Mark important text in yellow, pink, green, blue or purple. Click and drag to highlight any text on the page.
Last Updated: August 2026·Written by Ayaz Dilawar
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Click and drag on the page to highlight text. Yellow is default.
Highlights Applied!
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Highlight PDF
Highlight text in PDF online for free. Choose yellow, pink, green, blue or purple to mark important content, save and download highlighted PDF. Stays 100% on your device.
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Stays in your browser
Processing runs on your own device. Your files are not uploaded to a server, so private documents stay private.
Click and drag over text on a page to mark it with a highlighter in yellow, pink, green, blue or purple, then save the result as a new PDF. Highlights are stored as an annotation layer, so very old readers may not show them, and scanned PDFs may need OCR PDF first to highlight text accurately. Flatten the PDF afterward if you want the marks to be permanent.
Good to know
Use a consistent color scheme (e.g. yellow for key facts, green for action items) across a document set for faster review later.
Highlight sparingly — over-highlighting defeats the purpose of drawing attention to what matters most.
Combine with Annotate PDF if you need to add a note explaining why a passage is highlighted.
Highlights sit as a PDF annotation layer — some very old PDF readers may not display them.
Not searchable by highlight color; there's no built-in way to filter pages by which color was used.
For permanent, non-removable emphasis, flatten the PDF afterward.
Troubleshooting
The text in the saved PDF isn't selectable anymore, even on pages I didn't highlight: Saving currently re-renders every page as an image (so the highlight blends into it), which removes the text layer document-wide — not just on highlighted pages. Keep the original file if you need the rest of the document to stay searchable.
"Add some highlights first": Drag across text on the page preview to draw a highlight rectangle before saving — clicking without dragging won't create one.
A highlight is in the wrong spot after saving: Highlights are positioned based on where you drew them in the preview — if you change zoom or window size mid-way, re-check placement before saving.
"Failed to save highlights": The source PDF may be corrupted or password-protected. Try Unlock PDF or Repair PDF first.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Supported highlight colors can be selected before saving your edited PDF.
Scanned PDFs may require OCR before text can be highlighted accurately. Otherwise, highlighting may work only as an annotation.
Yes. Standard PDF highlights are supported by most modern PDF viewing applications.
Yes. As long as the PDF remains editable, highlights can usually be modified or removed before flattening the document.