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PDF Highlight Extractor

Turn PDF highlights into structured notes, summaries, and research workflows.

Drop your PDF here

Securely extract highlights and comments in seconds.

How to Extract Highlights from a PDF

1. Upload

Drag and drop your annotated PDF into our secure local parser.

2. Filter

Instantly view and filter your extracted highlights by color or author.

3. Export

One-click copy or download as Markdown, CSV, Text, Obsidian, or Notion blocks.

Export PDF Highlights to Any Format

Export PDF Highlights to Markdown

Perfect for Obsidian, Logseq, and plain-text note taking.

Export PDF Highlights to CSV / Excel

Analyze your literature review, citations, and highlights in Excel or Google Sheets.

Export PDF Highlights to Notion

Import annotations seamlessly into your Notion database matrices and reading dashboards.

Export PDF Highlights to Plain Text

Create lightweight, unformatted archives that work everywhere.

Export PDF Highlights to Obsidian

Generate native Obsidian Callout blocks with color-coded highlights and page references automatically.

Export PDF Highlights to JSON

Download structured highlight data as JSON for custom integrations, APIs, or developer workflows.

Example Output (Obsidian & Markdown)

# Source: research_paper.pdf


> [!quote] Page 12 · Highlight

"The proposed local-first extraction preserves all privacy..."

*Annotated by Dr. Alice*

All files are processed locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
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Professional PDF Extraction

Designed for Accuracy

Our local-first engine ensures your annotations are extracted with 100% precision while keeping your documents private.

  • Preserves text formatting and colors
  • Maintains document structure
  • Supports rich-text comments and replies
  • Works offline in your browser

PDF Highlight Extractor

Stop Manual Copy-Pasting Forever

We've all been there: you finish reading a groundbreaking book or a dense academic paper, and your highlights are scattered across hundreds of pages. Re-reading the whole document to find them is inefficient.

Our PDF Highlight Extractor solves this by aggregating every highlighted passage into a single, structured document. It preserves the color coding (e.g., Yellow for main ideas, Blue for supporting evidence), allowing you to maintain the semantic meaning of your notes.

Ideal for Research and Study

  • Students: Quickly summarize textbooks for exam prep. Turn a 300-page book into a 5-page cheat sheet.
  • Researchers: Collect quotes and citations for your thesis or literature review. Export to CSV to manage qualitative coding.
  • Kindle Users: Clean up the messy PDF exports from your e-reader and import them into your digital brain.

Don't let your reading effort go to waste. Extract your highlights and make them actionable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about our privacy-first tool.

Simply drag and drop your PDF into the upload area above. Our local-first tool instantly extracts your highlighted text, colors, and comments, allowing you to copy them to your clipboard or download them as formatted files.
Yes. You can copy or download your highlights as Markdown (.md) files. Our Template Designer lets you customize variables (like {{content}} and {{page}}) to generate native, color-coded Obsidian Callout blocks directly.
Yes. Select the CSV format to download or copy a structured spreadsheet compatible with Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or Airtable, fully preserving your page numbers, highlight colors, and comment metadata.
Yes. We capture the RGB color values, allowing you to filter or categorize notes (e.g., 'Only show Red highlights').
The PDF must have a selectable text layer (OCR). If it's just an image, you'll need to OCR it first.
Absolutely. Every extracted highlight is tagged with its original page number, ensuring you can always find the context in the source document.
No. Our local-first engine can process documents with thousands of highlights in seconds. The only limit is your device's memory.
Yes. Our workspace features a built-in toolbar where you can toggle specific colors or annotation types to customize your final export.
Yes. We use WebAssembly to process everything locally. Your PDFs and their highlights never leave your computer.

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