Highlight a PDF
A freehand highlighter with adjustable colour and thickness. It works on scanned pages too, because it draws over the page rather than relying on the text layer.
How to highlight
- Open the PDF and choose the highlighter tool.
- Drag across the text or area you want to mark.
- Change the colour and width in the inspector before drawing, or edit the selected mark after.
- Export the PDF with the highlights flattened into the page.
Works on scans
Because the highlighter is a drawing tool, it does not need a text layer. Scanned contracts, photographed invoices and image-only PDFs can be marked the same way as digital documents.
Not an annotation layer
The mark is composited into the exported PDF. Other viewers will show it, but it is not a standard PDF comment that can be listed, filtered or replied to. If you need review workflows, use a tool built around annotations.
Frequently asked questions
+Can I remove a highlight?
Yes, select it and delete it, or undo with Ctrl+Z before exporting.
+Does the highlight stay editable in Acrobat?
No. It is drawn into the page content, so it appears as part of the page rather than as an annotation object.
+Can I highlight in different colours?
Yes. Each mark can have its own colour and width.
+Does the file get uploaded for this?
No. The drawing and export happen in the browser.