How to Draw on Google Slides

Cover for how to draw on Google Slides

Modern presentation apps provide drawing options to enable presenters to scribble on slides. Google Slides also contains a Scribble tool for this very purpose. Furthermore, you can also use third-party tools to draw on Google Slides or import your drawings via Google Drawings.

Methods to Draw on Google Slides

Scribble Tool in Google Slides

You can access the Scribble tool via Insert -> Line -> Scribble to draw on Google Slides. The tool can be used on any presentation, whether you create from scratch or Google Slides templates.

Access Scribble tool Google Slides

Using the Scribble tool, you can freely draw on Google Slides since it is essentially a pen tool for drawing on slides.

Free shapes Scribble tool

To format your drawings or to edit the color, weight, line dash, line start, or line end, see the options on the toolbar.

Change color in Scribble

You can also find additional formatting options via Format Options to change the look and feel of the content you have added to the slide.

Format options in Google Slides

From Format Options, you can adjust the size, rotate your drawings, change their position on the slide, and add a drop shadow or reflection.

Format Options to adjust drawing Google Slides

Annotate Extension for Chrome

Another method to add a Google Slides drawing is to use the Annotate extension for Chrome. This annotation and screen-sharing extension can be used to annotate webpages, Google Slides, Google Docs, and PDFs. Furthermore, the extension also works with Google Meet.

Download Annotate extension for Chrome

Once installed in Chrome, you can use Annotate to log in with a Google, Classlink, or Microsoft account.

Sign up Annotate extension

Annotate provides a pen, highlighter, and eraser for annotation and options to record a voice note, camera, or screen recording. You can also save annotations to your Annotate account.

Annotate extension options

Annotate can be used for free-form drawings, highlighting content, and creating screen recordings from your Google Slides presentations.

Annotate pen stroke

You can also select the weight, stroke, and opacity of your pen to give a custom look to your drawings.

Annotate pen stroke options

Annotate gives more control over your drawings than the Scribble tool that comes with Google Slides. Hence, it can be a handy extension to draw in Google Slides.

Annotate extension hand writing Google Slides

Insert Google Drawing into Google Slides

Another method to draw on Google Slides is to create a drawing and insert it in Google Slides. To create a drawing, go to Google Drive and create a new drawing or go to drawings.google.com.

Access Google Drawing

Google Drawings gives many handy options for making drawings to publish them online or save them offline. Once you finish your drawing, you can publish it online or download it as an image or PDF file via the File menu.

Google Drawings export file

You can insert your drawings in Google Slides by going to your presentation and inserting the drawing. If it’s an image file, you can upload the drawing via Insert -> Image or use the link you created to insert the drawing By URL.

Insert drawing from Google Drawings

You can further edit the added drawing by making adjustments from Format Options in Google Slides.

Google Drawings Format Options

The various format options to edit your drawing include the ability to adjust the size and rotate the drawing, change its position, recolor the drawing, adjust the paucity, brightness, and contrast, and add drop shadow and reflection.

Editing options available in Format Options Google Slides

Final Words

The Scribble tool gives free-form drawing options for Google Slides by default. You can also use Google Drawings to draw and upload a drawing and further adjust it in Google Slides according to need. If you need a more comprehensive option to draw and annotate slides, you can use the Annotate extension for Chrome.

Design, Google Slides
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