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Import PDF Annotations from Acrobat & Other Apps ​

If a PDF already contains highlights — made in Adobe Acrobat, macOS Preview, or any other standard PDF editor — Web Highlights can import them as regular highlights, with colors and notes preserved. Your existing annotation work carries over instead of starting from zero. This guide is part of the PDF Highlighter docs.

Import on First Open ​

Open the PDF in the Web Highlights viewer. When the viewer finds highlight annotations in the file, a callout appears: "Found N highlights in this PDF". Click Import and:

  • The highlights appear on the page and in the sidebar, just like highlights you made yourself
  • Colors are preserved
  • Notes are imported as plain text and attached as highlight notes
  • A bookmark is created for the PDF if you had none yet

Annotated PDFs often live on your computer

To open local files in the viewer, enable the "Allow access to file URLs" permission first — see Highlight local PDF files.

Supported Annotation Types ​

The import is standards-based, so it works with files from all common PDF editors — not just Acrobat. These text-markup annotation types are imported:

  • Highlight
  • Underline
  • Strikeout
  • Squiggly (wavy underline)

The marked text must be selectable in the PDF. Annotations on scanned, image-only pages cannot be imported, and other annotation types — sticky notes, drawings, links, form fields — are skipped.

Reopening Never Duplicates ​

The import is safe to repeat:

  • Reopen the same PDF and nothing is imported twice — no callout appears for unchanged content
  • Delete an imported highlight and it stays deleted when you reopen the file, even though the annotation is still inside the PDF
  • PDFs you downloaded from Web Highlights are recognized — your own embedded highlights are never offered for import

Sync External Edits ​

You can keep annotating the file in other apps. When the file has changed and you reopen it, the viewer summarizes what is new — "N new, M updated" — and offers an Update:

  • New annotations in the file are imported
  • Notes or colors you changed in the other app update your matching highlights
  • If you edited the same highlight in Web Highlights since the last sync, your version wins — the callout reports the conflict
  • Annotations deleted from the file never delete your highlights — deletions are not synced, so your library is always safe

Next Steps ​

Common Questions ​

Which apps can I import annotations from?

Any app that writes standard PDF text-markup annotations — Adobe Acrobat, macOS Preview, Microsoft Edge, and most other PDF editors. The import reads the PDF standard's annotation format, not a vendor-specific one.

Are my notes imported too?

Yes. Notes attached to the annotations are imported as plain text — rich formatting from the source app is not preserved.

Does importing change my PDF file?

No. The import only reads the file's annotations and saves them as highlights in your Web Highlights account. The file itself is not modified.

What if I delete a highlight from the PDF in another app?

Your Web Highlights highlight is kept. Deletions in the file are never applied to your library — only new and updated annotations are offered on reopen.