Highlight PDF
Mark up passages in color — the text underneath stays selectable.
- Zero-transmission processing
- No watermark
- Limited daily trial
- Unlimited on Pro
Drop your PDF here
or choose it from your files
Your files are never transmitted. Nothing is uploaded.
Before you start
- Type a word in Find text and Highlight all marks every match, fitted to the line.
- Scanned page? Drag across it by hand — there is no text to search on a picture.
Good to know
- Accepts
- Files at once
- One at a time
- Transmission
- None — nothing is uploaded.
Chain it
Next, run Flatten PDF → Compress PDF on the result back to back — nothing to download in between.
How to do it
Add your file
Add the PDF you want to mark up — a contract under review, a paper you are reading, a report to hand back.
Set it up the way you want
Draw over the passages that matter and choose the color. Several colors let you separate questions from agreements.
Download the result
Download the marked-up file. The highlight is part of the page, so it shows the same way in every reader.
More than one change to make?
Open the editor: change the text that’s already there, fill and sign, cover up and rearrange pages — one file, undo for every step.
Try every tool before you pay. Download with Pro ($11/month) or a day pass ($3).
Open the editorQuestions about Highlight PDF
- Does the text under the highlight stay selectable?
- Yes. The mark is drawn with transparency, so the words underneath can still be copied, searched and read aloud by a screen reader. An opaque rectangle of the same color would hide the text instead of highlighting it — that is erasing, not marking.
- Why is my highlight so pale?
- Transparency is what makes text readable through color. Raising the opacity darkens the mark but starts to swallow the words; the default sits at the point where the highlight is clearly visible and the text still reads cleanly.
- Will these highlights open in other PDF readers?
- Yes, everywhere, because they are drawn into the page rather than stored as reader annotations. The trade-off is that they cannot be clicked and deleted later, so highlight the version you intend to hand over.