.
Row tracker default on: start every PDF with one row tracker pre-placed.
Ruler default on: start with the ruler showing.

Tips

The PDF viewer was deliberately kept inside a single screen: no separate "drawing mode" / "reading mode". The tools dial toggles drawing vs reading state without scrolling away from the page.
For longer-term annotation, the sticky notes are better than drawings: they're searchable (via global search), they have a list view, they're editable.
The pinch-zoom is independent of the row tracker: you can zoom in and the tracker stays at the same Y position.