Cartouche help

How do I install Cartouche?

Click Add to Chrome on Cartouche's Chrome Web Store page. Chrome shows no permission warning: Cartouche has no access to your websites until you use it on a page. A welcome page opens with a sample article and three steps: highlight a sentence (Alt+Shift+H, right-click → Highlight with Cartouche, or the Highlight selection button), open your notebook in the side panel, and keep your notes with exports and backups. Pin the Cartouche icon from Chrome's puzzle-piece menu so it is one click away.

How do I highlight a passage?

Select text on a web page, then press Alt+Shift+H, or right-click and choose Highlight with Cartouche, or click Highlight selection in the side panel. The words take your default color and a small box opens: pick a color (arrow keys), type a note, add tags separated by commas, choose a collection. Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter) or Done saves; Esc saves what you typed and closes. Highlight and add a note in the right-click menu opens the box on the note field.

How do I see my notes?

Click the Cartouche icon or press Alt+Shift+M: the side panel (your notebook) lists the highlights of the current page. Go to scrolls the page to the passage and selects it. The library (panel → library icon, or right-click the Cartouche icon → Open Cartouche library) holds everything: collections, tags, search, sources, backup and export.

How do I change a highlight?

Click it on the page: the same box opens. Or use ⋯ → Edit in the panel or Edit in the library. To delete: Delete in the box (with Undo for a few seconds), or ⋯ → Delete in the panel (confirmed).

Why don't my highlights appear when I come back to a page?

By default Cartouche works on a page only when you use it there (Chrome's "activeTab"): click the icon or press Alt+Shift+M on the page and your highlights come back. In the same tab they keep coming back while you stay on that site. To have them appear without a click, turn on Always show my highlights on <site> in the panel: Cartouche first says what it will do on that site, then Chrome asks you once, for that site only. Settings → Show highlights on revisit lists these sites and has an explicit Show my highlights on every site switch (again Cartouche explains first, then Chrome shows its "all websites" warning).

What does "Not found on this version of the page" mean?

The page changed since you highlighted it and Cartouche could not find the passage with enough certainty. It never paints a highlight on the wrong words and never deletes it: the passage waits in that list with its note. To fix it, select the passage on the page, then click Re-attach to selection. Find on page looks for the beginning of the passage. "Still looking" appears for a few seconds while a page is loading; scrolling can load the missing part.

What does "The text changed on the page" mean?

Cartouche found the passage, but its wording changed a little. The highlight is shown on the new text; Keep the new text updates the saved quote.

Where can't Cartouche highlight?

Pages Chrome protects (settings, the Chrome Web Store, Chrome's built-in PDF viewer), text inside form fields, embedded frames, and components that hide their content (closed shadow DOM). Local web pages work if you turn on Allow access to file URLs for Cartouche in chrome://extensions. PDFs open in Cartouche's own reader (below).

How do I highlight a PDF?

Chrome's PDF viewer doesn't let extensions in, so Cartouche has its own reader. Library → Open a PDF (or drop a PDF on the reader), or click the Cartouche icon on a tab showing a PDF: the side panel offers Open in Cartouche reader. Then highlight as on the web: select text, press Alt+Shift+H or click Highlight selection. Each highlight remembers its page ("p. 12").

Why does the reader ask for the file again?

Cartouche never keeps a copy of your PDFs. When you reopen one from the library, choose the file again: any copy works, even renamed or downloaded again (Cartouche recognizes the PDF by its content and by its own internal id), and its highlights come back.

The reader asks for access to a site.

A PDF opened from a tab is downloaded again from its site. If Cartouche doesn't have access to that site yet, click Allow access to <site>: Chrome asks you once, for that site only. Settings → Sites the PDF reader can download from lists these sites; remove one there at any time. Or download the PDF and choose the file. For a PDF saved on your computer and open in a tab, turn on Allow access to file URLs for Cartouche in chrome://extensions, or choose the file.

Some PDFs can't be highlighted.

Scanned PDFs (images of pages) have no text to select. Password-protected PDFs aren't supported yet: the reader says so and you can open another file.

Why does a page's address in my library stop before "?"?

The part of an address after "?" can contain sign-in, password-reset or download codes, so Cartouche doesn't keep it unless you ask: pages that differ only there are still kept apart. If a site you use needs that part to open the right page (a forum topic, for example), turn on Settings → Your data → Keep the full address of pages. Turning it off again removes that part from every address already in your library.

What happens when I remove a custom color?

(Pro) Cartouche asks first. The highlights in that color keep their notes and take your default color; nothing is deleted.

The shortcuts do nothing.

Chrome assigns Alt+Shift+H and Alt+Shift+M only if no other extension uses them. Change them in chrome://extensions/shortcuts; Cartouche always shows the shortcut currently set.

How do I search?

Type in the panel's search box (this page) or the library's (everything): words match quotes, notes and tags, ignoring accents and case. Filter by color and tag in the library. With Pro, type operators: tag:method, site:example.com, color:yellow (or a color's name), before:2026-09-01, after:2026-06, is:orphan, is:changed, has:note.

How do collections work?

