A document that has been through review carries the review with it. Sticky notes in the margin, yellow highlighting, someone's crossing-out, a Draft stamp across page one: all useful while the work is happening, all wrong once the file is going out. Deleting them one at a time in a reader is slow and easy to get incomplete, because a note can sit off the edge of the page or under another. This tool takes every one of them off in a single pass.
How to use Remove Annotations
- Add the PDF that still carries its review marks.
- Decide whether to keep links working. Leaving this on preserves clickable cross-references and web links, which are usually part of the document rather than comments on it.
- Decide whether to keep form fields. Leaving this on preserves boxes people are meant to fill in.
- If the file is password protected, enter its password in the PDF password field.
- Select Remove Annotations and download the clean copy.
What counts as an annotation
In a PDF, an annotation is anything layered on top of the page rather than printed into it, which is a wider list than most people expect.
- Comments and notes: Sticky notes, pop-up comments and replies to them are the obvious ones, and they go whether they are open or collapsed into a small icon.
- Text markup: Highlighting, underlining, strikethrough and squiggly underlines are all annotations sitting over the words, not changes to the words themselves.
- Drawings and shapes: Freehand ink, arrows, lines, rectangles and circles drawn during review come off too, along with any text attached to them.
- Stamps and attachments: Approved and Draft stamps, and files attached to a point on the page, are annotations as well and are removed with the rest.
Links and form fields are different
Both are technically annotations, but they are usually part of what the document is for rather than remarks about it, so each has its own switch.
- Keeping links: A table of contents that jumps to a section, and a web address that opens in a browser, are both link annotations. Keeping them is the default because losing them silently breaks a document.
- Removing links: Turn the switch off when the links point somewhere that should not be followed any more, such as an internal system, or when a document is being prepared for print.
- Keeping form fields: Boxes, checkboxes and signature fields are widget annotations. Keeping them means a form still works after cleaning; removing them leaves only the printed layout behind.
- Flattening instead: If you want the marks to stay visible but stop being editable, Flatten PDF prints them into the page rather than taking them off.
Removing is not flattening, and neither is redacting
- Removing takes the mark off: The annotation and its text are deleted, and the page underneath is exactly as it was before anyone commented. This is what you want before sending a document out.
- Flattening prints the mark on: Flatten PDF merges the marks into the page so they can be seen but not clicked, moved or replied to. Use it when the highlighting is part of the message.
- Redacting removes what is underneath: Redact PDF deletes the content itself, not a layer over it. A highlight removed by this tool reveals the words it was covering, because it was never hiding them.
- Hidden comments count: A note collapsed to an icon, or one parked outside the visible page, is still in the file and can still be read. Removing annotations clears those too, which is why this is worth doing before publishing.
When people use Remove Annotations
Sending a reviewed draft to a client
Internal comments and highlighting come off in one step, so what arrives is the document rather than the argument about it.
Preparing a file for print
Printers ignore some annotations and print others. Removing them makes what comes off the press exactly what you saw on screen.
Publishing a document that was marked up
A report annotated during drafting is cleared before it goes on a website, so nobody finds a reviewer's aside by clicking a small yellow square.
Limitations to know
Removing annotations does not change the page itself, so anything actually written into the document stays. In particular, a black rectangle drawn over sensitive text as a comment comes off and reveals the text; use Redact PDF when the point is to remove the content. Marks that were flattened into the page in an earlier step are part of the page and cannot be taken off here. Bookmarks, metadata and page content are untouched.
Remove Annotations: common questions
Will this remove highlighting but leave the text?
Yes. A highlight is a coloured layer over the words, not a change to them. Taking it off leaves the text exactly as it was, still selectable and still searchable. The same is true of underlining and strikethrough.
What is the difference between removing and flattening annotations?
Removing takes the marks off the document so the page looks as it did before review. Flattening prints them into the page so they can be seen but no longer clicked or edited. Choose removing when the comments are internal, and flattening when the marks are part of what you are sending.
Are hidden or collapsed comments removed too?
Yes, and that is one of the better reasons to run this. A note collapsed to a small icon, or positioned off the edge of the page where nobody sees it, is still stored in the file and can still be read by anyone who opens it properly. All of them are cleared.
Will my clickable table of contents stop working?
Not unless you turn off keeping links. Links are annotations in the technical sense, so they have their own switch, and it is on by default precisely because removing them quietly breaks navigation.
Is this enough to hide confidential information?
No. Annotations sit on top of the page, so removing a black box drawn over a name reveals the name underneath it. To delete content rather than a layer over it, use Redact PDF, which removes the text from the file itself.