5 Different Ways to Highlight PDF

PDF highlighters have become a requirement in today's digital world. They've become a vital part of our study habits since they assist us in highlighting important information such as key concepts, phrases, and names. The primary idea of a document is usually highlighted in yellow PDF since yellow is a vibrant and memorable color that sticks with you for a long time. How do you highlight PDFs now? For a clearer comprehension of the text, read the article below.

Way 1: How to Highlight PDF on Windows

PDF documents have become an important source of delivering crucial information. Highlighting PDF on Windows is easier because of the variety of options different applications have.

An amazing tool that you can use on Windows to highlight PDF files is UPDF. It is an exceptional PDF annotator that has vibrant features, and the list goes on, from editing a PDF, converting a PDF, OCR a PDF, to using annotation tools.

The annotation tools that UPDF holds include shapes, text-adding tools, highlighting tools, text boxes, stamps, signatures, sticky notes, etc. You can also underline important text, and if there is any unimportant information, you can use the strikeout text to cut the information. The following are the steps to highlight PDFs using UPDF.

Step 1: Open PDF File 

Launch the UPDF on your device and click on the "Open File" button to import the PDF file.

Step 2: How to Highlight Text in PDFs

On the left, you can click on the "Comment" button, and then it will show you many PDF annotation tools on the top.

Now, you need to select the "Highlight" tool, choose a color, and drag the tool over the text you want to highlight. As soon as you leave the cursor, your text will be highlighted.

The best part of using UPDF to highlight PDFs is that you will have a color palette to choose from. You can change the highlight color easily according to your requirements.

Step 3. Add Noted for the Highlights

UPDF allows you to add notes to the highlighted PDF text. Here is how you can do it.

Right-click the highlighted text and then select the "Note" option.

Then you can enter the notes in the pop-up Sticky Note window. If you want to change color, you can also select any other colors at the note bottom.

Video Tutorial on How to Highlight PDF on Windows

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Way 2: How to Highlight PDF on Mac

UPDF is also accessible to all Mac users, and it has become a favorite tool of many people. The unique highlighting feature has a multicolored palate from which you can choose any color of your choice. A pencil tool comes in handy for students who want the document in a handwritten style. Shapes can be a source of highlighting a major chunk of information too. Now the question arises of how to highlight text in PDF by using UPDF. The following steps will help you to highlight the PDF:

If you haven't installed UPDF, click the below button to get it first.

Step 1: Open the Application

Launch the UPDF highlighter on your Mac computer and click on the button "Open File" to open the PDF file.

Step 2: Access the Comment Button

On the top, you can click on the "Comment" button, and it will show you different PDF annotation tools.

Step 3: How Can I Highlight PDF Text

Select the "Highlight" tool and drag the tool over the text you want to highlight. As soon as you leave the cursor, your text will be highlighted.

Video Tutorial on How to Highlight PDF on Mac

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Way 3. How to Highlight PDF on iOS

UPDF for iOS supports you to highlight and draw any shapes to your PDF document on iPhone and iPad.

• Step 1. First, you need to import your PDF file into UPDF. You can click the "+" button on the right bottom corner and select the PDF file to import.
• Step 2. After you import the PDF file, tap it to open.
• Step 3. You will find there is a pencil tool in the top right corner. Click on it and you will find there are several kinds of pencils appear.
• Step 4. Choose the right tool and set the color. Now you can highlight the PDF on your iOS devices easily.

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Way 4. How to Highlight PDF on Android

This tool also supports the Android version and you can use the highlight tool or the pencil tool to highlight PDFs on UPDF for Android.

• Step 1. Import your PDF file into UPDF for Android.
• Step 2. Open the PDF file and you will find the "Markup" icon.
• Step 3. Choose the Highlight tool and select its color, and begin to highlight your PDF document on Android.

You can also use the pencil tool to highlight your PDF file, and there are many kinds of pencils for you to use. You can draw on your PDF file freely.

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Way 5. How to Highlight PDF Online

Some people prefer to use online tools to highlight PDF documents. If you want to do it online, you should choose an online PDF editor. There are many online tools and most of the steps are the same, you can follow the general instructions to highlight PDFs online:

Step 1. Upload Your PDF to Online Tool

First of all, you need to search on Google and look for a good online PDF tool. You can use the keyword "highlight PDF online free" to search.

Once you decide which tool to use, you can click the "Upload File" button to upload your PDF file to its website.

Step 2. Highlight PDF Online

Now you can highlight the PDF document. Find the highlight tool and select a color. Select the text to highlight.

Step 3. Download PDF

After you finish highlighting, just download the PDF file to your desktop.

Pros and Cons of Highlighting PDF Online

There are many advantages and disadvantages to using online tools:

Pros	Cons
Don't need to download any software.	There are limitations to the file size or the page number.
It is free to use.	It is not safe to upload your file to the internet.
	It is not stable as it relies on the internet.
	It doesn't have any advanced tools such as OCR.
	It is not really free. You need to purchase it if you want to use it unlimited.

After introducing the pros and cons of using online tools to highlight PDF files, you may find that it is better for you to use a desktop tool like UPDF, which gives you a more stable performance, and more advanced features, and is safer to use.

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Why Can't I Highlight My PDF Document?

The feature known as "Comment Restrictions" is responsible for one of the most significant factors that prevent users from highlighting text in PDF documents. When this form of protection is applied to PDF files, the Highlight Tool either stops functioning entirely or becomes inoperable and grayed out.

For this reason, it is required to remove the permissions password for commenting in a PDF document in order to allow highlighting. Users will be able to choose and highlight secured PDF documents with ease after the security has been removed from the PDF file.

How Do I Highlight a Locked PDF?

If you have the password or are the owner of the PDF document, highlighting is simple. When dealing with a password-protected PDF, you will encounter one of two scenarios.

Enter Passwords When Knowing the Passwords

To begin highlighting in a PDF file, all you need to do is enter the file using the document's password. After inputting the password, your changes will be saved.

If you wish to highlight a PDF that is not yours and for which you do not have the password, you must first obtain the owner's permission. The document's owner can achieve this by changing the document's security settings. Here, you'll need the document's password in order to open it and begin highlighting.

Remove Passwords and Then Highlight the PDF

There's also the possibility that you don't know the password and aren't authorized to request it from the PDF's owner. If a PDF is password-protected, highlighting will be impossible until you remove the password. A PDF password remover is the simplest method, although there are others. In order to highlight text inside the PDF, you must first remove the password protecting it.

Conclusion

As you've gone through the content, you may have come to know that this article is diverse in every term because we have discussed the best highlighter available on Mac and Windows. UPDF is preferred worldwide because of the variety of options and how simple it is. We have also listed steps that you can follow to highlight PDFs using UPDF.