Yes — highlighting text in a PDF is one of the most widely supported annotation features available outside of Acrobat. Every major free PDF viewer and most browser-based tools include it. The options depend on what device you're using and whether you want the highlights saved in the PDF or just visible while you're reading.
On Mac: Preview
Preview, built into every Mac, has a full highlighting tool. Open the PDF in Preview, click the markup toolbar button (the pen tip icon), and select the highlight tool. Click and drag over text to highlight it. You can change the highlight color by clicking the arrow next to the highlight tool — yellow, green, pink, and blue are available.
Highlights saved in Preview are standard PDF annotations that open correctly in any other PDF viewer. When you share the highlighted PDF, the recipient sees your highlights as they would in any other annotated document.
On Windows: Edge and Others
Microsoft Edge's built-in PDF viewer includes a highlight tool directly in the toolbar — select text and the highlight option appears, or use the draw tools for freeform annotation. This is built into Windows 11 and recent Windows 10 updates, requiring no additional installation.
Adobe Reader (the free version, not Acrobat) also supports highlighting through the Comment toolbar. It's worth noting that Reader is free — it's only Acrobat Pro that requires a paid subscription. If you already have Reader installed, highlighting is already available at no cost.
In a Browser
Chrome's built-in PDF viewer added basic annotation support in recent versions. For more complete browser-based highlighting, a browser-based PDF Editor handles it without installation: upload the PDF, use the highlight tool, download the annotated version. This works on any browser and any operating system.
The browser approach is useful on shared or locked-down computers where you can't install software. Open the tool in any browser tab, annotate, and download — no traces left on the device beyond the downloaded file.
On iPhone and iPad
iOS's built-in Markup tool supports PDF highlighting. Open the PDF in Files, tap the pen icon to enter Markup mode, select the highlight tool from the toolbar at the bottom, and drag across text. The highlight color can be changed by tapping and holding the highlight tool.
One limitation on iOS: Markup requires the PDF to have a real text layer. If the PDF is a scan without OCR, Markup can't highlight the text because there's no selectable text — you can only draw freeform lines over the image. Running OCR first through a tool like WukongPDF makes the text selectable and therefore highlightable.
On Android
Android doesn't have a universal built-in PDF viewer the way iOS does — behavior varies by manufacturer. Samsung devices include a capable PDF viewer with annotation tools. Google's Files app opens PDFs but has limited annotation support. Adobe Reader (free) is the most consistent option across Android devices and includes highlighting.
Making Sure Highlights Are Saved in the PDF
The distinction between highlights that are embedded in the PDF and highlights that only exist in the viewer's memory matters when sharing. In Preview on Mac, use File → Export as PDF (not just Save) to ensure annotations are embedded in the exported file. In Edge, save the PDF after annotating. In browser tools, download the annotated version after adding highlights.
A PDF with embedded highlights opens with those highlights visible in any other viewer. A PDF where the highlights are only in one viewer's memory shows up as a clean, unannotated document everywhere else. Always verify by opening the saved file in a different viewer before sharing it with someone who needs to see your annotations.