diff --git a/quartz/plugins/transformers/ofm.ts b/quartz/plugins/transformers/ofm.ts
index 5c2f4b25c..9ec04802c 100644
--- a/quartz/plugins/transformers/ofm.ts
+++ b/quartz/plugins/transformers/ofm.ts
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ export const tableRegex = new RegExp(/^\|([^\n])+\|\n(\|)( ?:?-{3,}:? ?\|)+\n(\|
 // matches any wikilink, only used for escaping wikilinks inside tables
 export const tableWikilinkRegex = new RegExp(/(!?\[\[[^\]]*?\]\]|\[\^[^\]]*?\])/g)
 
-const highlightRegex = new RegExp(/==([^=]+)==/g)
+const highlightRegex = new RegExp(/==([^=]+?)==/g)
 const commentRegex = new RegExp(/%%[\s\S]*?%%/g)
 // from https://github.com/escwxyz/remark-obsidian-callout/blob/main/src/index.ts
 const calloutRegex = new RegExp(/^\[\!([\w-]+)\|?(.+?)?\]([+-]?)/)
@@ -203,6 +203,12 @@ export const ObsidianFlavoredMarkdown: QuartzTransformerPlugin<Partial<Options>>
         })
       }
 
+      // pre-transform highlights
+      if (opts.highlight) {
+        src = src.replace(highlightRegex,
+          `<span class="text-highlight">$1</span>`)
+      }
+
       return src
     },
     markdownPlugins(_ctx) {
@@ -291,19 +297,6 @@ export const ObsidianFlavoredMarkdown: QuartzTransformerPlugin<Partial<Options>>
             ])
           }
 
-          if (opts.highlight) {
-            replacements.push([
-              highlightRegex,
-              (_value: string, ...capture: string[]) => {
-                const [inner] = capture
-                return {
-                  type: "html",
-                  value: `<span class="text-highlight">${inner}</span>`,
-                }
-              },
-            ])
-          }
-
           if (opts.parseArrows) {
             replacements.push([
               arrowRegex,