Library → New collection, then choose it in the highlight box or the editor. The free plan has 3 collections; Pro has no limit. Deleting a collection keeps its highlights.

How do I export?

Panel → Export: copy or download this page as Markdown (Obsidian-style), CSV or W3C Web Annotation JSON-LD. Library → Sources: Markdown or JSON-LD for any page; Highlights: CSV or JSON-LD of the current view. CSV cells that look like spreadsheet formulas are neutralized. All free. Pro adds the Obsidian vault ZIP (every page as a note, one folder per site) and export templates.

How do I back up and restore?

Library → Backup and export → Back up now downloads a JSON file with every page, highlight, note, tag and collection. Restore from a backup adds what is missing and keeps the newest version of each highlight; nothing is deleted. Cartouche has no account and no sync: uninstalling it erases your highlights, so keep backup files somewhere safe. A weekly reminder (Settings → Backup) tells you when highlights are not in a backup yet.

What is an encrypted backup?

Pro can protect a backup with a passphrase (AES-256, key derived with PBKDF2, 600 000 iterations). Without the passphrase the file can't be opened — Cartouche never stores it, so nobody can recover it for you. Restoring an encrypted backup asks for the passphrase.

Incognito windows?

Cartouche runs there only if you allow it in chrome://extensions. Even then, Don't save highlights from incognito windows is on by default (Chrome would keep them with your normal highlights).

How much is Pro, and how do I buy it?

Cartouche Pro is $29 including any VAT or sales tax, paid once (a one-time purchase: nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel), or $4.99 a month as a monthly subscription you can cancel anytime. Open Cartouche's settings and click an offer in the Cartouche Pro section (or Upgrade to Pro next to a Pro feature). You pay on the checkout page of Lemon Squeezy, our merchant of record, which also handles taxes and your invoice. Either way, one license covers Cartouche's Pro features and all their updates for one person; a one-time purchase covers them for as long as we distribute Cartouche.

How does the monthly subscription work, and how do I cancel it?

Cartouche Pro is also sold as a monthly subscription: $4.99 a month, including any VAT or sales tax, with no commitment and no free trial. It renews every month until you cancel it. To cancel, open Settings → License → Manage billing (the Lemon Squeezy customer portal; the same link is in your receipt e-mail and on the Support page of our website, and it stays there even when Pro is not active in this browser) and cancel the subscription there; the portal also changes your payment method and has your invoices. Pro stays on until the end of the month you already paid for; after that, Cartouche works as its free version, and you can buy Pro again at any time. Removing the extension does not cancel the subscription. Monthly payments are not refunded (except when an update removes a Pro feature: see section 6 of the terms of sale), but the 14-day money-back guarantee covers your first purchase of Cartouche Pro, one-time or monthly. The one-time purchase costs the same as about six months of the subscription.

How do I activate Pro?

After purchase you receive a license key by email. Open Settings → License, paste the key, click Activate. One license covers up to 5 Chrome installations at the same time (each Chrome profile where you activate it counts as one). Pro checks your license about once a day when you are online and keeps working offline for up to 30 days after the last successful check; after that, Pro features pause until the next successful check. Everything you created stays usable and exportable without Pro.

How do I move Pro to another computer?

Settings → License → Remove license from this browser, then activate the key on the other browser. Removing it frees one of your 5 installations. If you can no longer open the old browser, write to us from the support page and we will free that installation. Your highlights don't move with the license: back them up in the old browser and restore the file in the new one.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. Ask within 14 days of your first purchase of Cartouche Pro, without giving a reason, through the link in your Lemon Squeezy receipt or by contacting us. The money goes back to your original payment method and the license stops working. The terms of sale have the details. For a monthly subscription, the 14 days count from your first payment; later monthly payments are not refunded (except when an update removes a Pro feature: see section 6 of the terms of sale), but you can cancel at any time so that the next one is not taken.

Can the website see my highlights?

While Cartouche shows your highlights on a page, that website's own scripts could technically tell which of its passages are highlighted (true of every highlighter; tools that insert marks into the page reveal more). The page's words and markup are not changed. Your notes are never written into the page’s content: they appear in Cartouche’s note box, which the page’s scripts cannot open and which is on the page only while it is open. What you type in that box on the page can, however, be observed by the page’s scripts, like any typing on a website, so for a note you want kept away from a site, write it in the side panel (⋯ → Edit) instead.

How do I reset Cartouche or uninstall it?

Settings → Your data → Erase all highlights deletes every page, highlight, note, tag and collection from this browser and keeps your settings. Settings → Privacy → Reset all data also deletes your settings and the license from this browser, and removes the site access you gave Cartouche. To uninstall, right-click the Cartouche icon → Remove from Chrome, or use chrome://extensions. Cartouche has no account and no cloud copy, so uninstalling erases your library for good: back up first (Library → Backup and export → Back up now). If you use Pro, remove the license from this browser first (Settings → License) to free that installation.

Does Cartouche send my data anywhere?

No. Highlights, notes and page addresses are stored only in this browser. Cartouche reads a page only when you use it there or on sites you turned on, and only to find your highlights. The only network requests are license checks (license key + a random installation id), and, when you open a web PDF in the reader, the download of that PDF from its own site.