FileCarpenterPDF Editor Beta
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FileCarpenterPDF Editor
Free online PDF editor Beta

Highlight PDF text online for free

Start on the first letter and drag to the last to mark an exact phrase, part of a sentence or multiple lines - no signup required.

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A PDF highlighter that follows the text

Instead of placing a loose colored rectangle over a paragraph, FileCarpenter can use the PDF's extracted text positions to create markup that follows the selected text. Multi-line selections are represented as native PDF markup annotations, so the text stays selectable.

How to highlight text in a PDF

  1. Choose your PDF.
  2. FileCarpenter opens the Mark up tool automatically.
  3. Choose Highlight, Underline or Strikeout and select a color.
  4. Drag from the first text you want to mark to the last text, including across lines.
  5. Download the annotated PDF.

Useful for reviewing documents

Text-aware highlighting is useful for academic papers, contracts, reports, drafts and study notes because the annotation stays attached to the passage instead of obscuring unrelated whitespace. You can also switch to Comments and place review notes anywhere else in the document.

PDF highlighting questions

Can I highlight more than one line?

Yes. Drag across the text selection and FileCarpenter can create a multi-line native markup annotation from the selected text runs.

Can I underline or strike out text?

Yes. The same Mark up tool includes Highlight, Underline and Strikeout.

Does highlighting make the text unselectable?

No. FileCarpenter stores supported markup as PDF annotations rather than flattening a colored image over the text.