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Dohn344164721n7v
Participating Frequently
April 20, 2026
Answered

Highlight Tool doesn’t work on PDFs created using Print to PDF

  • April 20, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 40 views

Hi Community. Having a problem with Acrobat Reader. Just downloaded Acrobat Reader recently. The "Highlight selected text" tool does not work. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed this problem? Thanks.

Tried 2 different PDF files.  Doesn’t work for me.  Thanks Community.

 

[Title and OP edited by Community Manager]

    Correct answer Anand Sri Bhattacharya

    @Dohn344164721n7v Thank you for sharing the details.

     

    This behavior is not specific to Edge, it's the way "Microsoft Print to PDF" creates PDF files. When you use the Print dialog to generate a PDF (via Microsoft Print to PDF), the output is rendered as a flattened image of the page.

    The Highlight Text tool can only highlight "real" text. If a document is scanned or text was converted to outlines/images, you cannot use the highlight tool. 

    In contrast, when you use Save / Save As > PDF (or Edge's native "Save as PDF" option), the file retains its underlying text structure, which is why highlighting works normally in that case.


    When printing from Edge, look in the printer list for "Save to PDF", using this instead of "Microsoft Print to PDF" will allow you to select and highlight text when viewing the PDF.

     

    Please note that this is a limitation of Microsoft Print to PDF; it renders pages as images, stripping out real text. Using Save as PDF is the correct workaround.

     

    I hope this helps.

    Thanks,

    Anand Sri.

    1 reply

    D
    Dohn344164721n7vAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    April 21, 2026

    Update.

    This problem seems to occur in Acrobat Reader when the Print PDF file window is used.  This problem apparently is not occurring in Microsoft Edge when Print is used to create the PDF file.

    When Print is used to create a PDF file, the Highlight tool in Acrobat Reader does not work.  When Save/Save As is used to create a PDF file, the Highlight tool in Acrobat Reader does work.

    I have reported this issue (bug?) to Microsoft via the Feedback Hub.

    FYI Community.

    Anand Sri Bhattacharya
    Community Manager
    Anand Sri BhattacharyaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 23, 2026

    Hello ​@Dohn344164721n7v 

     

    I hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out and sharing detailed information.

    Please note that this behavior is expected and comes down to how the PDF was created, not an issue with Acrobat Reader itself.

     

    When a PDF is created using Print to PDF (for example, Microsoft Print to PDF), the file is often flattened or image‑based and may not contain a proper text layer. In those cases, Acrobat Reader can’t recognize selectable text, so tools like Highlight, Select, or Copy won’t work.

     

    When you use Save / Save As / Export to PDF, the original text layer is preserved, so highlighting works as expected.

     

    Suggestions:

    • Create PDFs using Save As or Export to PDF instead of Print whenever you need highlighting
    • If the PDF is already created via Print, you’ll need Acrobat Pro to run OCR (Scan & OCR > Recognize Text) to add a searchable text layer

    For reference, you can refer to these articles:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/in/acrobat/desktop/create-documents/create-pdfs/create-pdf-scratch.html

    https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/create-documents/scan-documents-to-pdfs/recognize-text.html

    https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/accessibility-features-pdfs.html

     

    I hope this helps, and please reach out if you experience any issues.

    Regards,

    Anand Sri.

     

    D
    Dohn344164721n7vAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    April 23, 2026

    Hi Anand.  Thanks for the reply.

    This problem started to occur just recently.  Before, the Print PDF file window always worked just fine.  No issues with it.

    Yes.  In the future, I will use Save/Save As to create the PDF file to avoid this new problem with the Print PDF file window.

    FYI.

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