✴️ Feature Highlight: Dimmer

Angela Aff · 2025-05-27T14:47:02+00:00

There was an error rendering this rich post.

Angela Aff

Did you know that you can tone down or dim the content layer of a PDF to make markups easier to see?

How?

Just go to the View menu » Dimmer » Dim Content. The effect can be seen in this example:

Set the level of dimming

Select a percent from the Dimmer menu.
The lower the percentage, the less intense the underlying PDF content will appear compared to the annotations.

Dimmer set to 100%

100-Dimmer2025-05-27 09_30_45-Window.png

Dimmer set to 30%

DIMCONTENT-302025-05-27 09_30_15-Window.png

⚡️ Bonus Tip: Press CTRL+F to toggle the dimmer on and off

👇️ Drop a comment below and tell us:

When have you found dimming the content layer of a PDF beneficial?
Or, if you didn't know about this feature, when would it have been beneficial for you?

Find more posts tagged with

Feature Highlight

Dimmer

Comments

Brandon Costlow

I'm going to be honest, I haven't found a great use for this feature. I don't use Bluebeam for what I assume was being thought of when dimming was added as a feature. I need to have the PDF content in full visibility for what I do, so I don't see a great use for it… yet.

vfrench

I use the dimmer a lot when measuring things like drainage on large housing schemes. Basically, I will measure the scheme with the drawing as normal but then I'll apply the dimmer so I can do a quick scan over the site to make sure I haven't missed something - an area without any markups really does stand out rather quickly.

Brandon Costlow

Mmm… yeah, that could do it for me. I'll try using that as a way to confirm my markup completeness, the next time I do a takeoff, and see if it does anything for me. Thanks for the tip!

Quick Links

Popular posts

Locked File Issues? Me Too!
Have you ever opened a file and tried to do some annotations and takeoff and it was locked with no permissions for the viewer? Are you unable to even print it to a .pdf or affect any change to it? Boooooo! Me Too. Looking for a workaround? I Found One! Aaaannnd, You're welcome. — If you have a other workaround, please…
✴️ Feature Highlight: Rotating Measurement Captions
This week, we'll be highlighting the Rotating Measurement Captions feature in Bluebeam! It's a simple, yet mighty feature that allows a user to rotate Measurement captions. Here's how: Select the measurement markup whose caption is to be rotated. Click the anchor point and drag it to the desired angle. Notice that the…
✴️ Feature Highlight: Snapshot
This week, we're highlighting the Snapshot tool! Did you know the Snapshot tool allows you to copy text, images, or vector graphics and paste them as new vector images? You may be asking yourself, "Is the Snapshot tool different than copying/pasting?" And the answer is yes! The Snapshot tool allows you to retain the vector…
✴️ Feature Highlight: Adding Actions to markups
This week, we're highlighting how to add Actions to markups in Bluebeam Revu! PDF markups can be configured to perform certain actions when clicked, like jumping to a specific location in a document or opening another file when you add an Action. In addition, Tool Chest tools can be configured to create markups with…
Scroll vs Zoom
Are you frustrated by Bluebeam switching the mouse wheel from ZOOM to SCROLL and back again? Have no fear; there is a solution. Holding down the Ctrl key while scrolling with the mouse wheel allows you to switch between zooming and scrolling. The link below goes into more detail and how you can set the default behavior.
✴️ Feature Highlight: Flatten tool
This week, we're highlighting the Flatten tool in Revu! Flattening lets you lock in your markups, making them a permanent part of your PDF. It’s a great way to finalize documents and ensure that all annotations are secure before sharing. Do you or your team use the Flatten feature in Revu? What benefits have you…
Use custom Keyboard Shortcuts
Create a few custom keyboard shortcuts for your most used tools or commands. Not too many, otherwise its hard to remember all of them. I had problems with overlapping Markups. Therefore I use F1 to hide all markups with a single button, even while using different tools, without anything in the way. After completing the…
✴️ Feature Highlight: Hiding Markups
This week, we're highlighting how to hide markups in Bluebeam Revu temporarily! Temporarily hide markups in Bluebeam Revu to quickly surface and interact with markups whose visibility is obscured by overlapping markups. Here's how to: Hide Markups: Right-click the markup(s) you want to hide on the document or from the…
Grouping/ Ungrouping the Markups
Hold down the SHIFT key/ window selection and select two or more markups to be grouped. Right-click on one of the selected markups and select Group, or Press CTRL+G.
✴️ Results are in: Batch Feature Results are in!
We asked: Which of these BATCH features has helped you out/been the most beneficial to you? …And you answered! Batch Compare Documents was the crowd favorite! "Batch Compare Documents feature compares groups of documents to each other and highlights the differences between them."