Be nice, highlight.
Highlight text on web pages and share the link
Two free tools that need no account and keep nothing: a generator that turns an address and a sentence into a link that opens the page with that sentence highlighted, and a bookmarklet that does it from the page you are reading. Around them, plain guides on highlighting for reading, sharing, study and keeping a record of what you read.
Paste the address and the sentence, press the button, copy the link. The extra options and the fixes for links that stop matching are on the generator's own page, and the one-click bookmarklet does the same from the page you are reading.
Guides and reference
Guides
How to Link to Highlighted Text on Any Page
A link to highlighted text opens a page, scrolls to a passage and marks it in colour.
Record
How to Annotate a Text So Your Marks Become a Record
Annotation is reading with a pen in your hand.
Record
How to Cite a Quote So a Reader Can Check It
A citation is a promise that the words are real and that a reader can find them.
Guides
How to Highlight Text on a Web Page
You can highlight text on a web page without installing anything, and you can make that highlight travel inside a link so the next reader sees it too.
Record
A Source Verification Workflow Built on Highlights
Fact checking is not a feeling of confidence.
Study
Does Highlighting Help You Learn?
Highlighting is the most popular study technique and one of the least effective on its own.
Guides
How to Highlight Text in a PDF
Every PDF viewer made since about 2018 can highlight text, and the highlight is saved inside the file so it travels with it.
Tools
Browser Highlighter Extensions Compared
A highlighter extension saves your highlights and puts them back when you return to a page.
Study
How to Turn Highlights Into Notes You Actually Use
A highlight is a promise to come back.
The four sections
- How to Highlight Text Online: Guides
Highlight on any device, in PDFs, and with the keyboard.
- Web Highlighter Tools and Extensions
Extensions compared, text fragments explained.
- How to Highlight Effectively for Study
Colour codes, what research says, highlights into notes.
- Highlights as a Record: Evidence of Reading, Sourcing and Authorship
A highlight with a note and a link is more than a study aid.
What this site is
Highlighting on the web means one of three things: pointing someone at a passage, marking a page while you read, or keeping highlights to study from. The tools on this site do the first two without an account or a server. The guides cover the third, honestly: highlighting alone barely helps you learn, and we explain what does.
The site carries the name of a free tool from 2008 that saved highlighted copies of pages and gave you a short link. That tool is gone, along with every page it saved. The relaunch keeps the job and the tagline, changes the architecture so nothing is stored, and adds the reference material the original never had. The history page tells the story; the archive explains the old links.
Everything here is written and checked by a named editor, cites its sources, names third-party products factually, carries no advertising and no affiliate links, and works on school and library machines where nothing can be installed.
Common questions
How do I highlight text on a web page and share it?
Select the text and make a highlight link: in Chrome or Edge right-click and choose Copy link to highlight, or paste the page address and the sentence into the generator here. The link opens the page scrolled to the passage with it highlighted.
Do I need an account or an extension?
No. The generator and the bookmarklet work with nothing installed and no account. Extensions are only needed if you want highlights saved and re-applied across visits; we compare them in the tools section.
Is this the original Awesome Highlighter?
Same name, same purpose, new owners and new code. The original service closed around 2015 and its saved pages are gone. The relaunch stores nothing you highlight.
Does highlighting help you study?
On its own, very little. It helps when it is selective, carries meaning and is followed by recalling the material from memory over spaced intervals. The study section explains how.
What browsers support highlight links?
Chrome and Edge since 2020, Safari since 16.1 (2022), Firefox since 131 (2024). Older browsers open the page at the top.