Epic Pen

Annotate any Windows screen with pen and touch tools

Epic Pen is a practical screen annotation tool for Windows that lets you draw, highlight, and write directly over whatever is already open on your PC. Instead of locking you into a dedicated canvas, it creates an overlay above your apps, so you can mark up presentations, websites, documents, videos, design drafts, or teaching material without switching context.

The core appeal is its flexibility. You can use a standard mouse, finger input, or a supported digital pen, including Wacom devices. It also supports 10-point multi-touch and pressure sensitivity, which makes it more useful for people who need finer control when sketching, underlining, or explaining visual ideas. For everyday use, the toolset is straightforward: pen and highlighter modes, a selection of more than 10 colors, and a screenshot option for saving marked-up screens.

The Pro version adds more room to work creatively, with extra color choices, text insertion, and shape tools that can help with quick diagrams, charts, and visual explanations. Whiteboard and blackboard modes are also available for live teaching, brainstorming, or group discussion, while hotkeys make it easier to switch tools without interrupting the flow of a session.

Epic Pen is best suited to educators, presenters, trainers, remote collaborators, and anyone who often explains things visually on a Windows screen. Its interface is designed to be approachable, so non-technical users should not need much time to understand the basics.

The main drawback is the limited free trial, which may not show enough of the full feature set for users who want to evaluate everything before paying. Since many of the more capable tools sit behind the Pro version, the value depends on how often you need screen annotation. For occasional notes, the basics may be enough; for teaching, presentations, or collaborative work, Epic Pen is a strong and focused option.