How to Highlight Text in a PDF Document

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Need to make a certain line of text stand out in your PDF document? This wikiHow article will show you how to highlight text in a PDF on your PC or Mac using Adobe Reader DC and Preview.

Method 1 of 2:

Using Adobe Reader DC

If you don't already have Adobe Reader, it's available for free from get.adobe.com/reader and can be used with Windows, Mac, and Android operating systems.

Click on the highlighter tool. It's the marker icon on the right side of the toolbar at the top of the window.

Position the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to highlight." width="460" height="345" />

Position the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to highlight.

Click and hold, then drag the cursor across the text.

Release the click when you are done. The text is now highlighted.

on File in the menu bar and Save in the drop-down menu." width="460" height="345" />

Click on File in the menu bar and Save in the drop-down menu. Doing so saves your highlighting. Advertisement Method 2 of 2:

Using Preview on Mac

Preview is Apple's native image viewer app that's automatically included with most versions of Mac OS.

To change the color of the highlighting tool, click on the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the marker icon and click on the color you prefer for highlighting.

Position the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to highlight." width="460" height="345" />

Position the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to highlight.

Click and hold, then drag the cursor across the text.

Release the click when you are done. The text is now highlighted.

on File in the menu bar and Save in the drop-down menu." width="460" height="345" />

Click on File in the menu bar and Save in the drop-down menu. Doing so saves your highlighting. Advertisement

Community Q&A

How can I highlight text in a PDF on a mobile device? wikiHow Staff Editor
Staff Answer

This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor Staff Answer

One easy way to do it is to download a PDF highlighter or note-taker app. Try an app like PDFelement, PDF Expert, or Highlighter.

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Is there a way to highlight text in a scanned PDF document? wikiHow Staff Editor
Staff Answer

This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor Staff Answer

You wouldn’t be able to use the highlighter tool in Acrobat Reader for this unless you first OCR the document (that is, run software that converts the images to text). You can do this with Acrobat Pro, or use a program like ExportPDF to turn the file into a text document.

How do I erase the highlight on text? Community Answer

The best way to do this is to highlight the highlighted text using your cursor. After that, you will see that there will be an 'h' icon which will already be selected. Simply click that to get rid of the highlight.

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