How to Highlight a PDF Free Online

You can quickly highlight text in your native and scanned PDFs online with Xodo’s free PDF highlighter and annotator tool.

PDF files have become an essential part of our work and personal life, widely used for various business reports, legal documents, job applications, eBooks, education and so much more.

As a result, the need to review and highlight text in PDF has grown significantly, especially if you're dealing with large documents on a daily basis.

Fortunately, there's a simple and free PDF highlighter you can use to accomplish such tasks with ease.

In this short guide, you'll learn how to highlight a PDF online for free with Xodo. We will cover:

• How to highlight text in regular PDF
• How to highlight text in scanned PDF
• How to remove highlights from PDF
• How to add other annotations to PDF

Let's jump right into it!

How to Highlight Text in PDF

To highlight text in your PDF files using Xodo's PDF highlighter, follow these steps:

1. Open your PDF in the free online PDF Annotator. 
2. Select the Highlight or Free Hand Highlight option from the toolbar.
3. Customize the highlight color and opacity.
4. Add highlights over the desired PDF text.
5. Download your PDF file when you're done.

You can further change the highlight color to better differentiate between various types of information, and even add comments or links to URLs or specific pages.

How to Highlight Text in Scanned PDF

You can also use Xodo to highlight text in scanned PDF documents. Here's how:

1. Navigate to Xodo's free online PDF Annotator.
2. Upload your PDF file.
3. Highlight text using the Free Hand Highlight tool.
4. Remember to download the edited PDF.

Since text in scanned PDFs is recognized as an image, it makes it impossible to highlight with standard annotation tools.

This is where Xodo’s free hand highlight tool is useful—it allows you to manually highlight areas on scanned documents.

Tip: You can also use Xodo iOS and Android apps to highlight and annotate PDF files on your mobile device while on the move.

How to Remove Highlight in PDF

Not happy with what you've highlighted? No problem!

You can easily remove highlights in PDF with Xodo, follow these steps:

1. Open your PDF in the PDF Annotator.
2. Click to select the highlight you want to remove.
3. Then click on the Eraser tool in the main toolbar.

Xodo is a versatile, free PDF highlighter tool that lets you easily remove highlights and other annotations directly in your browser.

How to Add Other Annotations to PDF

Xodo offers a range of other annotation tools to help you review and annotate your PDFs. You can:

• Add comments, notes, images, stamps, and attachments
• Insert lines, arrows, and draw shapes
• Fill out and sign forms online
• Measure distances and areas
• Markup text with underline, squiggly, and strikethrough options

To access these features in the PDF Annotator, simply click on the appropriate options: View, Annotate, Shapes, Insert, Measure, or Fill and Sign at the top of the toolbar.

Highlight PDFs and Unlock More Features with Xodo

From highlighting text to adding various markups and annotations, Xodo is ideal for students, educators, professionals, and anyone who frequently works with PDFs.

Xodo offers a range of other features for editing, annotating, signing, filling out forms, and converting PDFs—accessible on any device.

So, why wait? Experience a more efficient PDF review and annotation process.

Explore other online Xodo tools below or check out our desktop PDF editor to access more advanced features.