How to strikethrough, highlight, and underline text in PDF files on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac

On your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, find out how to highlight, underline, and strikethrough text, making it simple to hunt down essential information or mark documents. The application of these practical aspects is described in detail in this article.

Whether studying for examinations for school or college or for quick access to important text in an office Document, you may want to choose a light fluorescent hue to emphasize it while reading a PDF.

Also, you can use the strikeout or strikethrough tool to indicate irrelevant content and underline text to make it stand out from the rest of the document.

You can easily complete all of these tasks according to this step-by-step guide.

On iPhone and iPad

There is no effective text annotation tool for iOS or iPadOS. As a result, we’ll start by demonstrating how to do it utilizing some excellent third-party apps. The built-in Markup technique will also be mentioned.

Use the Highlights mobile application.

1) Open the Highlights app that you can download for free from the App Store.

2) Choose the PDF you wish to modify by going to On My iPhone, iCloud Drive, or one of the additional services.

3) Choose the text you want to strikethrough, underline, or highlight.

4) As soon as you choose the text, a popup will show up. There are buttons for strikethrough, underlining, and highlighting text that can be tapped to provide the desired formatting. When prompted, provide your name as the author name.

5) You can select red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink, magenta, or gray colors from a new menu that appears when you tap the altered text to change the highlight, underline, or strikethrough color. Tap the red trash button to erase the highlight.

6) After you’re done editing, tap the screen once to make the app buttons visible. From here, select the PDF option under the Share Document header, then select Save to Files, choose a folder, and then select Save.

Go to the folder you choose in Step 6 on your iPhone or iPad and open the pre-installed Apple Files app to find the PDF with the highlighted text.

Related third-party applications

I put more than a dozen iPhone and iPad apps that let you edit and annotate PDFs to the test. Out of all of them, I found the Highlights app to operate well, therefore I went into depth about how to use it above. In addition, I discovered that these three programs, even in their free versions, did an excellent job of underlining, highlighting, and striking out PDF text.

• WPS Office: Tap Cloud > iCloud > pick the PDF > select text > use Highlight, Underline, or StrikeOut. Next, tap the save icon > Share as File > Share as File > Save to Files.
• PDF Expert – Editor & Reader: Big blue plus button > Files > select the PDF > tap the imported PDF from the PDF Expert screen > select text > Highlight or use the editing icons on the top. After that, tap the three dots icon from the top right > Share > Share > Save to Files.
• PDF Extra: Scan, Edit & Sign: Files > Browse Files > choose the PDF > select text > Highlight, Strikethrough, Underline > three dots icon > Share > Save to Files.

Use the Markup tools integrated

When it comes to creating lines and signing PDFs, markup is fantastic, but it is useless for highlighting. Nevertheless, if you only need to roughly highlight a few lines and don’t want to buy an app, then follow these instructions to do it directly from your iPhone or iPad:

1) Choose a PDF to open it in full screen within the Files app.

2) Choose Markup from the menu.

3) Select the highlighter tool. Choose its thickness and color opacity after that. Tap the current color dot and choose a different shade to alter the highlight color.

4) When you’re ready, simply highlight any PDF text by dragging your finger or Apple Pencil over it.

Although it won’t be a straight line, you can choose the ruler tool, rotate it with two fingers, and then place it directly beneath the text you wish to highlight with one finger. Next, underline the text using an Apple Pencil or your finger by tracing a line slightly above the ruler. It ought to be a straight line this time.

5) To save the changes, select Done.

On Mac

The Mac’s Preview software includes all the capabilities you need to annotate PDFs, negating the need to purchase a third-party app:

1) Launch the Preview app and open the PDF. If you can’t, see this.

2) Choose the text.

3) Choose a color to highlight the selected text by clicking the arrow adjacent to the Highlight button. Instead, select Underline and Strikethrough to give the selected text these formatting options.

4) After you’re finished, click the red close button, and all of your edits will be saved.

You should be able to see all the annotations if you reopen the highlighted PDF in Preview or another PDF reading application.

Strikethrough, underlining, or highlight numerous lines quickly.

1) Click the highlight button in the top toolbar while the PDF is open in Preview. It will turn gray, indicating highlight mode.

2) Choose one of the highlighting styles, such as highlight color, underlining, or strikethrough, by clicking the arrow adjacent to the highlight button.

3) Choose the text in your Document now, and the highlighting style you selected in Step 2 will be automatically added. More text can be chosen, and it will continue to be automatically highlighted.

4) To stop highlighting, click the same highlight button once more. In the event that it becomes stuck, click the red close button to end Preview and restart your Document in it.

See the PDF for all the highlights.

1) Launch Mac’s Preview software and open the PDF.

2) The left sidebar will display all of the PDF highlights. To get directly to the section that has been highlighted, click one.

To conceal the left sidebar, click View > Hide Sidebar.

Alter the color of the highlights

1) Right-click the highlighted text or do so while holding down the Control key.

2) Choose an alternative color from the list.

Eliminate highlight

1) Control-click or right-click on the text that is highlighted.

2) Choose Remove Highlight in step two.

Delete any highlighting or strikethrough.

1) Right-click or Control-click over the text that’s underlined or struck out.

2) Select the U or S tool to remove the added highlight.

Alternative Mac programs for annotating PDFs

For the majority of users, the integrated Apple Preview software is ideal. Nevertheless, the accent colors are excessively dark, which is something I didn’t particularly appreciate. So, you can utilize third-party apps like Highlights to highlight text with a lighter shade.

1) Click the PDF with the right mouse button and select Open With > Highlights.

2) Choose the highlight option for the text from the pop-up menu or the top toolbar.

3) As soon as you’re finished, select File from the top menu bar while pressing the Option key to show the Save As button.

4) To finish, select a name and location and click Save As.

You can use the Wondershare PDF Element program in addition to the methods mentioned above to highlight PDF text. On each page, the free edition will, however, include a very little watermark in the upper-right corner.