addHighlightAnnot function produces ellipses instead of rectangles

[wangzehao1003]

Description of the bug

Why highlight annotation are not simple rectangles, but with rounded corners and both sides are curved. It looks not perfect and that interaction area have deeper colors.

How to reproduce the bug

highlight_rect = fitz.Rect(x0, y0, x1, y1)
highlight = page.add_highlight_annot(highlight_rect)

### PyMuPDF version

1.24.10

### Operating system

Windows

### Python version

3.9

[JorjMcKie]

You did not provide any reproducible data.
So, any reaction from my side inevitably contains some degree of guesswork.

That said: this is no bug!

• Highlight annotations do not deliver rectangles but have have curved left and right edges.
• Highlight annotations by default are created using blend mode "Multiply". This means the following:
  

As you see, the effect you are complaining about is a result of your color choice. It will not occur when you stay with the default color.
So choose a different color or experiment with different blend modes. Refer to this folder to get an impression.

[wangzehao1003]

Thanks for your reply. Is there any method that can make the highlight areas look like simple rectangles, like figure-2 I post below. Now I got figure-1 which is not satisfied.

[JorjMcKie]

You can do that - but not with highlight annotations! They are what they are.
Simply use page.add_rect_annot(). Then update the annotation by setting blending mode to "Multiply" - to achieve the behavior of highlighting.

If you want to add permanent rectangles (annotations can be removed), then use page.draw_rect(..., overlay=False)`. This will put the color behind other page content.

[wangzehao1003]

Now I got it by using page.add_rect_annot() with "Multiply" mode. Thanks a million.