How to Change Text Color in a PDF — Highlight or Recolor Text
Change text color in a PDF to highlight important sections or recolor for accessibility and presentation. Free browser tool.
Change text colour in a PDF — highlight key passages, recolour headings, or add coloured overlays for accessibility. FixMyPDF's Edit PDF tool lets you add coloured text and annotations free in your browser.
What "Changing Text Color" Actually Means in PDFs
True text recolouring (changing the colour of existing characters) requires editing the underlying PDF text objects — only full PDF editors like Acrobat Pro can do this. What most users actually need is adding coloured text boxes, highlights, or coloured annotations on top of existing text — which is achievable with free tools.
Method 1: Add Coloured Text Boxes
Open fixmypdf.in/tools/edit-pdf. Upload your PDF. Select the Text tool. Choose your text colour from the colour picker. Click on the page and type. Position the coloured text over or near the original text. Download. Effective for adding coloured labels, captions, or corrections.
Method 2: Highlight With Annotation Colours
Use Annotate PDF to apply colour highlights to existing text. Drag over text with the highlight tool in yellow, green, orange, or custom colours. This changes the visual presentation of text without modifying the underlying characters.
Recolouring for Accessibility
High contrast colour combinations aid readability for users with visual impairments. Add a coloured text box with white text over dark sections, or use red/green highlights (be mindful of colour-blindness — use blue and orange instead of red and green for colourblind-accessible designs).
Recolouring Headings in a PDF
If a PDF has plain black headings you want to make more visually prominent, add a coloured text box in your brand colour directly over each heading. The visual result is coloured headings, though the original black text remains in the underlying layer.
LibreOffice Draw for True Recolouring
For genuine text colour changes (not overlays), LibreOffice Draw (free) can open PDFs, double-click into text elements, select characters, and change their colour directly. Export back to PDF. This is the best free desktop option for true recolouring.
Privacy
FixMyPDF processes locally in your browser. No PDF content is transmitted. Works on all platforms with a modern browser.
Try Edit PDF Now — Free
Browser-based, private, and instant. No account or software required.
Open Edit PDF