Remove PDF Annotations
Delete comments, sticky notes, highlights, drawings and stamps from a PDF in your browser. Remove them all at once, one type at a time, or pick them one by one.
Free · no sign-up · nothing uploaded
How to remove annotations from a PDF
- Choose your PDF, or drop it onto the box. It opens in your browser, so the file never leaves your device.
- Check what will be removed. The tool lists every annotation it finds by type. Comments, highlights and drawings are switched on; links are kept unless you switch them on too.
- Click Remove annotations and download. You get a copy named
yourfile-annotations-removed.pdf; the original is untouched.
The text, pictures and layout of the pages stay exactly as they were. Only the marks added on top are taken away. If anything is left, the tool shows it straight away, so you can remove more from the new copy.
What counts as an annotation?
An annotation is anything added on top of a PDF page rather than printed into it: review comments, the highlighter, shapes and pen marks, approval stamps, and also clickable links and form fields. That is why a PDF can look clean but still have dozens of annotations.
| Type | What you see | Removed by default? |
|---|---|---|
| Comments and notes | Sticky notes, text boxes, replies, attached files | Yes |
| Highlights and markup | Highlighter, underline, strikethrough, insert-text marks | Yes |
| Drawings and stamps | Pen drawings, boxes, circles, arrows, “Approved” stamps | Yes |
| Links | Clickable web links and table-of-contents jumps | No, switch on to remove |
| Form fields and signatures | Boxes you type into, tick boxes, signature fields | Never; always kept |
Removing only highlights, or one person’s comments
Only highlights: click the other types to switch them off so only Highlights and markup stays on. Removing a highlight takes away the colour only; the words underneath stay on the page.
Only some comments: open Choose individual annotations and untick the ones to keep. The search box finds comments by their text, the reviewer’s name or the page number, so typing a name and ticking those rows removes one person’s comments and keeps everyone else’s.
Replies go with their comment. If you remove a comment, the replies under it are removed as well, so no answers are left pointing at nothing. To keep a thread, leave its first comment unticked.
Example: cleaning a reviewed contract before sending it
A 12-page contract that went round two colleagues for review
- Open the PDF. The tool finds 14 comments and notes, 9 highlights, 2 stamps and 31 links.
- Leave the first three types on and links off. The status line reads Removes 25 of 56 annotations.
- Click Remove annotations and download. The client gets the contract with no internal notes, but the links to the terms and the table of contents still work.
- The tool now shows 31 annotations left, all links, as a quick check that nothing else was missed.
Why can’t I delete an annotation?
- It has been flattened. Flattening, or “printing to PDF”, bakes comments and highlights into the page itself. They look the same but are no longer annotations, so no annotation remover can lift them off. If the tool says it found nothing but you can still see marks, this is why. Go back to an earlier copy if you have one.
- The PDF is locked. A PDF protected against editing can be read but not changed. The tool tells you when this is the case; remove the password first with the owner’s permission.
- It is a form field or signature. These are kept on purpose because removing one can break the form. To lock a filled-in form instead, use Flatten PDF.
- Your reader won’t let you. Some readers lock other people’s comments or don’t support every type. Removing them here avoids that, because the tool edits the file directly.
Are the comments really gone?
Yes. Some tools only unlink a removed comment from the page, so its text can still be found inside the file. This one deletes the comment, its pop-up and any attached file from the new copy, along with leftovers from earlier edits that the PDF no longer uses.
Two things are worth knowing before you share the file:
- Removing annotations is not redaction. Removing a highlight or a black box drawn on top leaves the text underneath readable. To hide words for good, use a proper redaction tool.
- The author name can also be in the file’s details. Check the title and author with Edit PDF metadata.
If the PDF was digitally signed, the new copy no longer has a valid signature, because the tool saves the whole file again. It warns you when it spots a signature; remove the annotations before signing instead.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove all comments from a PDF at once?
Open the PDF in the tool above and click Remove annotations and download. Every comment, note, highlight and drawing is removed in one go; links and form fields are kept unless you choose otherwise.
Will removing annotations delete any text?
No. Annotations sit on top of the page, so removing them leaves the original text, images and layout exactly as they were. Only text typed into a comment or text box goes with it.
Can I remove hyperlinks from a PDF?
Yes. Links are annotations, so switch on Links before downloading. The words stay on the page but are no longer clickable. They are off by default because most people want to keep them.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The PDF is read and saved by your browser, so it never leaves your device. It works on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, with no sign-up or watermark.
Sources
- PDF 32000-1:2008, section 12.5: annotations: the types, pop-ups, replies (In Reply To) and how they sit on top of page content.
- PDF 32000-1:2008, section 12.8: digital signatures: a signature covers a byte range of the file, so rewriting the file invalidates it.
Related Tools
Fix crooked scanned pages.
Trim margins or whitespace from pages.
Apply legal Bates numbering.
Remove specific pages from a PDF.
Modify text and layout in-place.
Update title, author, and metadata.