Highlights: PDF Reader & Notes

Highlights: PDF Reader & Notes

Edit Research Documents/Books

⭐️4.5 / 5
Rating
🙌1.2K
Ratings
📼1 vid & 10 scs
Content
📦w/o updates
Updates frequency
🗣❌ unsupported
Your locale
🧾$3.99 - $29.99
In-App Purchase

All Versions of Highlights

2023.3.3

November 9, 2023

Major speed improvements in celebration of the release of macOS Sonoma: - Up to 5x faster conversion of image selections to images - Up to 7x faster text recognition - Up to 5x faster table recognition - Up to 5x faster loading of PDF pages - Faster writing of backup files when running OCR - Faster opening of files Minor improvements: - Double tap to zoom now also works for pointing devices - Fewer ways to accidentally toggle the visibility of the top and bottom bars - Fixed a crash related to updating thumbnails - Improved thread safety - Fixed an issue with text selections sometimes appearing without a highlight color when using the Apple Pencil - Thumbnails view now reflect changes to the document live - Use Enter key as a keyboard shortcut to go to the next result when searching - Switching between viewing your notes and PDF no longer resets the zoom level - Improved animation for note deletions - Fixed a crash related to generating thumbnails for a small subset of PDF pages - Fixed a crash related to tracking of user setting updates - Remove null characters if present in the text of markup annotations - Improved jumping between search results on devices running iOS 15 or earlier - Improved Smart Copy when getting text of markup annotations - Improved handling of highlights:// links
More

2023.3.2

November 3, 2023

Major speed improvements in celebration of the release of macOS Sonoma: - Up to 5x faster conversion of image selections to images - Up to 7x faster text recognition - Up to 5x faster table recognition - Up to 5x faster loading of PDF pages - Faster writing of backup files when running OCR - Faster opening of files Minor improvements: - Fixed a crash related to updating thumbnails - Improved thread safety - Fixed an issue with text selections sometimes appearing without a highlight color when using the Apple Pencil - Thumbnails view now reflect changes to the document live - Use Enter key as a keyboard shortcut to go to the next result when searching - Switching between viewing your notes and PDF no longer resets the zoom level - Improved animation for note deletions - Fixed a crash related to generating thumbnails for a small subset of PDF pages - Fixed a crash related to tracking of user setting updates - Remove null characters if present in the text of markup annotations - Improved jumping between search results on devices running iOS 15 or earlier - Improved Smart Copy when getting text of markup annotations - Improved handling of highlights:// links
More

2023.3.1

October 17, 2023

Major speed improvements in celebration of the release of macOS Sonoma: - Up to 5x faster conversion of image selections to images - Up to 7x faster text recognition - Up to 5x faster table recognition - Up to 5x faster loading of PDF pages - Faster writing of backup files when running OCR - Faster opening of files Minor improvements: - Fixed an issue with text selections sometimes appearing without a highlight color when using the Apple Pencil - Thumbnails view now reflect changes to the document live - Use Enter key as a keyboard shortcut to go to the next result when searching - Switching between viewing your notes and PDF no longer resets the zoom level - Improved animation for note deletions - Fixed a crash related to generating thumbnails for a small subset of PDF pages - Fixed a crash related to tracking of user setting updates - Remove null characters if present in the text of markup annotations - Improved jumping between search results on devices running iOS 15 or earlier - Improved Smart Copy when getting text of markup annotations - Improved handling of highlights:// links
More

2023.3

October 11, 2023

Major speed improvements in celebration of the release of macOS Sonoma: - Up to 5x faster conversion of image selections to images - Up to 7x faster text recognition - Up to 5x faster table recognition - Up to 5x faster loading of PDF pages - Faster writing of backup files when running OCR - Faster opening of files Minor improvements: - Thumbnails view now reflect changes to the document live - Use Enter key as a keyboard shortcut to go to the next result when searching - Switching between viewing your notes and PDF no longer resets the zoom level - Improved animation for note deletions - Fixed a crash related to generating thumbnails for a small subset of PDF pages - Fixed a crash related to tracking of user setting updates - Remove null characters if present in the text of markup annotations - Improved jumping between search results on devices running iOS 15 or earlier - Improved Smart Copy when getting text of markup annotations - Improved handling of highlights:// links
More

