Multiple Color Highlighting
Web Highlights offers a variety of pre-defined colors, including beautiful pastel shades inspired by the famous Stabilo highlighters.
However, Web Highlights is not limited to these colors; you can create your own custom colors. In this guide, we will teach you everything you need to know to change your default color and add more colors.
How to Change Default Color?
The default highlight color is applied if you click the popup marker directly, or when using keyboard shortcuts or right-click to highlight.
There are two ways to change the default color:
Change Default Color from Highlighter Popup:
- Highlight some text.
- Hover over the color you wish to be your new default color.
- Click the star icon that shows up.
Change Default Color from Settings:
- Open the sidebar.
- Go to "Settings".
- Click the color palette icon under Default Highlight Color.
How to Add More Colors?
You can add an unlimited number of colors to your highlight palette. To add more colors:
- Highlight some text.
- Hover over the marker icon.
- Click the plus icon in the color selector.
- Choose a color from the color wheel.
- Close the color picker by clicking anywhere outside the color picker.
How to Use Colors Effectively
Colors work best when you assign consistent meaning to each one. Here are common systems:
- By importance — Yellow for key points, green for supporting evidence, red for things to question
- By source type — Blue for primary sources, orange for secondary, pink for your own ideas
- By project — One color per project or course to visually separate research streams
- By action — Green for "done," yellow for "revisit later," red for "needs follow-up"
Combine Colors with Tags
Colors give you instant visual categorization when scanning a page. Tags add a second, searchable layer of organization. Use both together: color for quick visual scanning, tags for structured retrieval in the web app.
Filter by Color
In the web app, you can filter your highlights by color using the filter bar. This is useful for reviewing all highlights of a specific type across your entire library — for example, seeing every "key point" (yellow) highlight from the past month.
Ultimate feature
Color filtering in the web app is an Ultimate feature. Compare plans →
Plan Availability
Multiple color highlighting is available on all plans. Color-based filtering in the web app requires Ultimate.
Common Questions
How many colors can I have?
There is no limit. You can add as many custom colors as you need using the color picker.
Are my colors synced across devices?
Yes. Your color palette and highlight colors are synced through your Web Highlights account, so they appear the same on every device.
Can I change the color of an existing highlight?
Yes. Click on any highlight to open the popup, then select a different color from the palette.