Reader Highlighter

Turn your reading into active learning. Select any text in Obsidian's reading mode and it's instantly highlighted — no buttons, no popups, no extra clicks. Your highlights are stored as native ==markdown== syntax, so they work everywhere Obsidian does.

Built for readers, researchers, and anyone who wants to mark up notes without leaving reading mode.

---

Why Reader Highlighter?

Obsidian's reading mode is great for focused reading, but there's no built-in way to highlight text without switching to edit mode. Reader Highlighter bridges that gap:

• Stay in reading mode — highlight without breaking your flow
• Nothing to learn — if you can select text, you can highlight
• Your notes stay clean — highlights use standard ==text== syntax, not custom metadata
• Works on mobile — long-press to select, highlight happens automatically

Features

Select to highlight Drag to select text in reading mode. That's it — the text is highlighted immediately.

Tap to remove Click or tap any existing highlight to see a small "Remove highlight" button. One tap and it's gone.

Multi-paragraph support Select across paragraph boundaries. Each paragraph gets its own highlight, and removing one removes all connected highlights from that selection.

Toggle with re-selection Select already-highlighted text to remove the highlight. No need for the popup if you prefer selecting.

Markdown native All highlights are stored as ==highlighted text== in your markdown files. They're visible in source mode, portable to other editors, and rendered by any tool that supports the highlight syntax.

Desktop and mobile Works with mouse selection on desktop and long-press selection on mobile. Touch targets are optimized for finger tapping.

Usage

Highlighting text

1. Open any note in Reading mode (the book icon in the top-right, or Cmd/Ctrl+E to toggle)
2. Select text by clicking and dragging (desktop) or long-pressing and adjusting handles (mobile)
3. Release — the text is highlighted instantly

Removing a highlight

Option A — Tap the highlight:

1. Click or tap on any highlighted text
2. A small "Remove highlight" button appears above
3. Click it to remove

Option B — Re-select:

1. Select the exact highlighted text again
2. The highlight is toggled off

Settings

Go to Settings > Community plugins > Reader Highlighter:

• Enable highlighting — master on/off toggle

Installation

BRAT (recommended for now)

Reader Highlighter is not yet listed in the Obsidian Community Plugin directory — that requires a review and approval process. In the meantime, BRAT (Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester) lets you install plugins directly from GitHub and receive automatic updates.

1. Install BRAT from the Community Plugin directory
2. In BRAT settings, click "Add Beta plugin"
3. Paste this repo URL: rendyhd/obsidian-reader-highlighter
4. Click Add Plugin, then enable Reader Highlighter in Community plugins

Once the plugin is accepted into the Obsidian Community directory, you'll be able to install it directly from Settings > Community plugins > Browse without BRAT.

Manual installation

1. Go to the Releases page
2. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release
3. Create a folder called reader-highlighter inside your vault's .obsidian/plugins/ directory
4. Move the downloaded files into that folder
5. Restart Obsidian and enable Reader Highlighter in Settings > Community plugins

Releases

This project uses GitHub Releases. When a new version is tagged, a GitHub Action automatically builds the plugin and publishes the release with the required files (main.js, manifest.json, styles.css). BRAT picks up new releases automatically.

Compatibility

• Obsidian v1.0.0+ (desktop and mobile)
• Works in Reading mode only (does not interfere with Live Preview or Source mode)
• Highlights are stored as standard ==text== markdown — no proprietary format

License

MIT