2023.2

September 14, 2023

The big iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 update with support for widgets and shortcuts everywhere! Scan documents faster by launching directly into document scanner from widgets on your Home Screen, Lock Screen and even StandBy. You can also run the Scan & OCR Document shortcut from the Shortcuts app, through Spotlight search or by longpressing the Highlights app icon. Actions in the Shortcuts app can also be added to the Home Screen by longpressing them. If that's not enough, you can also ask Siri to "Scan using Highlights", "Open Highlights scanner" or similar phrases. Lock Screen widgets blend seamlessly with your wallpaper and is the fastest way to scan documents on the go. On the iPad, they can be configured to appear on the left side in landscape mode or under the time in portrait mode similar to the iPhone. On the Home Screen and in Spotlight search results the action will match the orange accent color of Highlights. The document scanner will automatically perform OCR to make the PDFs searchable after scanning. The OCR is done on device. To disable OCR turn off "OCR After Scan" in Advanced Settings inside Highlights.
More

2023.1.3

September 4, 2023

Highlights can now scan and OCR documents on device and it's available to everyone for free! - Scan documents to searchable PDF files using the camera on your iPhone or iPad - Smart OCR: Live Text let’s you select text in PDFs without a text layer on the fly. Now Highlights will detect and automatically embed the Live Text in the background. PDFs without a text layer will therefore be automatically OCR'd on device when needed without you having to tap a button. Smart! - You can also manually OCR any document in the document browser from the action menu These features require iOS/iPadOS 16 or later. Smart OCR works with English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian text on hardware that supports Live Text. Minor improvements: - Resolved a bug causing the 2023.1 version to crash on launch on devices running iOS 13 - Devices without hardware support for Live Text now hide the unsupported Scan and OCR actions - Documents now show a spin indicator in the document browser while being processed for OCR - Fixed a bug where comments on annotations were not updated when the annotation popover was hidden instead of dismissed (e.g. when moving a sticky note or rotating a device) - Fixed a bug where in rare cases the document would be unnecessary reloaded while running AutoSave - Fixed a bug where null characters in annotation comments could stop annotation extraction - Added an option for Pro users to never be prompted for metadata fetches (Advanced Settings > Fetch Metadata > "Manual")
More

2023.1.2

August 28, 2023

Highlights can now scan and OCR documents on device and it's available to everyone for free! - Scan documents to searchable PDF files using the camera on your iPhone or iPad - Smart OCR: Live Text let’s you select text in PDFs without a text layer on the fly. Now Highlights will detect and automatically embed the Live Text in the background. PDFs without a text layer will therefore be automatically OCR'd on device when needed without you having to tap a button. Smart! - You can also manually OCR any document in the document browser from the action menu These features require iOS/iPadOS 16 or later. Smart OCR works with English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian text on hardware that supports Live Text. Minor improvements: - Resolved a bug causing the 2023.1 version to crash on launch on devices running iOS 13 - Devices without hardware support for Live Text now hide the unsupported Scan and OCR actions - Documents now show a spin indicator in the document browser while being processed for OCR - Fixed a bug where comments on annotations were not updated when the annotation popover was hidden instead of dismissed (e.g. when moving a sticky note or rotating a device)
More

2023.1.1

August 4, 2023

Highlights can now scan and OCR documents on device and it's available to everyone for free! - Scan documents to searchable PDF files using the camera on your iPhone or iPad - Smart OCR: Live Text let’s you select text in PDFs without a text layer on the fly. Now Highlights will detect and automatically embed the Live Text in the background. PDFs without a text layer will therefore be automatically OCR'd on device when needed without you having to tap a button. Smart! - You can also manually OCR any document in the document browser from the action menu These features require iOS/iPadOS 16 or later. Smart OCR works with English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian text on hardware that supports Live Text. Minor improvements: - Resolved a bug causing the 2023.1 version to crash on launch on devices running iOS 13 - Devices without hardware support for Live Text now hide the unsupported Scan and OCR actions - Documents now show a spin indicator in the document browser while being processed for OCR
More

