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I am new to MacOS coming from Windows. I have an issue with PDF files that I highlighted with the app Drawboard PDF on my Surface Go when I display them with Preview. The highlight appears completely opaque, hiding the text.

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This was not the case with Adobe in Windows and neither it is when I open the file with Adobe Reader, PDF Reader X or the Edge PDF viewer on my MacBook.

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Any guess how I can make Preview display the highlight properly?

Edit: Please check also a sample of the original PDF file. Yellow highlighting is set to a 100% stroke opacity, whereas the blue one has 50%. The latter is displayed properly with Preview, it is the former the one hiding the text (not the case with other PDF readers on Mac, also the Drive PDF viewer with Safari). Sure, all I have to do in the future is to reduce the opacity of the yellow marker, but my main problem is that I have dozens of PDF files highlighted with those settings.

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  • 2
    To help diagnose the problem, a link to a sample PDF with this issue would be helpful. And are you using the current version of macOS?
    – Gilby
    Commented Aug 16 at 5:54
  • I can't reproduce issue using Drawboard PDF for Mac (v2.8.0) to highlight text, then saving and opening in Preview. This is for macOS 14.6.1
    – Gilby
    Commented Aug 16 at 6:05
  • Also can't reproduce when highlighting in iOS version.
    – Gilby
    Commented Aug 16 at 6:14
  • I use Drawboard PDF in my Windows Surface Go. As requested, I have added a sample of the original PDF file and added some extra data about the stroke opacity I have for that marker.
    – Minkowski
    Commented Aug 16 at 15:43
  • Confirm issue with "free form" highlighter (but not text highlighter) with Drawboard PDF opacity set to 100%.
    – Gilby
    Commented Aug 17 at 0:05

1 Answer 1

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This is from my experimentation with Drawboard PDF (free version).

Drawboard PDF allows variable opacity highlights. Many PDF readers (e.g. Preview, Skim) do not allow variable opacity highlights. They are also restricted to creating highlights of text - they do have the "free form" highlights as used in the OP's sample PDF.

PDF readers vary in how they render highlights. Text highlights (even with 100% opacity) allow the text to show through - as expected.

100% opacity "free form" highlights from Drawboard PDF give varying results amongst PDF readers and as to whether the source is Windows or Apple (iOS and macOS).

My experiments with a variety of Mac apps using Drawboard PDF files:

Preview and Nitro PDF Pro and PDF Expert: "Free form" highlights created in Drawboard PDF (Windows, iOS, Mac versions) seem to be applied over the PDF text and with 100% opacity completely obscure the text. This is the issue is shown in the OP's sample file.

Skim: "Free form" 100% opacity highlights created with Drawboard PDF for Windows (as in the sample) also show the issue. But similar highlights created in Drawboard PDF for Mac and iOS do not!

Drawboard PDF for Mac: Unsurprisingly, this renders the 100% opacity highlights without obscuring the text.

macOS QuickLook behaves like Preview - the text is obscured. But Finder's Get Info allows the text to show through the 100% highlight. This is a surprising inconsistency.

Amongst browsers, Safari behaves like Skim - obscures 100% highlights created in Drawboard PDF for Windows (but not the Mac version), Brave and Firefox both allow the text to be seen.

Notability is a well regarded iOS and Mac note taking app using its own format to store notes. It is able to import 100% highlighted PDFs from Drawboard PDF for Windows and export to new PDFs which are rendered correctly in Preview.

As resolutions I suggest:

  1. Use Drawboard PDF for Mac to view and edit PDFs created with Drawboard PDF for Windows.
  2. Use a browser - Firefox and Brave render highlights correctly (I assume Chrome does too).
  3. Use an app (e.g. Notability) which can import your PDFs correctly and export them to new PDFs which are then usable with Preview.
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