Are you in search of a simple way to highlight PDFs without relying on Adobe’s complex interface? If yes, then this article is for you!

PDF editing tools like Adobe Acrobat allow users to highlight PDFs to emphasize key information. Unfortunately, however, Adobe is very expensive and difficult to use. That is why users keep searching for better alternatives!

The best solution is UPDF: it is easy-to-use and cost-effective with many customization options! This article will walk you through the steps to highlight PDFs, including scanned PDFs. We will also discuss how to extract highlighted text from PDFs.

Continue reading to learn how to highlight PDF documents using UPDF!

Part 1. How to Highlight in PDF? Step by Step

The most reliable way to highlight PDFs without Adobe is UPDF! This exciting tool has great power, allowing users to highlight any text in different colors. 

With UPDF, you can not only highlight on Windows and Mac, but also on Android and iOS! Moreover, by selecting the tool once, you can continuously highlight text without needing to re-select the tool.

Another reason why you should choose UPDF is its lower price compared to other solutions. So, what are you waiting for? Download UPDF and follow the guide below to highlight PDFs. 

Steps to Highlight PDFs using UPDF

Step 1: Open UPDF on your personal computer or mobile phone (In this tutorial, we are using a personal computer). Then, import or drag and drop the PDF document you want to highlight. Or, you can choose from the list of recent files.

Step 2: Click on the “Comment” icon in the left panel. You will see the new options appear in the top panel.

Step 3: Click on the “Highlight” button in the top panel. You can choose any color that you prefer.

Step 4: With the highlight button selected, click and drag your cursor over the text to highlight it. If you want to highlight text without reselecting the tool, double-click on it. Now, you can select text to highlight it without clicking the icon again and again! To select another tool, you will have to switch manually.

And you’re done! That’s how easy it is to highlight PDFs in UPDF! 

Now, let’s explore how you can highlight a scanned PDF!

Part 2. How to Highlight Scanned PDFs?

With UPDF, you can easily highlight their scanned PDFs!

One way of doing this is by performing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and then highlighting as shown above. An alternative way is adding shapes to highlight areas in the document without performing OCR.

Let’s dive deeper into the steps of these two methods!

1. Via OCR and Highlight

Performing OCR on a scanned PDF will make it searchable/readable: you can select the text. So, you can seamlessly perform any highlighting feature! 

Let’s highlight the simple steps to do so!

Step 1: Open UPDF. Navigate to “UPDF Tools,” and then select “OCR.” Select the required document.

Step 2: From the right panel, select the “Recognize Text Using OCR” icon. 

Step 3: Choose the “Searchable PDF” document type. Select the document language, and edit the other OCR options as per your requirement, and then click “Perform OCR.” The conversion will begin as a progress popup appears.

Step 4: After successful conversion, the readable PDF will be opened in UPDF. Click on the “Comment” icon in the left panel. You are free to highlight it using the “Highlight” icon in the top panel!

2. Via Adding Shapes

The second method of highlighting a scanned PDF does not involve OCR, so the features are limited. Let’s walk through the steps of using shapes to highlight areas in a scanned PDF!

Step 1: Launch UPDF and open a scanned PDF you wish to highlight. Select the “Comment” icon from the left panel. 

Step 2: Click the “Shape” icon in the top panel. You can choose Rectangle or Circle. Here, you need to choose the same color for border and fill. Then change the opacity per your like. It is better to be between 10% and 50%. Then, draw to highlight the contents in the scanned PDF. 

That’s it! In just two simple steps, you can effortlessly highlight your scanned PDFs with shapes!

Next, let’s find out how to extract highlighted text from PDFs!  

Part 3. How to Extract Highlighted Text from PDF?

With UPDF, you can extract your highlighted content, comments, and shapes in just a few clicks. This feature text will boost your productivity by saving you time!

Let’s dive into how you can extract highlighted text from PDFs!

Step 1: Launch UPDF and open your document. Select the “Comments List” icon from the bottom right of the screen. 

Step 2: You can view the list of highlighted content, comments, shapes, and drawings. You can navigate to an item in the document by clicking on it.

Step 3: You can also export this list by clicking “Export to PDF” at the top right. You can choose which highlighted item category to include in the file. Moreover, you can also choose to display comments in order of page number.

Next, we will answer some common queries about highlighting PDFs.

Part 4. FAQS 

 Final Words

In this article, we explored the most reliable ways to highlight PDFs! UPDF is perfect for highlighting PDF documents, including scanned PDFs, due to its impressive features. You can not only highlight text continuously but also add text comments, sticky notes, and shapes! 

Moreover, unlike Adobe, this tool is very cheap and is very easy-to-use. So, why wait? Get UPDF today to forever change the way you work with PDFs!