Mark the points.
The arrangement is not your job
Every other tool asks you to draw an arrow and then drag the label until it stops overlapping the last one. This one takes the points and the words and works out the rest: which side each label belongs on, how far down it sits, and leader lines that are guaranteed not to cross. It’s free. Actually free.
- Lines that cannot cross.
- Not a tidy-up pass that usually works — labels are matched to anchors in order, which is the arrangement that has no crossings in it. Five callouts or fifty.
- Numbered, and renumbered.
- 1, 01, A or A1. Move a callout up the list and every mark after it follows, on the drawing and in the legend together.
- One label, several places.
- Three glue areas, one line each, one set of words. The alternative is the same sentence written three times and three chances for it to stop matching.
- Six ready systems.
- Technical, numbered, editorial, minimal, boxed and dimension-like — starting points, not modes. Every figure stays yours to change.
- Change all of them at once.
- There is no per-callout styling, on purpose. Set 0.25 mm and every leader is 0.25 mm; a sheet cannot end up with two line weights on it by accident.
- Nothing is uploaded.
- The drawing is read, annotated and written back out in your browser. A customer's unreleased packaging is not something to hand to a website.
What it does
You supply the content; it supplies the geometry
What goes underneath, how the arrangement is decided, how the set is marked, and what comes out.
A photograph, a dieline or a page of a PDF
- PNG, JPEG and WebP for photographs and renders
- SVG stays vector — a dieline annotated here is still a dieline
- PDF by the page, drawn at print resolution
- Dim the artwork so the callouts read over it
Four ways to decide where the words go
- Auto: it picks the side and evens the two columns up
- Align: one column down each side, evenly pitched
- Radial: ringed around the object at their own bearings
- Free: yours, and the leaders still follow
A numbered instruction, or words by the thing
- Numbers, padded numbers, letters, or letters and digits
- Reorder the list and the marks renumber themselves
- Send the descriptions to a legend and leave the marks behind
- Or keep the full text beside the thing it names
What you can set
Every figure in millimeters or points
The units a printer says out loud, not unitless dials whose range you have to find by dragging.
The line
- Straight, elbow, angled or curved
- Line weight in millimeters
- Corner radius, and the straight end into the label
- Dashes, in millimeters
The end
- Dot or circle, which sit on the thing
- Arrow, filled arrow or open arrow, which point at it
- Head size across
- Or nothing at all
The label
- Plain, underlined, boxed, pill, or a mark in a circle
- Type size in points and leading as a multiple
- Padding, the gap to the leader, and the pitch down a column
- Ink, label ink and label ground
The page
- A4, A3, Letter or your own, in millimeters
- How far the columns stand off the artwork
- The artwork’s opacity and the sheet’s own ground
How it works
Four steps to an annotated sheet
Drop the drawing, click the points, write the words, save the file.
Drop the drawing in
A photograph, an SVG dieline or a page of a PDF. The page is laid out around it, with room down both sides for the labels.
Click the points
Every click is a callout. One label can point at several places — click the button beside it and click again.
Write what each one is
A name, and a note under it if there is more to say. Pick how the set is marked and whether the words stay by the thing or go to a legend.
Save it
SVG and PDF are vector; PNG, JPG and WebP come at the resolution you pick. Text as text where a file can carry a font, outlines where it matters.
What it is for
Where a callout sheet earns its place
Anywhere a drawing has to say what its parts are called.
Assembly instructions
Glue flap, locking tab, dust flap, crease line — numbered on the blank, described in a legend, renumbered when the order changes.
Dieline specifications
An SVG dieline stays vector under the callouts, so the sheet that goes to the customer is the drawing and not a picture of it.
Product sheets
A render with its materials and finishes named, laid out evenly enough to sit next to the price list.
Technical schemes
ISO-style leaders: a hairline, a dot on the surface and a plain word. Nothing that is not the answer.
Presentations
Larger type and heavier lines, set once for every callout on the sheet.
Sample photographs
A photograph of a printed sample with the defects — or the features — marked and named.
Questions
What you need to know about Callouter
Points in, a finished sheet out.
Drop a drawing, click the parts, write what they are called. The lines and the arrangement are not your problem.