I mostly stick to Adobe Reader for work PDFs because everyone at my office uses it and the commenting tools are baked right in. Highlighting a contract clause or adding a sticky note feels super straightforward, and everything exports cleanly if I need to share an annotated file. It’s not flashy, but it’s reliable.
That said, for my personal reading—like downloaded research papers or long-form articles—I’ve jumped ship to something like MarginNote. The way it can extract all my highlights and notes into a separate, editable outline is a game-changer for synthesizing information. I can link concepts from different pages visually, which my brain just appreciates more than a linear list of comments. The learning curve was steeper, but for dense material, it’s worth it.
The real hassle is when a friend sends a PDF with annotations from a completely different app, and half of them are formatted weirdly or don’t show up. Makes me wish for some universal standard, but I guess that’s a pipe dream.