Photo Drawing
Mark up photos with drawings, text and stickers, then export the set as one PDF.
Photo Drawing — listed on the Tools screen as Photo Markup — brings in a photo from your camera or library, opens it in the built-in editor, and adds the finished image to a grid. You can drag tiles to reorder them, delete the ones you do not want, tap any tile for a full-screen look, and combine the whole set into a single PDF to share. Every edited image is also saved to your device photo library.
Overview
| Control | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Add / capture button | Opens the Select Photo chooser |
| Photo editor | Six markup tools, described below |
| Image grid | Your edited images, in export order |
| Drag a tile | Moves that image to a new position |
| Delete button on a tile | Removes that image after confirmation |
| Tap a tile | Opens the image full screen |
| Create PDF | Combines every image into one A4 PDF and shares it |
| Back arrow | Leaves the screen, with a warning if you have unsaved work |
The editor toolset
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Draw | Freehand pen for circling and annotating |
| Clip | Crops and straightens the image |
| Image Sticker | Drops a picture sticker onto the photo |
| Text Sticker | Adds a movable text label |
| Mosaic | Pixelates an area — used to obscure faces, plates and identifying detail |
| Adjust | Changes brightness, contrast and similar image settings |
The editor's Done button matches your app theme, appearing light on dark or dark on light.
Grid size
| Device and orientation | Columns |
|---|---|
| iPhone, portrait | 2 |
| iPhone, landscape | 4 |
| iPad, portrait | 4 |
| iPad, landscape | 6 |
Tiles are square and the grid re-flows as soon as you rotate the device.
Getting Here
- Open the Account tab, then App Settings, then Tools.
- Under the General category, tap Photo Markup.
- The screen opens with an empty grid, ready for your first photo.
Add and Edit a Photo
- Tap the add / capture button. An alert headed Select Photo appears with three choices:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Use Camera | Checks camera access and opens the camera for a still photo |
| Use Photo Library | Opens your saved photos so you can pick a still image |
| Cancel | Closes the chooser |
- If you choose Use Camera and have not granted access yet, an explanation appears followed by the system camera prompt; allow it and the camera opens without a second tap. If you have denied it before, an alert titled Camera Permission Denied appears with the message "Please enable Camera permission in settings to use this feature." On a device with no usable camera, a toast reads "Camera not available".
- Once you pick an image, the editor opens. Use Draw, Clip, Image Sticker, Text Sticker, Mosaic and Adjust in any combination.
- Confirm your edits. Two things then happen:
- the finished image is added to the end of the grid, and
- it is written to your device photo library, confirmed by a toast reading Saved to gallery successfully.
Both sources accept still images only — videos cannot be marked up here. Tapping outside the Select Photo alert closes it without choosing anything.
Use Mosaic before you share anything outside your agency. It is the quickest way to obscure a face, a number plate or a name on a document while leaving the rest of the photo readable.
Organise Your Images
- Reorder — press and drag a tile to a new position. The grid rearranges as you drag and a light haptic tap confirms the drop.
- Preview — tap a tile to open the image full screen, then dismiss it to return.
- Delete — tap the delete button on a tile. An alert titled Delete asks "Are you sure to delete this photo?" with two buttons:
| Button | Result |
|---|---|
| Delete | Removes the image from the grid |
| Close | Keeps the image |
Deleting a tile removes it from this screen only. The copy already saved to your device photo library stays there.
Create a PDF
- Tap the create-PDF action.
- Each image is drawn on its own white A4 page — 595.2 × 841.8 points with a 20-point margin — scaled to fit and centred, at high rendering quality so colours and fine pen strokes stay accurate.
- Pages follow the grid order, so reorder the tiles before exporting.
- The file is written as
ScannedDocument_<timestamp>.pdfand the system share sheet opens. On iPad the share sheet appears as a centred panel.
With an empty grid the create-PDF action does nothing — no file and no message. Add at least one image first.
If you try to leave the screen after making changes, an alert titled Data Updated asks "Do you want to leave? You have unsaved changes." Choose Stay to keep working or Leave to go back and discard the grid. Images already saved to your photo library are not lost either way.
How This Connects
- Where the images come from. Either a fresh camera shot or your device photo library — nothing is fetched from the server, so this screen works entirely offline.
- Where the edited images go. Every confirmed edit is saved to your device photo library, which is the same place you pick from when attaching a photo to an incident, see Incident Additional Tab, or sending one in a conversation, see Chat and Image Preview. Marked-up photos can also be uploaded into a shared album from Photo Gallery.
- Camera and photo permissions are shared. The camera grant is the same one used by Scan to PDF and QR Code Scanner on the Tools screen and by Anomaly Detection. The photo-library grant is what lets the app both read your photos and save the edited copy back; denying it produces an alert titled Photo Access Denied reading "Please enable Photos permission in settings to use this feature." See Permission Required.
- Same PDF layout as Scan to PDF. The A4 page size, margin and centring match PDF Generator, so a marked-up set and a scanned set look consistent side by side.
- Theme and screen sleep. The editor's button colours follow Theme, and whether the screen dims follows Keep Screen Awake, both in App Defaults.
- Offline and reconnect. Capturing, editing, saving to the library and building the PDF all work with no signal. Only the destination you choose in the share sheet may need a connection.
Troubleshooting
| If this happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| A toast says "Camera not available" | The device has no usable camera for this mode — use Use Photo Library instead |
| "Camera Permission Denied" appears | Tap OK, turn Camera on for REDENES in Settings, then reopen the chooser |
| "Photo Access Denied" appears | Turn Photos on for REDENES in Settings; without it the app can neither read your library nor save the edited copy |
| No "Saved to gallery successfully" toast | The save to your photo library failed, usually because Photos access is off. The image still stays in the grid for this session |
| Videos do not appear in the picker | By design — only still images can be marked up here |
| Dragging a tile does nothing | Press and hold until the tile lifts, then drag; a quick swipe scrolls the grid instead |
| The create-PDF action does nothing | The grid is empty — add at least one image |
| Pages are in the wrong order in the PDF | Drag the tiles into the order you want, then export again |
| "Data Updated" appears when you tap back | You have unsaved changes; choose Stay to keep them or Leave to discard the grid |
| The PDF vanished after sharing | The file is temporary until you save it somewhere from the share sheet |
| The grid has too few columns | Rotate the device — column count is set by device and orientation |
Related Pages
⬅️ Previous: Photo Gallery | Next: Scene Stream ➡️