Search and Highlight Text in PDF

Find a word in a PDF and save a copy with every match highlighted in yellow.

Runs in your browser. Your files never leave your device. See how to check

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How to do it

1
Choose your settings
Fill in the details or pick the options you need.
2
See the result
The preview updates right away as you change things.
3
Download or save it
Save the result to your device. Nothing is sent to or stored on a server.

About this tool

Choose a PDF, type the word or phrase you are looking for and the tool marks every match with a yellow highlight, tells you how many matches there are and on which pages, and lets you download the highlighted copy. It works on PDFs that have real text; for scans, run OCR first.

Where it is useful

Students mark key terms in lecture notes, lawyers flag a clause across a contract, and anyone reading a long report can highlight a name or a number so that it is easy to find again. The original file is not changed.

Scanned documents

A scanned PDF is only a picture, so there is no text to search. Run the OCR PDF tool first to add a text layer and then use this tool.

Matching

Search is by plain text inside each text run of the page. A phrase that is split across two lines may not be found, so try a shorter part of it. Tick the case box to match capitals exactly.

Privacy

The PDF is processed in your browser and is not uploaded.

Tips for best results

Take a moment to read the options before you start, and try the tool with a small sample first. Everything runs in your browser on your own device, so nothing you type or add is uploaded, and closing the tab clears it. If something does not look right, reload the page and try again, or use the report link on this page to tell us what went wrong so we can fix it. If a result still looks wrong, change one value at a time to see which box matters most. Bookmark this page if you will need the tool again.