How to change default highlight color in Preview (High Sierra) for .pdf files?

It used to be yellow, but now it's purple and it won't change back. I can manually select the highlight color with the highlight menu, but the highlight button default color cannot be changed. I have searched extensively on the internet with no luck.

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 8, 2019 6:01 PM

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9 replies

Mar 9, 2019 11:58 AM in response to BDAqua

It looks like that info is held in...


/Users/YourUserName/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist


I moved that file to the Desktop after quitting Preview, started Preview & could not change the highlight color, Quit Preview & strangely it didn't create a new plist as usual, maybe a restart was needed???


Put that file back & could change highlight color again.


Do you have a Time Machine Backup of...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist

Mar 9, 2019 10:03 AM in response to Arandel

To change the default OS X highlight color, head to System Preferences > General. There, you’ll see a drop-down menu labeled Highlight color, which should be set to the default “Blue” unless you or someone else using your Mac has previously changed it.


 If you’re not happy with any of the OS X highlight color options, just select Other from the bottom of the drop-down list. This will launch the familiar OS X color picker where you can choose any color at any brightness.


https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/how-to-change-os-x-highlight-color/

Mar 9, 2019 10:52 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks again for taking the time to comment, but perhaps I need to clarify my question. Your comment addresses the temporary highlighting function when I select a text in any document. In Preview, I can select a portion of text and then hit the highlight button in the toolbar which applies highlighting permanently to a portion of text. The button for highlighting shows a highlighting pen on it. That is the form of highlighting which I am having trouble with.

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How to change default highlight color in Preview (High Sierra) for .pdf files?

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