2023.1

August 3, 2023

Highlights can now scan and OCR documents on device and it's available to everyone for free! - Scan documents to searchable PDF files using the camera on your iPhone or iPad - Smart OCR: Live Text let’s you select text in PDFs without a text layer on the fly. Now Highlights will detect and automatically embed the Live Text in the background. PDFs without a text layer will therefore be automatically OCR'd on device when needed without you having to tap a button. Smart! - You can also manually OCR any document in the document browser from the action menu These features require iOS/iPadOS 16 or later. Smart OCR works with English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian text on hardware that supports Live Text.
More

2022.6.3

December 21, 2022

The big iPadOS 16 update! A whole new design optimized for Stage Manager and a desktop-class experience with powerful ways to do even more: - Customizable toolbars: The center area of the toolbar is fully customizable including functionality previously only available using keyboard commands. Select "Customize Toolbar" from the bottom of the More menu to make it your own. - Document menu: The document title is always visible in the toolbar and when selected brings up the document menu with easy access to file operations including duplicate, move, rename, print and export actions. - Thumbnail sidebar: The bottom bar is gone to free up space for more content and replaced by a collapsable sidebar with larger thumbnails similar to on the Mac. - The segmented control in the center of the toolbar to control the View Mode has been replaced by a sleek button at the trailing end of the toolbar, giving space for customizable items at the center. Tap it for fast switching or long press to see the view options. - Search is now inline - A new export menu for fewer taps and a sleeker look - Settings is now available from the top of the More menu at all times - New edit menus and text selection popovers with support for light and dark mode - Improved support for keyboard/pointer navigation - Added a Help menu inside the More menu - Lots of minor UI tweaks In iPadOS 16 you can also collaborate on PDF documents via iCloud links. Just share the document and select Collaborate instead of Send Copy. The documents show up in the new Shared-tab in the document browser. Tapping on the "Shared with You"-button below the document in the document browser will take you directly to the conversation where the document was shared in Messages or Mail. Minor improvements: - Added some missing accessibility labels - The thumbnail selection now only changes in the currently selected window when changing the page with multiple Highlights windows open - Removed keyboard shortcut for toggling the sidebar on pre iOS 16 releases - Fixed a crash caused by popover presentation when quickly switching between annotations
More

Highlights In-App Purchases History

$3.99

Highlights Pro: Monthly

Monthly Subscription to Highlights Pro

$29.99

Highlights Pro

Convert PDF Annotations into Notes and Export

$29.99

Highlights Pro: Legacy Upgrade

Yearly Subscription to Highlights Pro

Price History of Highlights

Description of Highlights

"... an app that students, academics, and anyone who does substantial amounts of PDF-based research should try" - Macstories.net "It’s the novel approach to PDF annotation that makes this app a cut above the rest"- TapSmart.com *** "App of the Day" - App Store, US *** USE HIGHLIGHTS FOR FREE Highlights is a fast and lightweight PDF reader (under 10MB) packed with features to help you do your best research. Free users have access to standard PDF reader features including document browsing, reading and annotating. There are NO ADS, time limits or tracking. READ PDF DOCUMENTS • Open PDF documents from anywhere • Browse files using the familiar document browser • Open PDFs in Single Page or Two Page scroll mode • Double tap to Smart Zoom in on a paragraph or figure • Scrub smoothly to the desired page • Search the entire document in an instant • Navigate using any connected keyboard or mouse STORE YOUR FILES WHERE YOU WANT • Full support for "Open In Place" lets you make edits to the file where it is • Access your files from iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box using the document browser • Or keep them privately on device only HIGHLIGHT AND ANNOTATE FASTER • Select text with your finger, Apple Pencil or mouse pointer • Highlight, underline, strikethrough text and make image selections • Add comments to annotations or as individual sticky notes • Annotate with fewer taps using context aware popovers • Default annotation colors prevents you from having to repeatedly setting the color for the same type of annotation every time TURN ANNOTATIONS INTO NOTES • As you markup text and images the contents are extracted and sorted into notes • Customize the formatting and contents of your notes • Sort the annotations chronologically or create your own color coding EXTRACT TABLE DATA AND RECOGNIZE TEXT • Convert images containing text or tables to actual text and tables using machine learning - letting you get to the underlying data with a single tap SMART COPY Copy annotations to the desired format with one tap: • Text markup as text • Image selections as images • Tables as CSV • Citations as BibTex LOOKUP CITATIONS • Highlights will fetch DOI-links and metadata • Markup any reference and tap the link icon to look it up • If you have read the work already or have it in your reference manager library, Highlights will link you to it EXPORT ANYWHERE • Save or share your notes as portable files: Markdown, TextBundle, HTML, WebArchive or PDF • Share them to your favorite notes app: Apple Notes, Bear, Craft, Evernote, DEVONThink, Keep It, MindNode, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research or Ulysses • Or send them to a colleague via mail. It's your notes, you decide where they go MUCH MORE • Dark mode • Multi-window support on iPadOS • Keyboard shortcuts and navigation • Support for system Copy and Undo gestures • Alternative app icons • Custom accent colors • Apple Pencil double-tap gestures • Power annotation tools For a full list of features see: highlightsapp.net/features HIGHLIGHTS PRO The Highlights Pro subscription unlocks advanced features on your iPhone, iPad and Mac: • Export options for other apps and easily editable formats • Extract information using table and text recognition • Customize accent colors and alternative app icons • Power annotation tools • Citation lookups • Smart Copy Highlights Pro includes a 14-day free trial. You can cancel your subscription at any time. The subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off within 24-hour prior to the end of of the current period. Payments will be charged to your iTunes account and your account will be charged within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription. For more information about Highlights Pro: highlightsapp.net/pro Privacy Policy: highlightsapp.net/privacy Terms: highlightsapp.net/terms
Show less

