How to Use Different Font Colors in One Adobe Acrobat Text Comment
Question details
The user wants to apply multiple, different font colors to individual words within a single text comment box in Adobe Acrobat.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Annotating or adding text comments to a PDF document where specific words need to be highlighted or styled in contrasting colors within the same sentence.
- Observed behavior
- Adobe Acrobat forces a uniform font color for the entire text comment and does not natively support mixing different text colors inside a single comment box.
Keep in mind that Adobe Acrobat's native comment tools are designed for simple annotations and only support one text color per comment box. The method below is a manual workaround that requires creating and aligning separate text objects.
Use Overlaid Text Objects as a Workaround
Since you cannot change the color of individual words in a single comment, you can create separate text comments and layer them over each other to achieve the desired look.
This method involves typing your main sentence with blank spaces, then creating a second text box with the differently colored word to place precisely over the gap. Using a monospaced font like Courier can make this alignment much easier because every character takes up the exact same width.
Select the Add Text Comment tool and type your main sentence in your primary color (for example, blue). Leave several blank spaces where you want the differently colored word to appear.
Highlight your text and change the font to a monospaced option, such as Courier. This ensures the spacing remains consistent and makes it much easier to match the overlay later.
Click elsewhere on the PDF document to start a completely new text comment. Type the specific word you want to highlight and change its font color to your desired secondary color (for example, red).
Click and drag the newly created colored text box, carefully positioning it over the blank spaces you left in the original base text comment.
Edit PDF Text Colors Easily with WPS Office
Instead of relying on manual workarounds for comments, you can use WPS PDF to directly edit the actual PDF text. This allows you to easily customize font colors, sizes, and styles for individual words seamlessly.
- 1. Open your PDF: Launch WPS Office and open your PDF document using the built-in WPS PDF tool.
- 2. Enter Edit Mode: Navigate to the 'Edit' tab at the top of the screen and click on 'Edit Text' to make the document text interactive.
- 3. Select the specific text: Click inside the text block and highlight the specific word or phrase you want to modify.
- 4. Change the font color: Use the floating text formatting toolbar to apply a different font color to the selected text instantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Adobe Acrobat only allow one font color per comment?
Acrobat's standard comment and annotation tools are designed according to basic PDF specifications, which treat simple text boxes as a single entity with uniform formatting. This is done to maintain file simplicity and ensure broad compatibility across all PDF readers.
Can I use different colors when editing actual PDF text in Acrobat?
Yes. If you use the 'Edit PDF' tool rather than the 'Comment' tool, you can select individual words within the existing document text and change their font color natively, provided the document is not restricted.
Is there a specific font that makes the overlaid text workaround easier?
Yes, monospaced fonts like Courier or Consolas are highly recommended for this workaround. Because every character and space takes up the exact same width, aligning the overlaid colored text into the blank spaces is significantly easier than with proportional fonts.
Does this overlaid text workaround affect PDF printing?
No. As long as the text boxes are aligned properly on your screen, both the base text comment and the overlaid colored comment will print exactly as they visually appear on the document.
