PDF Annotation Remover
Reviewers leave highlights, notes and sketches. Choose a PDF, see how many of each kind it has, pick what to remove and download a clean copy.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Choose or drop a PDF.
- Tick the kinds to remove. Counts are shown next to each.
- Press Remove and download.
How it works
Each page’s annotation list is read with pdf-lib and entries of the chosen kinds are taken out. A pop-up window goes together with the note it belongs to. Other annotation types, such as form fields, are never touched.
Example
A reviewed PDF has 6 highlights, 2 comments and 12 links. With the defaults, the 6 highlights and 2 comments are removed and the 12 links stay.
Tips
- Keep the original: this tool does not recover removed annotations.
- To make the result unalterable, flatten the form fields too.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is removed?
The annotation objects on the pages: highlight, underline, strikeout and squiggly marks; text notes, text boxes and their pop-up windows; ink, line, square, circle, polygon and stamp annotations; and, if you choose, links and file attachment notes.
What stays?
Page content, form fields, signatures and anything printed into the page itself. Text that was flattened into the page cannot be told from the original and stays. Links are kept unless you tick them.
Will a highlight disappear from the text?
The highlight is a separate layer over the text, so removing it leaves the words untouched.
Is the original changed?
No. You get a new file named name-no-annotations.pdf.
Why is a kind missing from the list?
The list shows only kinds that the file contains.