How do I highlight text on a website and save it?
Install a web highlighter extension such as Lumen, select text on any page, and pick a colour from the toolbar that appears. The highlight is saved with a link back to the exact passage and reappears when you return to the page.
Step by step
- Install the Lumen extension in Chrome.
- Select a sentence on any page.
- Pick one of five colours (or press Alt+Shift+H).
- Click the highlight later to add a margin note, recolour, copy or delete it.
Good to know
Browsers do not keep highlights on their own. A highlighter extension stores the passage with a little text before and after it, so it can find the same words again even if the page layout changes.
Use colours as meanings, not decoration: for example yellow for claims, green for evidence, violet for ideas to write about.
Related questions
Can I copy text after highlighting it?
With Lumen, yes. The toolbar sits next to your selection and never replaces copy and paste.
Do highlights work on PDFs?
Not in Chrome's built in PDF viewer, which extensions cannot reach. Lumen's PDF viewer is in progress.
Updated 2026-11-01.