Highlights: PDF Reader & Notes

Highlights: PDF Reader & Notes

Edit Research Documents/Books

1.6K ratings
464 reviews
Free
In-App Purchases

Details

  • Released
  • Updated
  • April 10, 2020
  • July 4, 2026

Features

Highlights: PDF Reader & Notes video #1 for iPhone
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Highlights: PDF Reader & Notes screenshot #10 for iPhone
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About

This app is a fast and lightweight PDF reader designed for research. It allows users to read, highlight, and annotate documents, and then extract this information into organized notes. Advanced features include table data extraction, text recognition, and smart copying of annotations into various formats.

Read and browse PDF documents
Highlight, underline, and strikethrough text
Add comments and sticky notes
Extract annotations into organized notes
Convert table data and recognize text
Smart copy annotations to various formats (CSV, BibTex)
Lookup citation metadata and DOI links
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What users say

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What's New in Highlights

2026.1.4

July 4, 2026

Dark appearance for PDFs! Smart content handling gives your PDFs light text on a dark background without changing images and annotations. This can reduce eye strain and improve readability in dark environments while conserving battery life. To try it out: open a PDF document and go to Settings from the More menu in the top right corner, then set Auto Dark as your Appearance. The setting is also available in the menu bar on iPad under View. The Auto Dark setting will automatically match the PDF appearance to the system appearance. No more glaring white pages in Dark Mode! The new dark appearance for PDFs requires a device running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 set to Dark Mode. Minor improvements: - Fixed a potential crash when generating thumbnails - Fixed an issue with quoted text in markdown exports containing line breaks - Tweaked onboarding animation transitions and colors - New onboarding flow

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Subscription plans

Highlights Pro

Convert PDF Annotations into Notes and Export

$29.991 Year
14 Days trial
How to cancel Highlights subscription ⁉️

Events

Read more about Dark PDF Appearance

Dark PDF Appearance

No more glaring white pages in Dark mode!

Mar 25, 2026 Apr 25, 2026

Read more about Black Friday

Black Friday

Get the best deal of the year on Highlights Pro

Nov 25, 2024 Dec 3, 2024

User reviews

my because benefit

Greetings

Last update killed it on Monterey

Been using this for 2-4 years now due to black modeI Si verion check done, dev may have forgotten to fill that, result Poof, Nothing. Doesn't open on Monteray 12.7.6 no warning no nothing.

Why is there a subscription?

Okay so the app does what it is supposed to do. I can’t stand the UI. It’s literally just the Apple file system. I would like to organize my notes separately from… everything else on my computer. I guess I need the mental separation. Also, I don’t understand why there is a subscription for this app. It feels greedy. I’m not asking it to do anything extravagant, just highlight my pdfs. Won’t be renewing.
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Super application, mais qui bogue souvent

Très pratique, très facile à utiliser. Malheureusement l’application bogue souvent; Soit l’écran gèle pour un temps, soit le document ferme soudainement, soit il n’est plus possible d’interagir avec l’écran, etc…

Unacceptably complicated for form completion

I cannot use Highlights for submitting forms.

Featured on

User experience

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Reported Bugs

5 issues

Highlights and annotations randomly disappearing

Bug

Text selection issues, especially with footnotes

Bug

Compatibility problems with certain PDF files

Bug

Syncing issues across devices

Bug

Export functionality not working as expected

Bug

Requested Features

5 requests

Add handwriting and freeform annotation support

Feature

Implement a table of contents or bookmarking feature

Feature

Allow editing of notes directly in the app

Feature

Provide a one-time purchase option instead of subscription

Feature

Improve search capabilities with visual results and navigation

Feature

FAQ

What does the Highlights app do?

Highlights is a PDF reader designed for research. It allows you to read, browse, and annotate PDF documents with various tools like highlighting, underlining, and strikethrough. It also extracts your annotations into organized notes and can convert table data and recognize text within PDFs.

What are the key features of this PDF reader?

Key features include reading and browsing PDFs, annotating text and images, adding comments, extracting annotations into notes, converting table data to CSV, recognizing text from images, and smart copying of annotations into formats like BibTex for citations.

Is this app free to use?

The app offers a free version with standard PDF reader features, including document browsing, reading, and annotating. There are no ads, time limits, or tracking for free users. Advanced features may require a purchase or subscription.

What devices is Highlights compatible with?

The app is designed for mobile devices and supports features like multi-window on iPadOS, suggesting compatibility with iOS and iPadOS. It also integrates with cloud storage services like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

How can I use this app for my research?

You can use this app to read research papers, highlight key information, add your thoughts as annotations or sticky notes, and then easily extract these annotations into formatted notes. The ability to convert tables and recognize text is also invaluable for data analysis from PDFs.