Remove PDF Annotations
Remove links, comments, highlights, drawings, and optional form widgets
About this tool
Remove PDF Annotations inspects page annotation dictionaries and reports total, link, and form-widget counts before export. Non-Widget annotations such as text notes, highlights, drawings, attachments, and markup are removed by default. You can separately keep links or remove them, and optionally remove Widget annotations and the AcroForm catalog. Page content is not rasterized and document metadata is not touched, so use Remove PDF Metadata when the privacy target is authoring properties instead.
Scenario Recipes
Remove review markup before a client handoff
Goal: Keep document content while removing internal comments and highlights
- Open the reviewed PDF and inspect link and widget counts.
- Keep links only when they are part of the deliverable; otherwise enable link removal too.
- Generate the copy and inspect several pages before sharing, then clean metadata separately if required.
Result: A markup-free handoff copy with content and metadata decisions kept separate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which annotations are removed by default?
Text notes, highlights, ink, shapes, attachments, and other non-Widget annotations are removed.
Can I keep links?
Yes. Clear the link option to preserve Link annotations while removing other markup.
What happens when widgets are removed?
Widget annotations and the AcroForm catalog are removed, so form fields are no longer interactive.
Does it remove PDF metadata?
No. Author, title, dates, and XMP are separate metadata concerns handled by another tool.
Does it change page text or images?
No. It edits annotation references without rasterizing or rewriting page content intentionally.
Is the PDF uploaded?
No. Inspection and annotation removal run locally.
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