Text annotation
A note for the reader. A text annotation is an open bracket with text beside it, joined by a dotted line to the part of the diagram it explains; it doesn’t change the process.
Easily confused with
How to read it
BPMN 2.0.2 calls text annotations a way for a modeller to give the reader more information. The shape is an open rectangle drawn with a single line, the text placed within its open side, and an association joins it to the element it describes. The standard says it does not affect the flow of the process. In the examples of Politecnico di Milano’s exercise book and Camunda’s reference, an annotation gives the condition that ends a loop.
Also searched as: bpmn annotation, bpmn comment, bpmn text annotation, bracket bpmn, text annotation symbol.
Look-alikes
A Data object is a closed page with a folded corner, also joined by a dotted association. A Pool is a closed rectangle with a name band, not an open one.
Read next
- Next in BPMN symbolsStart eventWhere a process begins. In BPMN the start event is a circle drawn with a single thin line.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AngolaAngola’s flag is red over black with a yellow emblem in the centre: part of a cogwheel, a machete and a five-pointed star. Its constitution says the red is the blood shed by Angolans under colonial oppression, in the liberation struggle and in defence of the country, and the black is the African continent; the cogwheel stands for workers and industry, the machete for peasants, farming and the armed struggle, the star for international solidarity and progress, and their yellow for the country’s wealth.
More BPMN symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), Version 2.0.2, OMG document formal/2013-12-09, December 2013 (also ISO/IEC 19510), Object Management Group, Section 8.3.13 and Table 7.2
- Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN): Modeling Exercises, Cinzia Cappiello, Pierluigi Plebani and Monica Vitali, v.1.1, 2016 (CC BY-SA), Politecnico di Milano, Chapter 1, 1.1 and Example 1.4
- BPMN 2.0 Symbols: a complete guide with examples, BPMN reference, adapted from Freund and Rücker, Real-Life BPMN, Camunda, Activities: Task (loop)
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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