How to Highlight Images and Fill Shapes with Color in Adobe Acrobat
Question details
The user needs to highlight images or specific non-text areas within a PDF and apply color fills to drawing markup shapes like rectangles and circles.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Marking up a PDF document that contains images, charts, or diagrams where the standard text highlight tool does not work, and customizing the appearance of inserted shapes.
- Observed behavior
- The standard highlight tool only snaps to selectable text, preventing the user from marking up images. Additionally, inserted shapes appear as empty outlines without a solid fill color.
Ensure your PDF document is not secured with restrictions that prevent commenting or editing. You will need access to the Comment and Markup toolbars to complete these actions.
Use Freeform Mode to Highlight Images
Bypass the standard text-snapping behavior of the Highlight tool by activating freeform mode, allowing you to highlight any area, including images.
By default, the Adobe Acrobat Highlight tool is designed to recognize and snap to selectable text. When dealing with scanned documents or images, you must temporarily switch the tool to freeform mode.
Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro, go to the 'Comment' pane on the right side, and select the 'Highlight text' tool from the toolbar.
Press and hold the 'Ctrl' key (Windows) or 'Command' key (Mac) on your keyboard.
While holding the key, click and drag your cursor over the image or non-text area you want to highlight. Release the mouse button to apply the highlight.
Add Fill Color to Drawing Markup Shapes
Customize shapes like squares and circles by modifying their properties to include a solid fill color.
Highlight Any Area and Fill Shapes Easily with WPS PDF
WPS Office provides a dedicated 'Area Highlight' tool, eliminating the need for keyboard shortcuts when marking up images. It also features an intuitive interface for drawing and coloring shapes, making PDF annotation seamless.
- 1. Open your PDF in WPS Office: Launch WPS Office and open your PDF document using the WPS PDF editor.
- 2. Use the Area Highlight Tool: Navigate to the 'Comment' tab. Instead of the standard text highlight, select the 'Area Highlight' tool and simply drag a box over any image or blank space.
- 3. Insert and Fill Shapes: Still in the 'Comment' tab, click 'Shapes' to draw a rectangle or circle. Once drawn, select the shape and use the pop-up quick menu to instantly change both the border and fill colors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I highlight text in my PDF document?
If you cannot highlight text normally, your PDF is likely a scanned image rather than a text-based document. You can either use the freeform/area highlight method to manually draw highlights over the image, or perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to convert the scanned image into selectable text.
How do I remove the default fill color from a shape in Acrobat?
Draw the shape, right-click its border, and select 'Properties'. In the Appearance tab, click the 'Fill Color' box and select 'No Color' (usually represented by a white box with a red diagonal line). Check 'Make Properties Default' and click OK.
Does WPS Office support highlighting images in PDFs?
Yes. WPS PDF features a dedicated 'Area Highlight' tool located under the Comment tab. This tool allows you to draw a highlighted rectangular box over any area of the page, including images, charts, and scanned text, without needing to hold down any modifier keys.
