Epic Pen user guide

1. 1

   Download

   Download the free Epic Pen installer for Windows. There's one installer for everyone — Pro is unlocked inside the app.

2. 2

   Install

   Double-click the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions.

3. 3

   Launch

   Open Epic Pen from the desktop shortcut or the Start menu. A small toolbar appears on your screen.

4. 4

   Start drawing

   Pick a tool from the toolbar, or press a hotkey, and draw anywhere on your screen.

Toolbar tour

After you launch Epic Pen, a small toolbar sits on top of your screen. It gives you one-click access to every tool, the colour palette, and the menu, where you'll find Settings and Activate Pro. Drag it wherever it's least in the way, or hide it completely with Ghost Mode.

While a drawing tool is selected, your clicks go to Epic Pen. Select the cursor (or press your hotkey) to go back to using your apps — your ink stays on screen until you clear it.

Free tools

These tools are free for everyone, forever — at home, school and work.

Pen

Draw freehand lines and shapes over anything on your screen. On a supported pen tablet or touchscreen, lines respond to pen pressure.

Highlighter

Sweep a see-through highlight over the words, numbers or details you want people to notice.

Eraser and clear screen

Use the eraser to remove individual strokes, or clear the whole screen in one click with the trash button or your clear hotkey.

Screenshot

Capture any part of your screen, ink and all. Save screenshots to a folder of your choice or copy them straight to the clipboard to share. You can choose where screenshots are saved in Settings.

Colours

Choose from 16 bright colours in Epic Pen Basic, chosen to stand out on any background.

Hotkeys

Hotkeys let you use Epic Pen without reaching for the toolbar — essential when you're presenting, teaching or recording. You can set a hotkey for every tool and action.

• Open the menu on the Epic Pen toolbar.
• Click Settings.
• Scroll down to the Hot keys section.
• Click the hotkey you want to change, then follow the instructions to enter a new key combination.

Tip: learn the hotkeys for drawing, clearing the screen and going back to your apps first. Those three cover most of what you'll do.

Ghost Mode

Ghost Mode hides the Epic Pen toolbar completely, so only your content and your ink are on screen. Use your hotkeys to switch tools, draw and clear while the toolbar is hidden. It's ideal for presentations, recordings and streams.

Pro tools

These tools are part of Epic Pen Pro. Try them all free for 14 days, then choose yearly or monthly billing.

Text tool (Pro)

Click anywhere on your screen and type a label, an answer or an instruction, in any colour and size.

Lines, shapes and arrows (Pro)

Draw straight lines, arrows, rectangles and ellipses that look clean on any display.

Whiteboard and blackboard (Pro)

Turn your whole screen into a solid whiteboard or blackboard with one click, and toggle back just as quickly. It's a clean page for sketching, and a tidy background for saving your notes.

Fading ink (Pro)

Draw knowing your marks will disappear by themselves after a set time. Choose a short, medium or long fade, and never stop to clear the screen.

Highlighted cursor (Pro)

Put a coloured halo around your mouse pointer so everyone can see where you're pointing. More about highlighting your cursor.

Quick colours and custom colours (Pro)

Pro expands the quick colours on the toolbar from 16 to 24, and lets you pick any colour from the palette.

Using Epic Pen with your setup

Pen tablets, pens and touchscreens

Epic Pen works with a mouse, graphics tablets, pen displays, Surface pens and touchscreens, with pen pressure and multi-touch on supported hardware.

To use your stylus buttons, map them in your tablet's settings to the same key combination as the Epic Pen hotkey you want. Close Epic Pen while you set up the mapping, or it may intercept the keystroke.

Multiple monitors

Epic Pen supports multiple monitors, so you can draw on whichever display you're presenting from.

Screen sharing and recording

In Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or OBS, share or capture your entire screen, not a single window. Epic Pen's ink sits on its own transparent layer above your apps, so a window-only share can't see it. Step-by-step guide for Zoom, Teams and Meet.

Fullscreen apps and games

Some apps and games draw on top of everything when they run in exclusive fullscreen. If Epic Pen's ink doesn't appear, switch the app to windowed or borderless (fullscreen windowed) mode.

Your Pro licence

Activate Pro

There's no separate Pro download. Open Epic Pen, go to Activate Pro in the toolbar menu, and enter your activation code.

Activate Pro for every user on a PC

To activate Pro for all Windows accounts on a device — for example in a lab or classroom — activate from the command line by running the installer with your code:

EpicPenSetup.exe /silent /ac=[your activation code]

Add /proxyHost=[host] /proxyPort=[port] if you use a web proxy. Deploying to many devices? See Pro for Teams.

Move your licence to a new PC

• Log in to accounts.epicpen.com with your Epic Pen account.
• Find your activation code and click View Details.
• Click Reset Activation Code.
• Enter the code in Epic Pen on your new PC.

Lost access to Pro?

Log in to your Epic Pen account with the email address you bought Pro with, reset your activation code, and enter it again in Epic Pen.

Update Epic Pen

Epic Pen tells you in the app when an update is available. Follow the link to download the latest version and run the installer — it updates your existing installation. See what's changed in the version history.

Uninstall Epic Pen

• Close Epic Pen if it's running.
• Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps (Windows 11), or Control Panel → Programs and Features.
• Find Epic Pen in the list and choose Uninstall.
• Follow the prompts to finish.