Highlights: FAQ

Is Highlights available on iPad devices?

Yes, there is an iPad version available for Highlights.
Highlights was released by Jonas Myren Ribe.
The minimum supported iOS version for the Highlights app is iOS 13.4.
4.5 out of 5 is the fantastic rating that Highlights has received from users.
The App Category Of Highlights Is Productivity.
The current version of Highlights is 2023.3.3.
Highlights updated on June 30, 2024.
The specific date when the app came out was February 5, 2023.
No objectionable content, suitable for young children.
Currently, Highlights supports English.
Sorry, Highlights is not part of Apple Arcade.
Certainly! Highlights contains in-app purchases for users.
Sorry, Highlights is not designed for integration with Apple Vision Pro.

ASO: Keywords of Highlights

Video & Screenshots of Highlights

iphone
ipad

Alternatives to Highlights

Reviews of Highlights

  • Too few features in free version

    Apple files/preview/notes already does nearly everything this app does. For me to use your app on a regular basis, even if free, it has to provide some additional functionality over what the free Apple apps do. I was disappointed that export annotations is not available in the free version. You can export by using print and save to PDF. In short, there is no value add over Apple’s free apps, therefore, no incentive for me to use it, like it and reward the developer by upgrading to the pro version. With everyone vying for subscriptions rather than straight up selling an app the old way, you got to give me something of value before I break out my wallet. Thanks.
  • Want to like, but bugs, missing features, little developer support

    I really want to like this app and use it. I love its highlighter feature. It's very convenient to markup passages. I haven't found another PDF viewer with a similar approach, which motivated me to subscribe to the app.

    But the app has let me down one to many times, and it seems the app doesn't get regular support from the developer. Today, I was trying to use the find command to search for a word and the textbox to type in the word disappeared and could not be summoned with either the keyboard shortcut or the menu bar item. This has happened twice the last three days. The app doesn't allow you to rotate pages, which is useful for better viewing tables in research articles. I have to use Preview to do this.

    I have reached out to the developer before, but never received a reply, and missing essential features are not included in the infrequent updates.

    Again, I wanted to like the app. But today I have decided to discontinue my subscription.
  • So close, but a few critical bugs

    Desktop version is much more stable, but on iPad my initial text selection highlight is invisible so I can’t see what is going to be highlighted. It’s a major bug that makes it unusable on iPad. Similar comments to others that it has issues highlighting text across page breaks and will sometimes capture footnotes and page numbers. Additionally, when the annotations are ordered by color, I can’t click on them to jump to the highlight, which is the primary way I organize my notes. This is so close, but a few major bugs or missing features that make it incomplete. It’s such a great concept, and I paid for pro, but unfortunately after close to 6 months there have been few noticeable improvements.