Mark Important Text in Your PDFs

Need to highlight key information in a PDF document? Whether you are studying, reviewing contracts, or annotating research papers, highlighting makes it easy to mark and find important text later.

BoostPDF lets you highlight text in any PDF document directly in your browser. Choose from multiple colors, highlight as much text as you need, and download your annotated PDF instantly.

For more annotation options, you can also add text to your PDF or draw freehand annotations.

How to Highlight PDF Online

Follow these simple steps to add highlights to your PDF:

  1. Upload Your PDF Click the upload button or drag and drop your PDF file into the upload area. Your file will load in the editor.
  2. Select the Highlight Tool Click the Highlight tool in the sidebar. You can choose your preferred highlight color from the options panel.
  3. Click and Drag to Highlight Position your cursor at the start of the text you want to highlight. Click and drag across the text to apply the highlight.
  4. Download Your PDF When you are done highlighting, click Export to download your annotated PDF with all highlights preserved.

Pro Tip: Use different colors to categorize information. For example, yellow for definitions, green for key points, and pink for questions or items to review.

Common Uses for PDF Highlighting

PDF highlighting is useful in many situations:

  • Studying: Mark key concepts, definitions, and important facts in textbooks and study materials.
  • Document Review: Highlight sections that need attention or changes in contracts, reports, and proposals.
  • Research: Mark relevant passages in academic papers and research documents for easy reference.
  • Collaboration: Share highlighted PDFs with colleagues to point out important information. Try our full PDF editor for more features.

Highlight Tool Features

Multiple Colors
Choose from yellow, green, blue, pink, orange, or create custom highlight colors to organize your annotations.

Easy Selection
Simply click and drag over text to highlight. The selection follows your cursor smoothly for precise highlighting.

Undo & Edit
Made a mistake? Use undo to remove highlights or select and delete individual annotations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I highlight text in any PDF?

Yes, you can highlight text in any PDF document. For scanned PDFs or image-based PDFs, you can draw highlight rectangles over the areas you want to mark.

What highlight colors are available?

BoostPDF offers standard highlight colors including yellow, green, blue, pink, and orange. You can also choose custom colors from the color picker.

Are my highlights saved permanently?

Yes, when you export the PDF, all highlights are embedded in the document. They will appear when you open the PDF in any PDF reader.

Is highlighting PDFs free?

Yes! Basic PDF highlighting is completely free. Upload your PDF, add highlights, and download the result without any cost.

Start Highlighting Your PDFs Now

Highlighting important text in PDFs has never been easier. Upload your document, select your colors, and start marking key information. Your annotated PDF is ready to download in seconds.