Remove Comments and Highlights From a PDF
Removing annotations from a PDF deletes the markup layer — sticky notes, highlights, stamps and clickable links — while leaving the page content itself untouched, because annotations are stored as separate objects layered above the page. This tool strips them from every page in one pass and, by default, preserves fillable form fields so a reviewed form stays usable. The cleaned copy is produced entirely on your device.
How it works
Every page object in a PDF may carry an /Annots entry: an array of references to annotation dictionaries. Each annotation has a /Subtype that says what it is — /Text for a sticky note, /Highlight, /Squiggly and /StrikeOut for text markup, /Stamp for stamps, /Link for clickable regions, /FreeText for typed comment boxes, and so on — plus a rectangle locating it on the page and, usually, an appearance stream that draws it. Crucially, none of this lives inside the page's content stream. The page paints its text and images from its own stream; the viewer then paints annotations on top from their separate objects.
That separation is exactly why removal is clean. The tool walks every page, reads its /Annots array, and drops each entry whose subtype is a comment, markup, stamp or link. Because the page content stream is never edited, there is zero risk of disturbing the document itself: no re-rendering, no font changes, no shifted layout. The removed annotation dictionaries — including their author names, timestamps and comment text — are gone from the rewritten file, not merely hidden.
Form fields need one exception. In the PDF model a visible form field is a /Widget annotation: the text box you type into on a form is, structurally, the same kind of object as a sticky note. Deleting Widgets would break every fillable form, so the default option here skips them (and leaves the document's /AcroForm dictionary alone). Untick the option only if you deliberately want a form's fields stripped as well.
The one thing no annotation remover can do is delete marks that were flattened. Flattening (see Flatten PDF) draws each annotation's appearance into the page content stream and discards the annotation object; after that, the highlight is ordinary page ink, indistinguishable from the original text around it. If a mark survives this tool, that is what happened to it — removal would then require redaction-style editing of the page itself.
Worked example: cleaning a reviewed contract
A 24-page draft services agreement, agreement-v3.pdf (1.4 MB), comes back from legal review carrying 63 annotations: 38 highlights, 19 sticky notes with comment threads, 4 "DRAFT" stamps and 2 links to internal wiki pages. Before sending it to the counterparty, the paralegal loads it here with "preserve form fields" left on, since page 24 has three signature-block form fields. Processing takes under a second; all 63 review marks are removed, the three Widget fields remain, and the output is 1.31 MB — about 90 KB smaller, mostly from the deleted appearance streams and comment text. Opening the cleaned file in a viewer's comment panel now shows zero comments, and a text search for a reviewer's name that appeared only in comment metadata finds nothing.
Frequently asked questions
How do I remove all comments and highlights from a PDF at once?
Load the PDF into the tool on this page and it deletes every sticky note, highlight, stamp and link from every page in one pass. You download a clean copy; the original file is untouched.
Will removing annotations delete my fillable form fields too?
Not by default. Form fields are technically Widget annotations, so the tool keeps them unless you untick the preserve-form-fields option. With the option off, fields are stripped along with everything else.
Why can't I remove a highlight that seems baked into the page?
That mark was flattened: it was drawn into the page's content stream and is no longer a separate annotation object. Only real annotations can be removed cleanly; flattened marks are part of the page like any printed ink.
Does removing annotations change how the underlying page looks?
No. Annotations are drawn in a layer above the page content, so deleting them simply reveals the untouched page beneath. Text, images and layout are byte-for-byte unchanged.
Are the removed comments still hidden somewhere in the file?
No. The annotation objects are dropped and the document is rewritten, so the saved copy no longer contains their text or authors. This makes it safe to share the cleaned file.
Can I save the comments before deleting them?
Yes. Run the PDF through the Extract annotations tool first to export every comment to a table and CSV, then come back here and strip the file.